This was one of many Movie Place favorites. It has everything we love in a movie. Besides great performances, it had the suggestions of tawdriness, noir – ness. It is a picture that is not one thing, not fitting in to one category. It is a picture that makes us have conflicted feelings about characters and their actions on a deep level. In other words, it’s great.
Right from the opening shot of Montgomery Clift, as George Eastman, trying to hitch a ride by the side of the road we have a sense of a very lonely man. A man that has had a great deal of difficulty finding his place in the world, but the sense of loneliness that follows George through out the picture is profound. George is traveling to see his uncle Charles Eastman, owner of large department store and clothing factory. George’s father forsook the family business and went into another line of work: religious work. George was the child of missionaries who worked the streets of Chicago. Having no skills but a quiet ambition George is placed in the lowest job in the factory, in the packing room where he is the only male worker on the assembly line. Although he is told not to fraternize with the female employees, the lonely George begins a relationship with Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters) a simple, trusting girl on the assembly line.
Time passes and George has become quite proficient at his job. He has come up with ideas how to make things more efficient. Eventually his ideas gain notice and on his birthday he is invited to a big party at his uncle’s estate (the party has nothing to do with George). After a few failed attempts to fit in with the high society types at this affair George is about to give up. He finds the billiards room empty. Obviously having spent time in a poolroom (a great touch because it shows that George would have been at odds with his religious parents over such an activity) George very much impresses the beautiful and wealthy Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor). A flirtation leads to conversation which then leads to the dance floor for the rest of the night. And the rest is, shall we say, passionate. The trouble is Alice who cannot fade away as George would hope. There’s the conflict.
What happens to Alice and what happens to George are tragic. We do find ourselves with the conflicting feeling of sympathy and aversion towards George. I am not going to give anything away but we root for him to get away with Angela even though he might not deserve too. We also have conflicting feelings about Alice, we feel sorry for her but she is a pest and stands in the way of a true love. Then we feel guilty for feeling that way. It’s like a roller coaster of emotions.
Based on Ansonia resident Theodore Dreiser’s novel An American Tragedy which in turn was based on a real incident, the story was filmed once before, in 1931. It was a failure so a new title was sought when the idea came up to do a remake. The book takes place in the 20’s but A Place In The Sun is set in the late 40’s. The picture was shot in 1949 but not released until 1951 as Paramount did not want 2 big pictures competing for Oscars as they could conceivably cancel each other out. Sunset Boulevard was released in 1950 and the studio held back A Place In The Sun. Smart move as the picture was Oscar nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Actress (Shelley Winters) and a bunch of others. George Stevens won Best Director. See why.
Turner Classic Movies, Tuesday November 27th at 8:00 PM
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