Rating: 
Summary: Absurdly Overrated
Review: It has been my observation that there is a tendency among reviewers, both professional and amateur, to overrate movies from the fifties and earlier simply because they were hits in their time. It's almost as if reviewers consider these movies to be "sacred" entities, that it would in fact be a mortal sin for them to fairly criticize them by today's standards. Perhaps there is also the fear of going against the grain of public opinion, being critical of a movie that the masses continue to hold up as "great". In few cases is this more evident than for the movie "A Place in the Sun", which, by the way, charts at #92 on AFI's list of the 100 greatest American movies of all time. I have no problem in honoring movies from the early years of Hollywood for being significant or progressive for their time (like "All Quiet on the Western Front"), anymore than I do in honoring Vivaldi for his work in advancing music prior to Beethoven. But I do believe reviewers would do potential viewers a great service by realistically comparing older movies, particularly dramas, with their modern-day counterparts. That being said, if the movie "A Place in the Sun" was remade using modern day actors and performed in precisely the same manner and style today, do you think anyone would realistically give it the kind of ratings seen on this forum (4 1/2 stars)? I think not. Instead, it would be ridiculed as being predictable, melodramatic, and dreadfully dull, and it would most likely receive a deservedly lower rating (not to mention an overall "thumbs down"). It should be pointed out that the one semi-bright spot in this movie is Elizabeth Taylor's typically radiant performance, but even that effort falls well short of making this a good movie. Montgomery Clift, bless his heart, has to be one of the most uncharismatic and overrated actors ever to come out of that era, and in this movie his character comes across as wholly unlikable and unsympathethic. It reminded me a great deal of his similarily forgettable performance in "From Here to Eternity", and I can only ponder that his relatively good looks got him the parts for these and other movies in which he has appeared. Previous reviewers have stated that this is an epic love story, but can anyone who has truly been in love and knows the kind of buoyant emotions such a wondrous state of being can evoke realistically claim that Clift's character was in love when, in fact, he wanted to DROWN Shelley Winters? This may be an epic "obsession" story, but an epic "love" story it is not. And neither is it a great, nor even a good, movie. Perhaps it was in 1951, but it fails to make the grade in 2003.
Rating: 
Summary: A Place in the Sun
Review: Paramount Studios presents a 1951 version of Theodore Dreiser's novel "An American Tragedy." A Place in the Sun is a six-time Oscar winning movie staring Cliff Montyomery as George Eastman, Elizabeth Taylor as Angela Vickers and Shelley Winter as Alice Tripp.
The poor country boy George Eastman sets out west following promises for a better job working for his rich uncle in LA. He is given a job in one of his uncles factories where 90% of the employees are women with only one rule, 'He is not allowed to date the other employees'. George feels as though he is an out cast, waiting for a shot at some real challenge, and finds it as he falls for a poor girl working at the factory. He falls in love with Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters) their love blossoms as very quickly, and she becomes pregnant and is unmarried. While just as she announced that she is pregnant George is introduced to Angela Vickers, the rich little girl, who is head over heals in love with him. Now George is caught between a rock and a hard place. George is uncertain of what he should do? Return to his pregnant girlfriend Alice Tripp, where he faces losing his job or explore his love for the rich and beautiful Angela Vickers. George is caught in a tragic love triangle without many options. It would be so much simpler with Alice Tripp out of the picture for ever.
Rating:
Summary: A Place in the Sun
Review: The movie "A Place in the Sun" was based on the best selling novel "An American Tragedy" written by Theodore Dreiser. This oscar winning movie had a great cast, Montgomery Cliff-as George Eastman, Elizabeth Taylor-as Angela Vickers, Shelly winters-as Alice Tripp. This film dealt with many contraversal issues that not many people talked about in the 1950's. The first was the crossing of social boundiers from lower to upper class, this was not common during this time period. The second and much more contraversal was scence when George was at Alices home and the implacation of him spending the night. This was done by pointin g the camera out the window into the darkness, then showing the sun coming up and Georges car still sitting on the street in front of Alices house. This was a very effective way of impling that George and alice had sex. The conformation of this came a short while later in the film, as Alice tells George that she is pregnant. Being a unwed mother was unherd of during the 1950's. A woman would have been shamed to the point of needing to move to a new location. Summary: George Eastman a poor man from kansas is promised a job from his rich uncle, all he has to do is move to the city. George is given a entry level job, and is warned that it is against company polices to date the woman who work there. George is also told to remember that he is a "Eastman". George goes to a movie where he sees Alice one of his co-workers. They start a relationship that tunes into a sexual affair. George then gets promoted by his uncle, and is invited to a party at the uncles house. While at the party he meets Angela Vickers a young attractive rich girl. George and Angela both have love at first sight. Angela gets George into the upper class party society. Then George finds out that Alice is pregnant. Alice tells George he must marry her or she well tell the newspapers and his family everything. What is George to do stuck between doing what is right and doing what he wants? You must pick this one up and find out, it is a must see for anyone who likes the classics.
Rating:
Summary: unforgetable
Review: In the 1951 film released by Paramount Studio Director George Stevens lets a story of how a young mans desires ruin him. George Eastman played by Montgomery Clift; his uncle, with really only one rule, gives the poor nephew of a rich business owner a job. You cannot date co-workers. He meets young women named Alice played by Shelly Winters and falls in love. Will a few months later he meets Angela Vicher a rich socialite and they fall in love. He is caught between the two women. And his life and there's never the same again. This movie shows us that we need to be careful for what we wish for, we may actually get it, and it may not be that good. This movie is for those you like to see the underdog lose.
Rating: 
Summary: One Young Man's Tragedy
Review: Coincidentally, I saw this film within a week after I read Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby for the first of several times. Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, I had some so many dreams, fantasies, ambitions, etc. and thus, years later, immediately identified with George Eastman (Montgomery Clift) as well as with Jay Gatsby, so different in many ways but both hungering for acceptance and respectability, thereby to enhance their self-image. George Stevens' brilliant direction was rewarded with an Academy Award. Working with a screenplay based on Theodore Dreiser's bloated novel An American Tragedy, Stevens elicited from both Clift and Elizabeth Taylor (Angela Vickers) perhaps their finest performances on film. Both are ideally cast as star cross'd lovers, so near and yet so far from what both so passionately desire. Members of the supporting cast are outstanding, notably Shelley Winters (Alice Tripp), Anne Revere (Hannah Eastman), Sheppard Strudwick (Anthony Vickers), and Raymond Burr (Frank Marlowe). Young Eastman is torn between accepting essentially a blue-collar life (with some prospect for a white collar eventually) and the world of affluence in which his beloved Angela is so comfortable. All decisions have consequences and some decisions have tragic consequences. George's decision to gratify himself sexually with Alice one rainy evening creates a complication for which he is ill-prepared. Eventually, he is held accountable for her death (even if viewed as an accident) because, at that point, he cannot endure a life with her rather than a life with Angela. George may not deliberately eliminate Alice from his life but he certainly wishes to do so. He is convicted of intent. This film received six Academy Awards: including director Stevens, costume designer Edith Head, and composer Franz Waxman, although An American in Paris was selected as best film in what must have been a close vote. The other nominees were Decision before Dawn, Quo Vadis, and A Streetcar Named Desire. When I recently saw this film again, I was reminded of one of Fitzgerald's short stories, "Winter Dreams," in which a young man very much like George Eastman yearns to improve his station in life. For so many young men and women, the American Dream can become the American Tragedy. For whatever reasons, they are destroyed...or so brutalized that their lives become a nightmare from which they can never awaken.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing Drama - Still
Review: I viewed this movie for the very first time three weeks ago. In watching it with a 03' mentality, I can see why courtroom dramas changed and the defendants whether they are guilty or innocent, 'lie' about the event in which they are being charged. There are so many layers to this film that are still very engrossing, such as Clift's internal struggle between what he can have and what he wants to obtain - reality or dream. With Liz Taylor as the rich and beautiful dream girl who actually falls for him, makes his self inflicted circumstances all the more fateful. The other layer to this film is the outstanding performance of Shelly Winters who makes the audience identify with her throughout the film. Although she is plain and working class, we can see that she is decent and no less a catch in her own right. The DVD transfer is only o.k. The disc is film quality, but the film visibly shakes in a couple of scenes that is distracting. There is however, an enjoyable commentary by Stevens Jr. and Ivan Moffat who complement the technical with inside anecdotes.
Rating:
Summary: "We'll scrimp and save..."
Review: A film based on a story by naturalist Theodore Dreiser, A Place in the Sun does an excellent job of portraying a real dilemma that many young men and women have faced, or will face. Young George Eastman (Montgomery Clift) is the poor nephew of a manufacturing scion. Wealthy Uncle Eastman invites George, who is distantly located with his mother, to come to town-offering to find him a place in the business. George arrives but feels out of place with his high society relatives and their well-to-do friends. There is a clear class distinction in this town. For example, the relatives wonder aloud what to do about him socially. And there's a scene at the worksite where a large sign on a door says something like:
"Factory Employees are Forbidden beyond this Point" George begins working in the factory to learn the business. He is warned by his cousin to stay away from the girls and always be conscious that he's an Eastman. But George becomes attracted to one of his co-workers, Alice (Shelly Winters). George woos her and eventually the relationship becomes intimate. Meanwhile, Uncle gives George encouragement, looking to promote him upstairs. Also, an extremely attractive woman (Elizabeth Taylor) from the upper crust takes note of George at a socialite party. He is totally smitten. George leaves the party finally visiting Alice late in the evening where she's been waiting all alone to celebrate his birthday. She tells him: "Maybe you don't want to see me so much anymore. Maybe you don't want to see me at all." Their lives soon become more complex. Alice tells George she's in trouble. In a memorable scene, Alice visits a doctor while George waits outside. The doctor will only offer advice, not procedure. George sees Liz Taylor again. He's in love with her, and she with him. But Alice, whose options are very limited in 1950's America asserts her rights: "You gotta marry me, family or no family" (meaning: no matter what the Eastman's think). Tragedy is clearly foreshadowed but it is well done as are the events that follow. The film culminates in a great trial scene where Raymond Burr, presaging his Perry Mason role, plays a tough District Attorney. The acting and direction is great all around. Montgomery Clift is a tortured, somewhat insecure young man. Elizabeth Taylor is at the height of her charm and beauty (If you never found her real attractive, see this one). Shelly Winters is sympathetic and real, playing her role to a tee. This one is worthy of a place in any video library.
Rating:
Summary: The Perfecto Stars For A Perfecto Movie!
Review: This Film Has A Perfect Cast List. And This Is The First Film Out Of The Three Films That Liz Was Teamed Up With Monty (Raintree County And Suddenly LAst Summer Followed.)Shelley Winters Is Wonderful As The Girl Whom Monty Kills. Liz Is The Girl Whom Monty Falls For And She Falls Right Back For Him. Anne Revere Is Good As Monty's Mother. All In All This Film Is Perfecto With A Perfecto Cast To Help It!!
Rating:
Summary: "AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY"
Review: This is a must see. "A Place in the Sun" is based on Dreiser's tale "An American Tragedy". Poor George Eastman moves to the city to work for rich relatives. Makes the mistake of getting involved with a poor girl who works beside him in the factory. After getting her pregnant, his eye wanders to the beautiful, and seemingly unattainable rich girl. It seems the only way out of an unescapable future of a loveless marriage is an "accidental" death to the girl he has gotten in trouble. At first, it seems his plan might just work, but of course it all unravels, and so does his bright future with the rich and beautiful people, and all of its trappings. A very powerful movie, with a memorable cast. Shelley Winters, cast against type as the poor frumpy factory girl, Montgomery Clift as the poor relation looking for a way to get his foot in the door, and move up in the world, and of course Elizabeth Taylor as the beautiful young girl of George Eastman's dreams and desires...She was gorgeous...Read the book, and see the movie. I highly recommend both.
Rating:
Summary: Dreams crash down and hard moral choices must be made
Review: I haven't read Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy" on which this 1951 film is based, but I can see how the word "tragedy" is used in its classic sense - that of a character who meets disaster because of a tragic flaw. So even though purists might see "A Place in the Sun" as a romanticized version of Dreiser's tale, I certainly found it serious enough for me. Directed by George Stevens, the film opens with Montgomery Cliff thumbing a ride. He's going to the town where his rich uncle owns a mill. He's awkward among his affluent relatives and happy to get a job, any job. And so even though he has to start at the bottom, packing bathing suits into boxes, he's aware of his future opportunities. Shelly Winters is cast as a factory girl he starts romancing. But then, his fortunes suddenly turn, he's invited to more and more upscale social events, and he falls in love with Elizabeth Taylor. The plot thickens as Shelly Winters announces her pregnancy and Montgomery Cliff finds himself trapped. The consequences are horrific as we watch his dreams all crash down around him. I was captured by the story right from the beginning in a screenplay that kept the tension mounting and never let up. I identified with Montgomery cliff and found myself sympathic to his plight. He plays a complex character and has a lot of moral choices to make. He sweats, he shakes, he cringes, his eyes fill with tears. Certainly, he was one of the finest actors of his time and his performance is magnificent. Elizabeth Taylor was just 17 years old then and sure was a beauty. As she explains in an interview as part of the special features on the DVD, this was her first serious role. "Before that," she says jokingly, "all my leading men were either dogs or horses." She also tells us that Montgomery Cliff, with whom she maintained a long friendship with until his death at the age of 45, was her first movie kiss. "I had only just had my first 'real' off-screen kiss just two weeks before," she says. Shelly Winters talks about her role too. She wanted the role of the factory girl badly. However, at the time, she was typecast as a glamour queen. And so she dressed in an extremely plain way when she went for her screen test. She sat demurely in the office and George Stevens didn't even recognize her. I loved this film. It had everything. Romance. High drama. Great acting. Moral choices. And I also loved the "behind the scenes" special feature that was on the DVD. "A Place in the Sun" might have been made more than 50 years ago, but the theme is universal and as valid today as the day it was written. I therefore give it my highest recommendation. It's simply wonderful.
| 
