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A Place In The Sun [1951]


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Editorial
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Editorial
Synopsis

George Stevens' lavish adaptation of this classic casts Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor as the star-crossed lovers. As George Eastman (Clift) hitchhikes into the town where a job awaits him at the factory of his affluent Uncle Charles (Herbert Heyes), the lovely Angela Vickers (Taylor) speeds by him. Although the job entails packing bathing suits all day, the young man works hard in his eagerness to get ahead. Driven by loneliness, he becomes involved with coworker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters), a simple woman of limited appeal, in a relationship which defies company policy. After receiving a promotion, he's invited to a party at the home of the wealthy Vickers family, where he meets Angela, and the two quickly fall in love. While he and Angela continue to see each other, he is forced to continue his involvement with Alice, who threatens to get him fired by revealing their relationship. At the end of a whirlwind summer George and Angela receive the approval of her father (Sheppard Strudwick) on their marriage plans. Shortly thereafter, Alice informs George that she's pregnant with his child. Stevens transforms Theodore Dreiser's biting critique of America's caste system into a glossy romantic melodrama. Sumptuously photographed by William Mellor, who frames the almost inhumanly attractive couple in some of the most dizzyingly enraptured close-ups in movie history, the film features excellent performances by Shelley Winters and Clift, whose presence maintains an earnest, haunted passivity.

We can all make a mistake.......
Review date: 2007-11-10 Rating: 10 out of 10

Unfortunately, the hero in this movie makes THREE.

Montgomery Clift, as the poor boy trying to make good, makes the initial mistake of falling in love with a rich and beautiful girl, who would normally be unobtainable. If that was it, it would simply allow us to wile away 110 mins in the company of Monty's tortured soul and face-and, boy, no one ever did it better than him! Get I Confess-despite being the most unlikely Catholic priest you could imagine,Monty is superb in that with tortured secrets etc.

And in this film, he's pretty good,too! Mistake number two, though, undoes him. He doesn't just fall in LURVE with the rich girl, he falls in lust with her too-and in 1951,Nice Girls DIDN'T!! And that means mistake number three, canoodling around with a nice,but brassy and brainless poor factory girl, gets compounded. Shelley Winters always seemed to get these parts-and she is very good in them.

Unfortunately for Monty, and herself, Shelley is also available, in the loosest sense of the word. And that is not good news, as Monty is now on fire, even if it's not strictly for Shelley! So, Monty forgets to get "something for the weekend" somewhere in all that canoodling, and, guess what,Shelley has some news for him!

Shelley then proceeds to start gabbling away at length about the forthcoming life they'll have together as Mr & Mrs & baby makes 3. She does this at length on a trip on the boating lake & Monty finally goes doolally-Shelley thence getting part practice for her future role as a stabbed & underwater murder victim in Night of the Hunter!

Well, things being what they are, Monty gets caught tried & sentenced to the electric chair. But at least he walks the green mile redeemed by the love of his rich girl etc, so, in not quite the best Hollywood traditions, everyone DIES happily ever after in this one.

But, when you look at the little rich girl, you'll understand why Monty goes bananas. You'll also wonder why he doesn't try a defence of temporary insanity-with all due respect to a fine actress and far from unattractive lady,you'd have to be mental to play doctors and nurses with Shelley when the alternative is the young & frankly astoundingly beautiful Elizabeth Taylor!

Some say,you can always have too much of a good thing-would you, for example, want home-made sherry trifle every night for dessert? Well, take a good look at Liz in this one & tell me you wouldn't be heading for the Tesco's trifle counter every night!!

Yep, this IS typically textured George Steven's filmatography, mushy melodrama with an overwrought edge and sublimely fraught performances. But it is so perfectly cast and executed, it's a flaming masterpiece and a film you can appreciate at several levels,tragic,melo,comic etc.

And, finally, if it was young Liz actually doing the trifle making, it would surely be enough to move most men to murder!

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Reviews


Sensitive and comlpex
Review date: 2006-04-15 Rating: 10 out of 10

It is always hard to make a compelling film out of an excellent book. But "A Place in the Sun" is not only the exquisite adaptation of a superb novel but a delicate and sensitive development of the book as well. An impressive achievement rarely seen in film history.

Don't be deceived by the exterior
Review date: 2002-12-23 Rating: 8 out of 10

'A Place in the Sun' is rumoured to be classic Hollywood melodrama, but refamiliarizing oneself with George Stevens' film shows it to be so much more than just melodrama. There are infinite subleties in the elaborate construction that is 'Place in the Sun', gorgeous cinematography and a smoothly luxurious cutting technique that, for a while at least, makes you think you are following a rather artificial love story about two beautiful doomed people, where in fact the tragedy unfolds in a relentness, downbeat manner that makes you almost choke with pain. Elizabeth Taylor (and I was never a fan to put it mildly) is brilliant, and Montgomery Clift overcomes the limitations of method acting.

RADIANT TAYLOR & CLIFT & STEVENS in an old Masterpiece
Review date: 2002-12-18 Rating: 10 out of 10

Clift is a poor boy who comes in the big city, to work in his uncle's factory. There he meets a poor girl, and falls in love with her. At the same moment he meets Taylor, a wealthy and beautiful girl, and a new romance beginns, which can help him to become member of the high society. His passion for Taylor leads him to a murder and to prison.
The vulnerable, handsome Clift is a perfect pair with Taylor, in her first adult role, the direction of Stevens is his best, the movie is a masterpiece, the extras include subtitles, trailers, interviews, the film was a smash-hit in its day, now its a classic...for the fist time is available in Europe and in DVD...WHAT ELSE TO YOU WANT?

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Shelley Winters
Anne Revere
Keefe Brasselle
Montgomery Clift
Elizabeth Taylor

Creators:
Montgomery Clift (Primary Contributor)
Elizabeth Taylor (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Paramount Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Paramount Home Entertainment
EAN: 5014437820532
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Black & White, Dubbed, Full Screen, PAL,
Release date: 2002-11-18
Number of discs: 1
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 117 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1951
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired)
Language: Danish (Subtitled)
Language: Dutch (Subtitled)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: French (Subtitled)
Language: German (Subtitled)
Language: Italian (Subtitled)
Language: Norwegian (Subtitled)
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)
Language: Swedish (Subtitled)
Language: Turkish (Subtitled)
Language: French (Dubbed)
Language: German (Dubbed)
Language: Italian (Dubbed)
Language: Spanish (Dubbed)

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