A Place in the Sun (1951)
Directed by George Stevens

Film Review

Regarded by some as George Stevens' finest film, A Place in the Sun remains one of the all-time classics of Hollywood and an inspired piece of filmmaking.  The dream pairing of Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor, the two most photogenic actors of the period, contributed to the film's enormous commercial and critical success, and helped to establish Stevens as one of the foremost filmmakers of his generation.  Poignant, lyrical and masterfully composed, this is a film which explores complex social and moral themes within the framework of a compelling love story that can leave no audience unmoved.

Stevens initially had a hard job persuading Paramount to make this film, an adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's 1925 novel An American Tragedy.  The studio had already adapted the novel in 1931 (under the same title as the novel), with direction by Josef von Sternberg, but this had not been a great success.  Dreiser's novel was itself based on an infamous cause célèbre, the 1906 murder of 20-year-old Grace Brown by Chester Gillette, a poor relation of a wealthy industrialist.  Although sceptical that the story would appeal to a contemporary audience, Paramount finally agreed to allow  Stevens to make the film, providing he did not use the title of Dreiser's novel.  The poetic alternative A Place in the Sun was suggested by associate producer Ivan Moffat, having been inspired by Hitler's assertion that it was Germany's turn to have its place in the sun.

The casting of Montgomery Clift as the male lead was considered a safe bet.  A promising young method actor, he had distinguished himself in a handful of films, including the Howard Hawks western Red River (1948) and William Wyler's The Heiress (1949).  More controversial was Stevens' decision to offer the two principal female roles to Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters.  At the time, Taylor was a mere 17 years old and was only just beginning to move away from the child roles, in films such as Lassie Come Home (1943) and National Velvet (1944), that had brought her fame at an early age.  A Place in the Sun was a career-defining film for Taylor, allowing her to make the transition to serious adult roles with consummate ease.

Shelley Winters was by no means the obvious choice for the part of Alice Tripp.  Prior to this film, she had fashioned for herself a reputation as a blonde sex symbol, but she was determined to play the part of the dowdy Alice in Stevens' film and went to great lengths to persuade the director that she was right for the part.  Even whilst making the film, Stevens had to fight against Winters' natural inclination to play the glamour puss and would often mislead her to get the performance he wanted.  Just as Liz Taylor's image was radically altered by this film, so was Shelley Winters', although the change was perhaps less flattering than the latter actress may have wished.   It is worth noting that Raymond Burr appears in this film as a tenacious attorney, almost a dry run for his best-known role as Perry Mason in the popular TV series which would begin airing on American television in 1957.

At the 1952 Academy Awards ceremony, A Place in the Sun was nominated for nine Oscars and took six awards, in the categories of Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Music, Best Editing, Best B&W Cinematography and Best Editing.  Both Montgomery Clift and Shelley Winters were nominated for Oscars, but did not win the award. 1951 was an exceptional year for American cinema and Stevens' film was up against strong competition, from such films as An American in Paris (which took the Best Picture award), The African Queen (which won Humphrey Bogart the Best Actor award) and A Streetcar Named Desire (for which Vivien Leigh won the Best Actress award).

A Place in the Sun is not just a powerfully moving melodrama offering a wry comment on the hollowness of the American dream.  It is also a superbly crafted piece of cinema, mesmerising with its very distinctive visual style.  George Stevens began his career as a cinematographer (famously working on many of Laurel and Hardy's films before the war), so that when he became a director he had acquired a keenly developed visual sense, which he used to bring texture and depth to his films.  Note this film's innovative use of long overlapping dissolves, which takes us seemlessly between the two world that are inhabited by the central protagonist (played by Montgomery Clift) - the depressingly drab milieu represented by one of his two lovers and the glamorous alternative that the other offers.  Stevens' approach has an almost Brechtian simplicity.  He uses the camera objectively, as a passive observer, leaving it to the spectator to draw his own conclusions rather than have his mind made up by the filmmaker.  Could this be why the film is so engrossing and stands up so well to multiple viewings?

In stark contrast to the harshly realistic interpretation that Von Sternberg brought to his adaptation of Dreiser's novel, A Place in the Sun has a haunting romanticist feel to it.  As in a Greek tragedy or a classical romantic novel, the fate of the characters in this film appears to be pre-ordained and there is nothing they can do to alter their destiny.  The choices that George Eastman appears to have are mere illusion.  In reality, his trajectory is pre-determined, perhaps by some divine influence, perhaps by his own psychological flaws.  There can be no deviation from the path he must tread.  The final sequence involving Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor has a particular resonance, a particular poignancy.  The actors were very much in love but they would themselves be parted by tragic circumstances.   Such is life.

Film Synopsis

George Eastman, the son of poor missionary workers, is surprised when his uncle, the successful businessman Charles Eastman, offers him a job at one of his factories.  George is happy to start as a production line worker believing that this will lead to better things, although he is not yet aware of the enormous social gulf that separates him from the wealthy Eastmans.  Loneliness and boredom compel George to begin a relationship with a fellow worker, Alice Tripp, even though this is against his employer's rules.  On the very evening he had planned to have a birthday supper with Alice, George is invited to a soirée hosted by the Eastmans.  It is here that George meets the beautiful young socialite Angela Vickers.  It is love at first sight for both of them, and a whirlwind romance quickly ensues.  Just as George seems to have gained a foothold on the life he aspires to, Alice drops her bombshell.  She is pregnant with his child.  Unable to get an abortion, Alice is insistent that George will marry her.  But George isn't yet ready to give up his dreams and so his thoughts turn to murder...