A Place in the Sun

Plot synopsis:
George Eastman (Montgomery Clift), is the poor nephew of rich industrialist Charles Eastman (Herbert Heyes), who takes a job in his uncle's factory. Despite George's family relationship to the owner, the rich Eastman family treats him as an outsider and gives him the humblest job available in the factory and no entree into their exclusive social circle. George, uncomplaining, hopes to impress his uncle, whom he addresses as "Mr. Eastman", with his hard work and earn his way up. While working in the factory, George starts dating fellow factory worker Alice "Al" Tripp (Shelley Winters), in defiance of the workplace rules. Alice is a poor and inexperienced girl who is dazzled by George and slow to believe that his Eastman name brings him no advantages.After a stepping out with Alice, George meets the attractive "society girl" Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor) and they quickly fall in love. Being Angela's escort at local parties and dances thrusts George into the intoxicating and carefree lifestyle of high society of the idle rich that his wealthy Eastman kin had denied him.When Alice announces that she is pregnant and makes it clear that she expects George to marry her, he temporizes, spending more and more of his time with Angela and his new well-heeled rich friends. An attempt to procure an abortion for Alice fails, and she renews her insistence on marriage. George is invited to join Angela at the Vickers's holiday lake house and excuses himself to Alice, saying that the visit will advance his career and accrue to the benefit of the coming child.George and Angela spend time at secluded Loon Lake, and after hearing a story of a couple's supposed drowning there, with the man's body never being found, George hatches a plan to rid himself of Alice so that he can marry Angela.Meanwhile, Alice finds a picture in the newspaper of George, Angela, and their friends, and realizing that George lied to her about being forced to go to the lake, she meets George in the nearby town and threatens to expose everything to his society friends if he doesn't marry her. They quickly drive to City Hall to elope but they find it closed for Labor Day, and George suggests spending the day at the nearby lake; Al unsuspectingly agrees.When they get to the lake, George acts visibly nervous when he rents a boat from a man who seems to deduce that George gave him a false name; the man's suspicions are aroused more when George asks him whether any other boaters are on the lake (none are). While they are out on the lake, Alice confesses her dreams about their happy future together with their child. As George apparently takes pity on her and, judging from his attitude, decides not to carry out his murderous plan, Alice tries to stand up in the boat, causing it to capsize, and Alice drowns.George escapes, swims to shore, and eventually drives back up to the Vickers' lodge, where he tries to relax but is increasingly tense. He says nothing to anyone about having been on the lake or about what happened there.Meanwhile, Alice's body is discovered and her death is treated as a murder investigation almost from the first moment, while an abundant amount of circumstantial evidence and witness reports stack up against George. Just as Angela's father approves Angela's marriage to him, George is arrested and charged with Alice's murder.Though the viewers know that the planned murder in fact turned into an accidental drowning, George's furtive actions before and after Alice's death condemn him.During his trial, George takes the witness stand where he gives a heartful testimony about his relationship with Alice and about his thoughts about killing her to have a life with Angela, and gives the details about the boating accident. But his testimony is pulled apart in cross-exmination by the hot-tempered and agressive prosecutor (Raymond Burr) who tries to imply that George planned and commited first degree murder because of his nervous behavior and of his filing a false name with the boat owner, and of other inconsistances involving both Alice and Angela.George's denials are futile, and he is found guilty of murder by the jury and is immediatley sentenced to death in the electric chair. A few weeks later, on his last day on Death Row, George writes a goodbye letter to Angela explaining that although he didn't kill Alice, his feelings of abandonment and loss of his privledge life made him leave Alice to drown in an attempt to cut off his past lifestyle to be with Angela. George is taken out of his cell to the death chamber to be executed.

Tags: murder

Review:
His cousin Earl Eastman (Keefe Brasselle) advises him that there are many women in the factory and the basic rule is that he must not hang around with any of them.George meets the worker of the assembly line Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters) in the movie theater and they date.
George is pressed by the situation that ends in a tragedy."A Place in the Sun" is an unforgettable masterpiece by George Stevens and one of the best love stories ever made, with the perfect development of characters and situations.
I watched this film for the first time on 14 June 2001 on cable television and yesterday I saw it again on a Paramount DVD with Extras telling details about the difficulties that George Stevens faced to bring Theodore Dreiser's novel "An American Tragedy" to a motion picture and casting.
The source, and Sternberg's take on the novel may well be more stark and grimly oppressive, but this has such high cinema values it positively begs you to invest your very being with it.The story behind the scenes is itself worthy of a movie, Stevens clashing constantly with Montgomery Clift {Eastman} and Shelley Winters {Tripp}, Clift because he would only take motivation from his personal coach, Mira Rostova, and Winters because Stevens had never wanted her cast in the first place!
Monty Clift is worth every penny or cent that is spent to watch him perform, here is yet another performance of emotional oomph to only confirm his standing as a true giant of American actors.Academy Awards went to Best Director, Best Screenplay {Michael Wilson & Harry Brown}, Best Cinematography {William Mellor}, Best Costume Design {Edith Head}, Best Editing {William Hornbeck} and Best Score {Franx Waxman}, all of them deserved, with Waxman's score one of the true greats of 50s cinema, a character in itself and something to totally lose yourself in.
This film is very different from anything of it's time that I have ever seen.A man has a one night stand with a coworker and gets her pregnant.THEN he meets the woman of his dreams,the woman with everything;charm,good looks and Daddy's money.We then have a man who is torn between choosing to have it all and doing the right thing.The result of his struggles ends up very tragically as you will see.I was very taken aback by the film's sexual overtones,though it was only hinted at,of course.With the barrage of remakes in recent years,I am surprised it has not been remade with stronger sexual content.This is a very enjoyable film with good performances all around,particularly those of Shelley Winters and Monty Clift.Liz Taylor's strong screen presence is also a delight.A definite thumbs up..
This is a movie about George Eastman (Clift), a young, gentle laborer without social standing who longs for the better things in lifeHe is swept off his feet after a chance encounter with wealth, success and upper-class snobbery George is introduced to a stunning socialite Angela Vickers (Liz Taylornever so beautiful) full of sensual delight and threatened by an unattractive factory girl (Alice) he's already made pregnant Angela and George fall deeply in love, but Alice Tripp (Winters) presses and chases George until he agrees to marry her He has a desperate decision, but hesitates Finding they can't get married over the Labor Day weekend, George takes Alice boating Shelley Winters was extraordinary as the distressed co-worker She made the wronged employee an understandable reaction to human dimensions As she sits in the rowboat, unconsciously torturing Clift with her thoughts of their future together, Winters is both pathetic and annoyinga special candidate to get rid of The impact of the film depends absolutely on a moral climate that has now less impact on our society Pre-marital sex is no longer disapproved and abortions are easier to obtain But the film's power resided in its exceptionally convincing depiction of the points and questions created by these situations "A Place in the Sun" was nominated for nine Academy Awards, and won six.
Montgomery Clift is his usual mysterious self as he has a scandalous relationship with the homely Shelly Winters and falls instantly in love with a spellbindingly beautiful Liz Taylor, who was only 19 when the picture was made.
The idea of dropping a lesser life (with Winters) and pursuing the good life with Taylor is what makes it work and the lengths to which Clift will go are staggering.George Stevens has a gift for "painting" a movie on-screen.
A beautiful piece of classical Hollywood film-making with a mix of method acting (Clift) and a love story we wish could work.RATING: 8 of 10.
His resume speaks for itself.Obviously Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor are the "big names" in this film, but I found Shelly Winters and the character she played to be the most intriguing.
Based on what I found written about it I decided that I might be interested in looking at it, even though it sounded suspiciously like another Hollywood love story.The film turned out to be one of the best dramas I have ever seen, in fact it was so good that not even Elizabeth Taylor's mediocre talent could ruin it.
Winters has a deeply moving scene when the pregnant Alice desperately asks a doctor to help her 'take care of' (abort) her unborn child.Less impressive is Angela the society girl, played by Elizabeth Taylor.
Going against what his uncle told him, not to get involved with any of the young women working at the plant, George makes a play for her and within weeks is having a affair with Alice that leads to her getting pregnant.George is in love with Alice at first but things start to get very complicated for him when he's spotted at an Eastman dinner by the beautiful and blue-blooded, as well as coming from a very rich family, Angela Vickers ,Elizabeth Taylor.
Even though he truly and honestly felt that he was innocent in Alice's drowning at the dark and deserted Lake Loon.The movie " A Place in the Sun" has among other things some of the most tender and touching love scenes ever filmed.
Monty Clift, like Taylor, doesn't act too well; he was better in (and personally more suited for) "Suddenly, Last Summer." If a film is truly classic then it does not age like Dorian Gray's painting, it's "controversial" scenes are not embarrassing and unintentionally hilarious today, (Raymond Burr's courtroom antics had me laughing as if I were watching "Duck Soup,") the background score is not overdone and deafening at times and above all, the story doesn't just pep right along at a clip akin to "The Sorrow And The Pity." Sorry, this is shallow tripe from a very good director.
Yes, I realize that Elizabeth Taylor is supposed to represent the unattainable female beauty that drives George (Clift) over the edge, but most times that vacuous, adorable head just delivers her lines in that same wooden manner that makes me wish that anyone but ET had been cast in the role of Angela Vickers!
I have seen this film probably 5 or 6 times, but only lately discovered that it was based on a novel by Theodore Dreiser, based on a true life murder case in 1906.Basically, it's about a social climber who has gotten a girlfriend pregnant and comes under the charms of a wealthy, beautiful young woman and needs to free himself.I have always been riveted by Clift, and in this movie he does his best to be the man who is torn between two women.
"A Place in the Sun" (Paramount, 1951) is the second screen adaptation to Theodore Dreiser's novel, "An American Tragedy." Previously filmed by Paramount as "An American Tragedy" in 1931 starring Phillips Holmes (1907-1942), Sylvia Sidney and Frances Dee in the Clift, Shelley Winters and Elizabeth Taylor roles, directed by Josef Von Sternberg, the plot deals with a young but restless man with poverty upbringing who wants to rise above it all.
It is far more a romance than an analysis of the class system, and that it shows up the limitations of such a closed society as it depicts, and finds romance at all in such a world, is in itself remarkable, making the film, whatever its purported subject matter, an exercise in aestheticism of a singular and highly personal kind, as its two main character defy the demands of the real world by simply making up and inhabiting a world of their own.George Stevens directs the film with exquisite sensitivity, giving his material the full-throttle Bronte treatment, hypnotizing the viewer with continual emphasis on beauty, of the human and pastoral variety, with occasional darkling moments,--a bird call, a shadow--that hint at the tragedy to come.
The best scene in the movie comes at the end when Taylor's face reveals the true conflict of feelings she has for Clift.I still can't get past the story and the emphasis on certain aspects of it - such as the abortion doctor's scene, which was done so poorly that Winters looks like she doesn't know what she's doing.
But his portrayal in A Place In The Sun (APITS, for short) proved to me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was really quite a gifted performer.In my opinion, it was definitely Clift's heartfelt portrayal as the tragic George Eastman character who gave APITS's story of social snobbery and murder its depth and its meaning.
But his portrayal in A Place In The Sun (APITS, for short) proved to me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was really quite a gifted performer.In my opinion, it was definitely Clift's heartfelt portrayal as the tragic George Eastman character who gave APITS's story of social snobbery and murder its depth and its meaning.
I'd say that it was Clift, alone, who carried this film over its many flaws and clichés to its riveting, melodramatic conclusion.Yes. Of course, it certainly did help APITS's overall success that the gorgeous, 19-year-old Elizabeth Taylor was cast as Angela Vickers, the sole focus of George's hopes, his dreams and his burning desire.Once poor George became hopelessly involved with pretty, young Angela, this viewer could easily understand what heady and emotional turmoil drove him at first to contemplate and then commit the ultimate "crime of passion".If you ask me, I think that even today, 65 years later, this depiction of the "American Tragedy" holds up surprisingly well.
I'd say that it was Clift, alone, who carried this film over its many flaws and clichés to its riveting, melodramatic conclusion.Yes. Of course, it certainly did help APITS's overall success that the gorgeous, 19-year-old Elizabeth Taylor was cast as Angela Vickers, the sole focus of George's hopes, his dreams and his burning desire.Once poor George became hopelessly involved with pretty, young Angela, this viewer could easily understand what heady and emotional turmoil drove him at first to contemplate and then commit the ultimate "crime of passion".If you ask me, I think that even today, 65 years later, this depiction of the "American Tragedy" holds up surprisingly well.
The result was singularly powerful.George Eastman (Montgomery Cliff) is the poor relation of a wealthy family--and when seeks aid from them he is given a menial job in the factory, where he becomes intimate with factory worker Alice (Shelly Winters.) But when George is suddenly promoted he begins to enter the world of his dreams--and it includes glamorous socialite Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor.) And now only the commonplace and unexpectedly pregnant Alice stands between him and all that he has ever desired.The script veers toward excess more than once, but director George Stevens and his extraordinary cast carry the film to unexpectedly powerful effect.
"A Place in the Sun" tells the story of George Eastman (Montgomery Clift), a poor relation who goes to work in his rich uncle's factory.
He starts at the bottom level, working the production line, and gets involved romantically and sexually with co-worker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters), all the while yearning for the unattainable - the gorgeous Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor).
Elizabeth Taylor, who was only 17 at the time, was cast as Angela Vickers, the beautiful and rich love interest of George Eastman (Montgomery Clift).
Raymond Burr, best known for his TV role as Perry Mason, plays a Perry Mason of sorts in the film: the prosecuting attorney, Frank Marlowe.This was the first of three films that Taylor and Clift made together; and they became instant friends upon meeting for the first time for the making of "A Place in the Sun".
The Comments Index leads me to suspect that there are some highly divergent opinions about what was, no doubt, designed to impress more than just the young audiences of the day, lured to the box office by the inspired casting of the gorgeous Miss Taylor, in the first flower of her womanly beauty, emoting with her new-found friend, the oh-so-sensitive "Monty" Clift.I saw this at a special screening during my college days, attended by the director, George Stevens (then deep in his elaborate preparations for his next-to-last film, the monumental "The Greatest Story Ever Told"), who consented to a question-and-answer session after the final fadeout.
He falls in love with a small time woman (Shelley Winters) but soon gets a taste of the society life with a beauty (Elizabeth Taylor) and this is the start of his downfall.
Oscar-winner Anne Revere in the comparatively small role of Clift's mother is a real stroke of casting genius.There aren't many things wrong with A Place in the Sun, although I do wish they had kept the title of the Theodore Dreiser source novel (An American Tragedy) as it is an excellent title and one that conjures up both the tone and the context of this particular adaptation perfectly.
In the late 1940s George Stevens, the California-born director known for his perfectionist attitude, got the rights to adapt the cult 1925 novel by Theodore Dreiser "An American Tragedy." When his tedious work on shooting and editing began, few people probably thought of the movie becoming more powerful than the literary source itself.
The 'society girl' Angela (Elizabeth Taylor) who constitutes the top of the ladder, a dreamlike woman for George and poor factory worker Alice (Shelley Winters) who reminds him of the hard beginnings...they beautifully manifest two worlds.
I give it high marks for never clearly resolving what actually happened (a tragedy), or who was responsible for what.Raymond Burr's role in this looks like an audition for (or trial run of) his later TV series as Perry Mason.I'll rate it as 7.5 of 10 stars; it's of most interest to see Taylor, Clift, Winters, & Burr in their earlier days and society's (this film's) prevailing views of class mixing..
An amusingly dated story based on Theodore Dreiser's novel "An American Tragedy." It has all the elements of great tragedy, although the fact that it has aged so poorly keeps it from being truly classic.Mongomery Clift is George Eastman, a drifter shirt tail relative of a wealthy family who offers him a chance at the brass ring.
But with George Stevens, Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Shelley Winters along for the ride it was a success; and more than that, it is a very good movie.Montgomery Clift plays George Eastman, a man with nothing much to his name except an uncle who owns a factory.
A poor boy (Montgomery Clift) gets a job working for his rich uncle and ends up falling in love with two women (Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters).I have never really cared for Elizabeth Taylor, but found her to be a class act in this film.
Credit for the enduring appeal of the film belongs to its two stars: Montgomery Clift, playing a poor young opportunist climbing up the social ladder, and Elizabeth Taylor as the wealthy débutante with whom he falls in love.
But time has proved its partiality to Stevens and no movie lover can ignore this masterpiece of film-noir, reuniting two of the most talented and beautiful actors of their generation: the tormented and hypnotic Montgomery Clift and the woman of divine unequaled beauty, Elizabeth Taylor.
Then follows one of the greatest pauses in film history, like a held breath, until the man asks quietly and impersonally "Are you George Eastman?" Also remarkable in my view is the chemistry between Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, because in real life they were the best of friends, and screen lovers who do not also connect on a deeper, more human level do not come across as lovers..
Beautiful acting, good diretion help VERY dated story of a poor man (Montgomery Clift) falling in love with a rich woman (Liz Taylor) after getting another poor woman (Shelley Winters) pregnant.
What a sad movie!!!Almost a masterpiece...there are some little mistakes like on the radio talking about the weather and advising about the danger on the lake....George Stevens,Elizabeth Taylor and mainly Montgomery Clift in your best performance making a disturbing character between a normal life tight on marriage without love and rich and pleasant life with woman who really loves...that's the point...when the tragedy comes true reach the point of no return...based on real facts this remarkable story told with shadows under a bird singing on freezing lake...on a dark afternoon!!!.
Produced and directed by George Stevens, with a screenplay by Michael Wilson and Harry Brown, this essential romance drama about forbidden, tragic love (and more) stars two of the most beautiful actors of their time at the peak of their sex appeal, Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor.The excellent cast also includes Shelley Winters, Anne Revere, Fred Clark, Raymond Burr, and even John Ridgely (among others).
George Stevens directed this drama based on the real life account of George Eastman(played by Montgomery Clift) who is a poor man who comes to California to work for his rich uncle in his factory.
"A Place in the Sun" is George Stevens' adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's classic novel "An American Tragedy".
A Place in the Sun. George Eastman (Montgomery Clift), a poor nephew of a rich factory owner, gets a job in his uncle's factory.