A Place in the Sun

Rating:
Summary: idiotic melodrama
Review: This movie has such a ridiculous script that even the Lifetime channel would hard pressed to outdo it. Latin American telenovellas aren't this overwrought. I can't suspend my belief in reality sufficiently to view a shrink who does lobotomies as a sensitive humanitarian.

Rating:
Summary: A Bad Life Decision
Review: A Place in the Sun, 1951
Running time: 120 minutes in black & white
Director: George Stephens
Studio: Paramount Studio
Actors/Actresses: Montgomery Clift (George Eastman)
Elizabeth Taylor (Angela Vickers)
Shelly Winters (Alice Tripp--name is symbolic of her behavior)
Awards/Nominations: Oscar won in 1952 for best cinematography, black & white; best costume design, black & white; best director; best film editing; best music; and best writing.
Nominated for an Oscar in 1952 for best actor and actress in a leading role and best picture.
DGA Award won in 1952 for outstanding directorial achievement in motion pictures.
Golden Globe won in 1952 for best motion picture drama.
Silver Ribbon Award won in 1952 for best director of a foreign film.
NBR Award won in 1951 for best picture.
PGA Hall of Fame for Motion Pictures Award won in 1997.
WGA Screen Award won in 1952 for best written American drama and nominated for the Robert Meltzer Award.
Genre: Romantic Tragedy

In summary, the movie includes the trials and tribulations of a love triangle between a smart nice guy, a rich nice woman, and a manipulating possessive working-class woman. George Eastman hitchhikes from Kansas City to his uncle's swimsuit factory to work. Once there, he is given a position boxing merchandise by his not-too-friendly cousin. Prior to his employment, George is informed that he is not to have romantic relations with his fellow co-workers as a condition of employment. Unfortunately, George broke this rule by dating and ultimately getting one of his coworkers pregnant. While dating her (Alice), he falls in love with Angela Vickers, a high-class woman that is well-known throughout the comunity and by Charles Eastman (George's rich uncle). Instead of telling Angela about Alice and vice versa, George "drives himself crazy" and eventually commits the ultimate crime. What may astonish the viewer is that even after learning of George's hideous crime, Angela confesses that she still loves him.

Both George and Alice would have different lives at the end of the movie if George had stayed in Kansas City! He also should have been honest with both women in order to alleviate stress for both he and Alice. This movie was given four stars due to its relativeness to society and its great plot for the time period. It was interesting throughout the whole movie.

Rating:
Summary: Is the grass always greener?
Review: Based on Theodore Dreiser's novel "An American Tragedy", this film follows the short life of George Eastman (Montgomery Clift). George's family runs a mission for the poor and he wants to escape this drudgery to lead a better life. With the promise of a job by his wealthy uncle Charles (Herbert Heyes), he hitchhikes to the city with nothing but the clothes on his back. His cousin Earl (Keefe Brasselle) gives him a menial job on the assembly line and his life is suddenly looking better. In the local movie theater, George spots Alice Tripp (Shelly Winters) a worker on the assembly line. This chance meeting leads to a relationship that is against company policy.
Uncle Charles does not want "one of the Eastman's" to be a common worker and begins to give him more responsibility and introduces him to the society page life. At a party George meets Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor), a beautiful debutant, and the two begin a whirlwind romance.
Alice learns that she is pregnant and when she tells George he starts to plot ways to get out of this situation. He is in love with Angela, playing with the rich and famous and leading a life that he never dreamed. Alice knows about his romance with Angela and becomes very controlling over George to the point of blackmail. The twists and turns take shape and George's up and down life starts it's final decent.
The cast does a wonderful job and is reason alone to view this film. However, the story will make the viewer take sides and wonder what might have been. Although the film is was made 50 years ago, the plot of obtaining a goal at all costs still applies today. A movie well worth adding to a collection.

Rating:
Summary: Tragedy of life
Review: A Place in the Sun was based on the novel An American Tragedy written by Theodore Dreiser. This movie was released in 1951 in black and white by Paramount Studio. Montgomery Clift plays George Eastman who is a young man trying to live out the American dream. Elizabeth Taylor plays Angela Vickers an up-class young woman that falls in love with George Eastman. Shelley Winters plays Alice Tripp, a young woman that works at the factory with George Eastman. She has a short-lived affair with George Eastman before George and Angela start seeing each other.
George Eastman leaves his mother and her missionary life-style in Kansas City, Missouri to look for a better life in the 'big city'. He gets a job at his Uncle Charles' swimsuit factory. Earl Eastman (Keefe Brasselle) is George cousin that supposes to find George a good job at the factory. George ends up working at an entry-level job stacking boxes, this is where his starts a relationship with Alice Tripp, who is one of the box stuffers. One night of indiscretion for George and Alice locks them in a web, that he can't ever get out of. George works at this mindless job for a couple of months before his Uncle Charles find him a new job. Alice is not happy about the fact that George is moving up in the business and feels that she losing him. Alice plays the act of a poor wining girl that gets pregnant and wants George to marry her. George is turned off by Alice's actions and has fallen in love with Angela and wants a better life.
You can't help but feel sorry for George, he try's to do everything right and things just seem to get in the way. This movie needs to have a little more background from the book, so you can understand some of the scenes better. All in all this is a good classic movie that will leave you wondering, what-if George had done things different would it change anything in his tragic life.

Rating:
Summary: The American Dream turns into Tragedy
Review: Too bad Dreiser wasn't alive to see this sterling film based on one of his masterpieces because I'm sure he woulda approved. I saw the film first and was so overcome I read the novel afterwards--no easy feat since it is a voluminous work, and though naturally there are elements which the movie left out due to time constraints, it is a faithful and solid adaptation which does not disappoint. One of cinema's most memorable doomed love stories, and justly so, for it is also about the death of a dream--The American Dream. This mesmerizing tale of a dreamy young man's brief life immediately brings to mind striking parallels to legendary fictional characters as Jay Gatsby and Emma Bovary--the three could have been spiritual soulmates since all meet with earthly annihilation by their absolute refusal to reconcile their impractical, larger-than-life visions with the practicalities of real life. The appropriately dreamy and introspective Montgomery Clift stars in the pivotal role of George Eastman, a poor young man longing for upward mobility who desperately desires all he never had growing up--romance, glamour, and wealth. The two female romantic leads are poignantly performed--Shelley Winters as Alice Tripp, a lowly factory worker from the "wrong side of the tracks," whom George basically gets involved with out of loneliness, only to find themselves in dire circumstances when she gets pregnant. Elizabeth Taylor stars as ravishing rich girl Angela Vickers, a glamorous and enchanting debutante who may indeed be George's true love but is also a living, breathing symbol of all he has desired in life and of having "made it." Taylor's performance is remarkable as the shelteres society goddess who heartbreakingly loses her first great love. But she pales somewhat next to the crackling performances of her co-stars: Winters/Alice's mounting desperation and Clift/George's numb panic as both are swept toward doom as a result of her unfortunate pregnancy and his unfathomable dreams. The three leads more than make up for the painfully hammy performance by Raymond Burr as an overzealous district attorney. Gorgeous B&W cinematography, an alternately moving, romantic, and bittersweet score, and excellent adaptation of a literary classic (too bad the trio of Clift, Taylor, and director Stevens couldn't take on "The Great Gatsby"--it would hardly be worse than the vapid and inexplicably famous 1974 version, and Clift and Taylor woulda made a perfect Gatsby and Daisy respectively). Although haunting and disturbingly bleak, one of the great romance films of all time!

Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: The novel on which this movie is based--Theodore Dreiser's AMERICAN TRAGEDY--is better. But the movie is good. My main problem is that Montgomery Clift's character is so DOUR through the whole movie, I did not find it believable that a bubbly, wealthy, beautiful woman like Elizabeth Taylor's character would find him appealing! You'd think he would have to exhibit some charm and energy to attract her. But I guess she just likes depressive men. A worthwhile movie, nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: This place will break your heart!
Review: A Place In The Sun is a rare film. After all the years have passed this film has not lost a beat! Clift, Taylor and most importantly Jones seem to give the best performances of their career! The plot drags you through love, lust, true love, "murder' and redemption at such a steady and heart pounding pace that you seem to get lost in the performances and forget that Clift's character may or may not have bumped off his lover to get closer to Taylor. In the eerie calm of a moonlit lake the fear and suspense of a shoddy row boat and a ever so nervous Clift leave you waiting for the deed of murder to take place! That scene alone between the twitchy Clift and the timid but self aware Jones is pure magic! Jones owns this film. She nails the role of a thrown away woman let to rot while her ex moves on but she has what she feels is her trump card to keep him! Taylor is at her rich little girl best never showing true emotion but just the beauty of her face as her trump card over Jones. The courtroom scenes are riveting the sweat and squirming Clift does in the witness chair is brilliant and when Raymond Burr bangs a certain item to show the intent of Clift's crime you will jump in your seat! Just an amazing well crafted story, with top direction by Stevens that gives you the dark tone and moody sun lit days that are neeeded to give this film it's ever so realistic atmosphere! The sun is out but it does cast shadows!

Rating:
Summary: Timeless Love Scene
Review: Though this film seems rather dated now, it must be watched with an apprectiation of the era in which it was made. That said, the story is still interesting and made believable by a fine cast. The chemistry between Clift and Taylor coupled with her extraordinary beauty contribute to a simple close-up love scene that remains unsurpassed over 50 years later.

Rating:
Summary: A Convenient Accident
Review: This movie is going to be a welcome addition to my home video library. The casting and performances of the major characters, George Eastman (Montgomery Cliff), Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor), and Alice (Shelley Winters) were magnificent. George, a man that fell in love with the life of upper society and Angela, was motivated to work hard to achieve a different life than the street ministry in which he was raised. However, he lost any sympathy from me by ensuring he had his "comforts" while he worked is way up. Alice, whinny, scared, and the victim of the old double standard, "boys will be boys, but girls should know better", was used and discarded for the beautiful, rich, and posed Angela. George, lacking true strength of character, did not deserve either woman and to his folly, paid a high price for his deeds.

The film is a superb example of the difference in how a person is treated based on his or her status in society. For example, George, living at the lodge with Angela, never attempted to gain entry into her bedroom, in marked contrast to his behavior with Alice.

Rating:
Summary: Forthrightness Is A Virtue
Review: Although not as in-depth as Dreiser's novel, A Place in the Sun is superb for showing in American literature and film classes. The viewer understands George's motivations and sympathizes with him. As Shelley Winters,the whining, demanding, factory girl, insists he marry her because she's pregnant, George is so painfully close to achieving the American Dream of wealth, position, and the girl of his dreams, Elizabeth Taylor that Winter's self-pity combined with her threats grates on the viewers' nerves. The viewer not only wants George to kill her, but also escape from punishment which, unfortunately he does not. During Cliff's scenes with Taylor, his guilt spoils the fun for him and the web of deception he's unintentionally created is almost too much to bear.