A Place in the Sun Reviews
Daniel Mumby
Super Reviewer
June 13, 2012
A Place in the Sun is the second adaptation of Theodor Dreiser's lengthy, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel An American Tragedy, first published in 1925. The novel drew inspiration from the story of Grace Brown, who was found dead in Big Moose Lake, Upstate New York in mid-1906; she was later found to have been murdered by her lover Chester Gillette, who was subsequently sent to the electric chair. The novel was turned into a play in 1926 and filmed under its original title by Josef von Sturnberg in 1931. Prior to this adaptation (of which Dreiser disapproved), there were rumours of a collaboration between Sergei Eisenstein and Charlie Chaplin to bring this story to the screen - rumours which sadly came to nothing.
There is a natural comparison between A Place in the Sun and Gone with the Wind, in that both works take a very long time to say relatively little. Both film adaptations successfully translate the baggy storytelling without explaining the emotional appeal of the books (if there is any). A Place in the Sun may be half as short as its patience-stretching predecessor, but even at 2 hours long there is not enough of a story to fill half that length, at least at the pace of George Stevens' direction.
Stevens, like George Lucas, is a far better producer than he is a director. He is very good at assembling talent, getting Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in their respective primes. But he is not so adept when it comes to the actual mechanics and language of cinema: he can make sure the characters turn up on time, but he can't really tell a story with them. His editing is very lazy, his lighting if often third-rate (especially the car scenes), and his camera angles and composition are frequently amateurish. During the scene where Shelley Winters go to her doctor, there is all manner of junk cluttering up the foreground which is a distraction from a narratively vital conversation.
Despite being broadly speaking a melodrama, A Place in the Sun is an unusual mix of genres within this. It begins as some kind of rags-to-riches drama, then becomes a love story, then turns into a whodunit in which we already know the culprit, and then finally ends up as a courtroom drama where all the previous events are recapped. You feel like the sensible thing to do would be to pick one genre, use the section set in that genre as a starting point and flesh out the plot either forwards or backwards from there. But in the absence of a more highly skilled director, the material is just allowed to sit on the screen in the hope that at least some of it will take flight.
While the 1931 version was a relatively close adaptation, A Place in the Sun differs quite drastically from the novel in several key areas. Like a lot of 1950s films, whatever rough edges were in the source have been smoothed out or removed entirely, presumably to improve the film's chances of commercial success. While the novel begins with our protagonist being introduced to alcohol and prostitutes while working as a bell-boy, the film begins with George Eastman at the side of the road, going to work in the shirt factory. His past as a bell boy is mentioned very fleetingly in a conversation with the other Eastmans, and there is relatively little in Clift's performance to suggest a dark and shameful past.
While the lead character in the novel is of a genuinely lowly background, George Eastman is merely a distant relative of the man who owns the company. By having him as a long-lost nephew or even black sheep of the family, the film doesn't quite work as a story about social status. Because Eastman is not an outcast from the beginning, there is less of a sense of ambition, he has less to lose, and there is less inherent tragedy to his story. Perhaps the film's success lay in the seemingly scandalous idea that such a crime could be perpetrated by the well-off, but that in itself is not a new idea, nor is it conveyed here better than in other films.
Compared to High Society, A Place in the Sun does attempt to convey what remains of its themes through the central dynamic of its characters. Montgomery Clift isn't as overtly sociopathic as his 1931 counterpart, but he does give a convincing performance as a man who can never be properly accepted by polite society. Because he is no longer a rags-to-riches character in the strictest sense, the dynamic between Clift's character and that of Shelley Winters does work; we understand why Eastman cannot lower himself to her standards. Eastman represents the frustrations of the little man, the lower-middle-class man for whom the Angela Vickers of this world are unobtainable and the Alice Tripps are insufficient.
The film is also a convincing argument against infidelity, if only because the consequences of Eastman's actions are so severe. Clift's performance carries the film, as we see his sense of tribulation and frustration at having to cover his tracks to prevent Alice finding out about him and Angela. Coming from a generation where Fatal Attraction is the core text for the consequences of sleeping around, the reactions of the characters may seem relatively tame. But at least they seem vaguely believable: even though Winters is as annoying as hell, at least she is convincingly annoying.
But as much as it makes a decent fist to convey these ideas, for the most part A Place in the Sun feels just another melodrama about a love triangle. By about the fifteen-minute mark, where we are introduced to Elizabeth Taylor, we've got a pretty good idea of where it's going, and who Clift is going to end up with. The film plays so fully to the conventions of The Philadelphia Story and the like that there is no real dramatic tension, so we spend most of our time willing Stevens to get on with it. Even Alice's death isn't entirely a surprise: we may not have predicted how she would die, but we know who did it, why he did it, and what will happen to him at least half an hour beforehand.
There are also several sections of A Place in the Sun which are, in tone at least, completely silly. Some of this is bound up in the melodrama itself: only in these kinds of films could we cut to a lake shortly after a character mentions that she can't swim. But even if we overlook little things like this, there are moments where Stevens loses control and things get quickly out of hand. The random scene of the whole Eastman clan boarding a speedboat feels like it's escaped from a Gene Kelly film, while Alice's death is very unconvincing; while in the novel she is hit in the face with a camera and then drowns, here she simply falls in.
The courtroom scenes are some of the most uncertain in the film. Courtroom dramas are by their very nature a little ridiculous: the smallest actions have to be made histrionic in order to create drama out of what in real life is usually quite boring. But the trial scenes in A Place in the Sun make even the loudest moments in A Few Good Men look subtle by comparison. Eastman's prosecutor is downright cartoonish: with his sunken-in eyes and hobbling gait, you'd swear he was working for a Bond villain. And that's before he expresses his anger at Eastman by bringing the boat he was rowing into court, raising an oar above his head and then proceeding to smash up the boat while addressing the jury.
A Place in the Sun is a well-meaning but ultimately dull second attempt to adapt Dreiser's novel. Despite the good performance of Montgomery Clift and the few moments in which its themes come to the fore, it settles for soft edges and the safety of convention when it should have been trying to push the envelope. It scores over High Society in actually having something to say, and there is nothing about it that could possibly offend. But like High Society, having nothing with which to offend, or provoke any real response, if perhaps its greatest failing.
In my review of High Society, I remarked that it is often the way that the first adaptation of a story often does it the 'tough', 'proper' way, then a second, softer version comes along which has more success but less going for it artistically. This is not just the case with commercial hits - A Place in the Sun won six Oscars at a time when Alfred Hitchcock was beginning to hit a rich vein of form. Looking at it now, it's like many of the films that go on to win Oscars: well-meaning, and in some areas well-made, but also far too safe and a little bit dull.
A Place in the Sun is the second adaptation of Theodor Dreiser's lengthy, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel An American Tragedy, first published in 1925. The novel drew inspiration from the story of Grace Brown, who was found dead in Big Moose Lake, Upstate New York in mid-1906; she was later found to have been murdered by her lover Chester Gillette, who was subsequently sent to the electric chair. The novel was turned into a play in 1926 and filmed under its original title by Josef von Sturnberg in 1931. Prior to this adaptation (of which Dreiser disapproved), there were rumours of a collaboration between Sergei Eisenstein and Charlie Chaplin to bring this story to the screen - rumours which sadly came to nothing.
There is a natural comparison between A Place in the Sun and Gone with the Wind, in that both works take a very long time to say relatively little. Both film adaptations successfully translate the baggy storytelling without explaining the emotional appeal of the books (if there is any). A Place in the Sun may be half as short as its patience-stretching predecessor, but even at 2 hours long there is not enough of a story to fill half that length, at least at the pace of George Stevens' direction.
Stevens, like George Lucas, is a far better producer than he is a director. He is very good at assembling talent, getting Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in their respective primes. But he is not so adept when it comes to the actual mechanics and language of cinema: he can make sure the characters turn up on time, but he can't really tell a story with them. His editing is very lazy, his lighting if often third-rate (especially the car scenes), and his camera angles and composition are frequently amateurish. During the scene where Shelley Winters go to her doctor, there is all manner of junk cluttering up the foreground which is a distraction from a narratively vital conversation.
Despite being broadly speaking a melodrama, A Place in the Sun is an unusual mix of genres within this. It begins as some kind of rags-to-riches drama, then becomes a love story, then turns into a whodunit in which we already know the culprit, and then finally ends up as a courtroom drama where all the previous events are recapped. You feel like the sensible thing to do would be to pick one genre, use the section set in that genre as a starting point and flesh out the plot either forwards or backwards from there. But in the absence of a more highly skilled director, the material is just allowed to sit on the screen in the hope that at least some of it will take flight.
While the 1931 version was a relatively close adaptation, A Place in the Sun differs quite drastically from the novel in several key areas. Like a lot of 1950s films, whatever rough edges were in the source have been smoothed out or removed entirely, presumably to improve the film's chances of commercial success. While the novel begins with our protagonist being introduced to alcohol and prostitutes while working as a bell-boy, the film begins with George Eastman at the side of the road, going to work in the shirt factory. His past as a bell boy is mentioned very fleetingly in a conversation with the other Eastmans, and there is relatively little in Clift's performance to suggest a dark and shameful past.
While the lead character in the novel is of a genuinely lowly background, George Eastman is merely a distant relative of the man who owns the company. By having him as a long-lost nephew or even black sheep of the family, the film doesn't quite work as a story about social status. Because Eastman is not an outcast from the beginning, there is less of a sense of ambition, he has less to lose, and there is less inherent tragedy to his story. Perhaps the film's success lay in the seemingly scandalous idea that such a crime could be perpetrated by the well-off, but that in itself is not a new idea, nor is it conveyed here better than in other films.
Compared to High Society, A Place in the Sun does attempt to convey what remains of its themes through the central dynamic of its characters. Montgomery Clift isn't as overtly sociopathic as his 1931 counterpart, but he does give a convincing performance as a man who can never be properly accepted by polite society. Because he is no longer a rags-to-riches character in the strictest sense, the dynamic between Clift's character and that of Shelley Winters does work; we understand why Eastman cannot lower himself to her standards. Eastman represents the frustrations of the little man, the lower-middle-class man for whom the Angela Vickers of this world are unobtainable and the Alice Tripps are insufficient.
The film is also a convincing argument against infidelity, if only because the consequences of Eastman's actions are so severe. Clift's performance carries the film, as we see his sense of tribulation and frustration at having to cover his tracks to prevent Alice finding out about him and Angela. Coming from a generation where Fatal Attraction is the core text for the consequences of sleeping around, the reactions of the characters may seem relatively tame. But at least they seem vaguely believable: even though Winters is as annoying as hell, at least she is convincingly annoying.
But as much as it makes a decent fist to convey these ideas, for the most part A Place in the Sun feels just another melodrama about a love triangle. By about the fifteen-minute mark, where we are introduced to Elizabeth Taylor, we've got a pretty good idea of where it's going, and who Clift is going to end up with. The film plays so fully to the conventions of The Philadelphia Story and the like that there is no real dramatic tension, so we spend most of our time willing Stevens to get on with it. Even Alice's death isn't entirely a surprise: we may not have predicted how she would die, but we know who did it, why he did it, and what will happen to him at least half an hour beforehand.
There are also several sections of A Place in the Sun which are, in tone at least, completely silly. Some of this is bound up in the melodrama itself: only in these kinds of films could we cut to a lake shortly after a character mentions that she can't swim. But even if we overlook little things like this, there are moments where Stevens loses control and things get quickly out of hand. The random scene of the whole Eastman clan boarding a speedboat feels like it's escaped from a Gene Kelly film, while Alice's death is very unconvincing; while in the novel she is hit in the face with a camera and then drowns, here she simply falls in.
The courtroom scenes are some of the most uncertain in the film. Courtroom dramas are by their very nature a little ridiculous: the smallest actions have to be made histrionic in order to create drama out of what in real life is usually quite boring. But the trial scenes in A Place in the Sun make even the loudest moments in A Few Good Men look subtle by comparison. Eastman's prosecutor is downright cartoonish: with his sunken-in eyes and hobbling gait, you'd swear he was working for a Bond villain. And that's before he expresses his anger at Eastman by bringing the boat he was rowing into court, raising an oar above his head and then proceeding to smash up the boat while addressing the jury.
A Place in the Sun is a well-meaning but ultimately dull second attempt to adapt Dreiser's novel. Despite the good performance of Montgomery Clift and the few moments in which its themes come to the fore, it settles for soft edges and the safety of convention when it should have been trying to push the envelope. It scores over High Society in actually having something to say, and there is nothing about it that could possibly offend. But like High Society, having nothing with which to offend, or provoke any real response, if perhaps its greatest failing.
Saskia D
Super Reviewer
June 4, 2009
The so called love interest was just not believable and lacked chemistry, I really didn't get why Angela falls in love with this George. He's probably different from all the other guys she usually meets, but he misses character and depth.
MWEEEH not what I hoped or expected. Taylor's character was boring and bland, I know that she can do a lot better. Clift annoyed the crap out of me, in his attempt to play the sexy mysterious psychopath (if he really is one).
The so called love interest was just not believable and lacked chemistry, I really didn't get why Angela falls in love with this George. He's probably different from all the other guys she usually meets, but he misses character and depth.
rubystevens
Super Reviewer
November 6, 2007
rip liz :'( the film is a showcase for ms taylor at the height of her beauty, along with her male counterpart, montgomery clift. i don't believe there ever was a more breathtaking couple. good suspense tho things get slow when the action moves into the courtroom. shelley winters is great but she can't evade her fate....
AJ V
Super Reviewer
September 5, 2010
Sometimes this movie was very good, romantic, dramatic, and brilliant, but at other times I was bored, and it was too melodramatic. Overall a pretty good movie, but it could have been better.
Mr Awesome
Super Reviewer
April 23, 2010
Maybe it was the Hays code or maybe it's just the 1950s sense of morality, but when a man knocked up a girl back then, it was his duty to marry her, whether he loved her or not. Woe to the man who fell in love with another after impregnating his previous girlfriend, for love has no place in marriage when honor is at stake. Barbaric times like these could drive a man over the edge, perhaps to murder. And that's just the thing: is desiring to kill someone just as bad as actually killing someone? Montgomery Clift stars as George Eastman, the nephew of a wealthy business tycoon who wants to escape his impoverished factory life and get in good with the wealthy side of the family. Charles Eastman (Herbert Heyes) is all too happy to have his nephew come and work for the family and starts him off in packing, to learn the business. It's there he meets a sweet girl by the name of Alice (Shelley Winters). The two begin a flirtation which leads to dating and then you-know-what. Meanwhile, George has also become acquainted with Angela, a glamourous and wealthy socialite (Elizabeth Taylor) and they also begin dating. George plans to break it off with Alice until she drops the bombshell on him: she's pregnant. He knows he must marry her, even though it will ruin his career and social standing. He tries to put it off, to continue living the good life, but Alice tracks him down and threatens to tell everyone the truth (she also threatens to kill herself) unless he marries her that day. Trapped in a corner, George let's himself be taken over by dark fantasies. A Place in the Sun is a fascinating morality play, and while it's not always riveting, the overall effect of the film is successful. Elizabeth Taylor is probably as beautiful as she would ever be, and Shelley Winters delivers a multi-layered performance. Two people paid dearly for wanting something which they couldn't have, but was so tantalizingly within their reach. The film, based on the novel "An American Tragedy" by Theodore Dreiser, lives up to it's original name.
Mark H
Super Reviewer
August 12, 2009
Unforgettable drama concerns young George Eastman, a destitute, though charming, blue collar worker who becomes romantically entangled with two women, one who works in his wealthy uncle's factory and the other a beautiful socialite. Rarely has a romantic tragedy been so emotionally graphic in exposing the true yearning of people in love. Profound drama cuts through the depths of human behavior in a way that will make you uncomfortable. There is real heartbreak here, but also real desire. The full facial close-ups of Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor enrapt in passion are nothing less than spellbinding. Taylor, in fact, is breathtakingly gorgeous and Clift is fascinating as the morally troubled young man. Shelley Winters, who also stars, is a standout as the woman who will not be ignored. And this film is not to be missed.
Jennifer X
Super Reviewer
April 5, 2009
This is basically a showcase for two exceptionally beautiful people, a proverbial f*ck-you to those who complain of overbloated big budget projects celebrities simply use to exploit their public images with no artistic merit at all. Judging by how egocentric such a project can be, it's not all-in-all such a bad movie.
dietmountaindew
Super Reviewer
November 29, 2007
it's a sad tale about a poor young lad named george who intends to evolve himself by purchuing a work position in his uncle's enterprise. then to cope with loneliness and his raging libido, he dives into a frivolous relationship with his female co-worker(winters)...but trouble occurs as he encounters his goddess heaven above, angela, the symbol of everything he craves for: wealth, fame, status, of course she's also so damned beautiful that he's immediately capitivated as the prisoner of his love for her. amazingly angela also falls head over heels in love with timid but gorgeous george. meanwhile his transient girlfriend happens to be conceived of his child... now george has to confront a moral issue, how should he get rid of this nuisance who will hinder his life ambition, his career and his mostly intense passion? then he schemes to drown her in some lake as some unknown victim...could george be able to pull this task off???
as usual, the production romanticizes the story by savoring taylor's role as a debutante socialitte who is an indifferent snob in the original, and the script beautifies her as a prime gently innocent woman firstly in love with a poor lad. when it comes to the part of monty clift, this movie does do justice to the inward conflicts of the protagonist who is ashamed of his prole background and tangled with mental chaos of "to be or not to be"....at the scene he's on the boat with shirley winters in the lake, his pupils are foggily dazed with various complexity, you could sense hatred, animosity shimmered upon his transparent pupils, but a sudden ease of mercy strikes, the gaze of his eyes get softened right away. thru various scenes, the audience feels the empathy of diverse emotions thru monty's effectively expressive eyes relentlessly, then you shall witness the essence of good actings.
despite the romanticism of taylor and clift, this flick still vents the core of the protagonist's disorientated thoughts thanks to monty's performance, such as his aspiration to climb toward the top by staring into the company advertisement and the expensive convertible of taylor's. basically the original novel attempts to render a sort of existentialistic bewilderment when the protagonist approaches the death sentence still without a sense of salved comprehesion toward his god nor a bit mercy granted by the rich girl whom he thught he loved, at last he suffers from the angst of estray life right toward his demise. but in the flick, everything's relieved due to the baptism of love and his finally enlightened atonement: the last image flashes to monty's mind is taylor's contour as she kisses him while he's looming toward the gas chamber.
but this flick is still worthy of acclaim for its daring attitude to tackle the taboo of pre-marital pregancy and possibly concocted abortion at moralistic 50s with maccthyism. but what intruded the censor to forbid this flick and require some edited revison for release? the long ignited kiss of taylor and clift. ha.
"a place in the sun" is the milestone for the careers of montgomery clift and elizabeth taylor, adapted from theodore dreiser's another classic called "an american tragedy"...inevitably the movie is somehow embellished with the dreaminess of first love, how could audience resist such a divine bond of clift and taylor who could two of the most fair-looking people on earth?
it's a sad tale about a poor young lad named george who intends to evolve himself by purchuing a work position in his uncle's enterprise. then to cope with loneliness and his raging libido, he dives into a frivolous relationship with his female co-worker(winters)...but trouble occurs as he encounters his goddess heaven above, angela, the symbol of everything he craves for: wealth, fame, status, of course she's also so damned beautiful that he's immediately capitivated as the prisoner of his love for her. amazingly angela also falls head over heels in love with timid but gorgeous george. meanwhile his transient girlfriend happens to be conceived of his child... now george has to confront a moral issue, how should he get rid of this nuisance who will hinder his life ambition, his career and his mostly intense passion? then he schemes to drown her in some lake as some unknown victim...could george be able to pull this task off???
as usual, the production romanticizes the story by savoring taylor's role as a debutante socialitte who is an indifferent snob in the original, and the script beautifies her as a prime gently innocent woman firstly in love with a poor lad. when it comes to the part of monty clift, this movie does do justice to the inward conflicts of the protagonist who is ashamed of his prole background and tangled with mental chaos of "to be or not to be"....at the scene he's on the boat with shirley winters in the lake, his pupils are foggily dazed with various complexity, you could sense hatred, animosity shimmered upon his transparent pupils, but a sudden ease of mercy strikes, the gaze of his eyes get softened right away. thru various scenes, the audience feels the empathy of diverse emotions thru monty's effectively expressive eyes relentlessly, then you shall witness the essence of good actings.
despite the romanticism of taylor and clift, this flick still vents the core of the protagonist's disorientated thoughts thanks to monty's performance, such as his aspiration to climb toward the top by staring into the company advertisement and the expensive convertible of taylor's. basically the original novel attempts to render a sort of existentialistic bewilderment when the protagonist approaches the death sentence still without a sense of salved comprehesion toward his god nor a bit mercy granted by the rich girl whom he thught he loved, at last he suffers from the angst of estray life right toward his demise. but in the flick, everything's relieved due to the baptism of love and his finally enlightened atonement: the last image flashes to monty's mind is taylor's contour as she kisses him while he's looming toward the gas chamber.
but this flick is still worthy of acclaim for its daring attitude to tackle the taboo of pre-marital pregancy and possibly concocted abortion at moralistic 50s with maccthyism. but what intruded the censor to forbid this flick and require some edited revison for release? the long ignited kiss of taylor and clift. ha.
Lanning :
Super Reviewer
April 21, 2007
Poor Shelley Winters. What a way to go. Clift is excellent, and Taylor lights up the screen. It really is the intention. The chair is inevitable.
jjnxn
Super Reviewer
April 4, 2007
brilliant performances and Elizabeth Taylor is almost supernaturally beautiful but the film drags here and there
Michael G
Super Reviewer
November 15, 2006
A great but not truly amazing film. I Liz Taylor makes my teeth sweat in this film.
Mike T
Super Reviewer
August 15, 2006
Instead of focusing on one genre's specifications, this film transcends the styles of numerous genres. The result is a masterpiece. This is a dark, painfully human film filled with fantastic performances and striking uniqueness. Inspired filmmaking.
Robert F
Super Reviewer
April 20, 2010
Interestingly filmed. Shelly Winters gave the standout performance.
cody f
Super Reviewer
February 26, 2008
The great Monty and Liz in her prime all under the genius of George Stevens. Great movie that always makes you want to kill your nagging wife and mess around with a Rich Beauty Queen.
July 14, 2012
A tragic affair of surprising subtextual poetry and ambiguity, well-crafted and slightly ahead of its time in terms of substance and gravitas.
August 30, 2011
outstanding. definitely more of a traditional tragedy as opposed to realistic drama, but the elements of realism that are there are strikingly effective. Shelley Winters is brilliant. Montgomery Clift manages to be both a pitiable hero and despicable dirtbag in equally compelling parts to a whole. I thought back to The Lost Weekend while watching this--both films deal with heavy, controversial subject matter not often seen in media during this time period. this film's implication of sex was extremely tame by today's standards, but it still manages to be shocking. I also really liked George Stevens' use of overlapping images in certain scenes--gave an added gravity to what was happening. overall a strong drama and a very aptly (originally) titled American tragedy.
April 1, 2011
George Eastman is a pull yourself up from the bootstraps type of guy. He doesn't want to be poor anymore. George gets tangled in a love triangle with the plain factory girl (Alice Tripp) he gets pregnant and the rich debutante (Angela Vickers) whom he loves for who she is and essentially what she can do for him. (Entree into better social circles.) When his Plain Jane ends up pregnant and can't get an abortion, his dreams of life with Angela start to crumble and he will do anything not to let that happen. This is where the action gets tense, and you are drawn brilliantly into Montgomery Clift's desperation. To say anymore would be too much of a spoiler, and you won't see the ending coming.
Otageemeur
March 24, 2011
This movie, despite a simple scenario, is truly interesting to watch thanks to the very moving acting of Montgomery Clift. I loved how he interpreted his character's personnality.
