Previously filmed in 1931 under its original title, Theodore Dreiser's bulky but brilliant novel An American Tragedy was remade in 1951 by George Stevens as A Place in the Sun. Montgomery Clift stars as George Eastman, a handsome and charming but basically aimless young man who goes to work in a factory run by a distant, .. Read more
| Starring | Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, Shelley Winters, Anne Revere |
|---|---|
| Director | George Stevens |
| Genres | Drama |
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Previously filmed in 1931 under its original title, Theodore Dreiser's bulky but brilliant novel An American Tragedy was remade in 1951 by George Stevens as A Place in the Sun. Montgomery Clift stars as George Eastman, a handsome and charming but basically aimless young man who goes to work in a factory run by a distant, wealthy relative. Feeling lonely one evening, he has a brief rendezvous with assembly-line worker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters), but he forgets all about her when he falls for dazzling socialite Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor). Alice can't forget about him, though: she is pregnant with his child. Just when George's personal and professional futures seem assured, Alice demands that he marry her or she'll expose him to his society friends. This predicament sets in motion a chain of events that will ultimately include George's arrest and numerous other tragedies, including a vicious cross-examination by a D.A. played by future Perry Mason Raymond Burr. A huge improvement over the 1931 An American Tragedy, directed by Josef von Sternberg, A Place in the Sun softens some of the rough edges of Dreiser's naturalism, most notably in the passages pertaining to George's and Angela's romance. Even those 1951 bobbysoxers who wouldn't have been caught dead poring through the Dreiser original were mesmerized by the loving, near-erotic full facial closeups of Clift and Taylor as they pledge eternal devotion. A Place in the Sun won six Oscars, including Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Cinematography, although it lost Best Picture to An American in Paris.~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
| Starring | Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, Shelley Winters, Anne Revere, Raymond Burr |
|---|---|
| Director | George Stevens |
| Studio | PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 57 mins |
| Certificate |  |
| Collections | American Film Institute's top 100 |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Dubbed | French, German, Italian, Spanish |
| Hearing-impaired | English |
| Subtitles | DVD: Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish |
| Released | Production year: 1951 To Rent: DVD: 18 Nov 2002 |
Overblown, overlong and over-praised melodrama from a monumental novel of social guilt; sometimes visually striking, this version alters the stresses of the plot and leaves no time for sociological detail. A film so clearly intended as a masterpiece could
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More than melodrama...
What starts looking like three hanky tale about a girl loved and left (Shelley Winters is excellant in the part) quickly moves towards tragedy in a relentless ... read more »
[Highly rated reviewer]
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Beautiful & thought provoking
She is beautiful, he is beautiful, and you will be left wondering what you REALLY think for days afterwards... top stuff
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A place in the bin
Very much the film of the novel. Dreiser's An American Tragedy is one of the 'great American novels' that could never quite swim the Atlantic. If it... read more »
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Beautiful Couple
Great to see the screen presence between Taylor and Clift. He definitely has a magnetic pull on the camera and she is just amazingly stunningly beautiful. ... read more »
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