DVD : A Place in the Sun

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- A bizarre little love triangle.
A Place in the Sun starring Montogmery Cliff, Elizabeth Taylor, and Shelly Winters is a moody, rich, and very melodramatic movie of its time. This film probably wouldn't work in today's standards of movie cinema, it's long and shallow but the acting is superb and the story of a man in love with two very different women is a timeless storyline. Montogmery Cliff was a gorgeous and striking young man, he grabs your attention in the very first scene. Taylor and Winters shine in their roles, Taylor has never looked more beautiful and Winters is understated and completely flawless as a dramatic actress. This film is worth a viewing and by the way it's driected by George Stevens so you can't go wrong with that. A Place in the Sun is a movie you'll want to visit every now and then.

Rating:

- Not The Best But Hardly The Worst Little Film!

The quality of the DVD is first rate. The sound is good the picture quality is really pretty good with no distracting cuts tears lines or streaks. I too saw this picture initially on TCM and it was good. I do not fault how halting timid and one dimensional the character execution and plot development is in A Place in the Sun too much. I am old enough to remember how strict censorship was in back when this picture was produced. Oh yeah by todays standards "A Place In The Sun is a movie whose content is positively tepid. Compared to todays sexpot movies where if audiences are not treated to at least one bare no holds barred naked sex scene in a flick they feel profoundly ill used indeed.

An old movie has to be evaluated for its daring in the context of the time in which it was made. For its time A Place in the Sun explored subject matter of class in our so called classless american society, young mom's having babies out of wedlock and tangentally touching on abortion. In early 1950's "perfect america each of these subjects were potential third rails not only hollywood but state and local censors could use to deny or restrict a films screen time or availability. Could the story have been told better, yes. Could the staff and actors taken a few more risks or wrote the picture to bring the issues and passions into more clear believable focus again yes indeedy.

The writing if nothing else could have been written tighter to suggest things censors would have cut for sure if shown. Other well made pictures have used writing to convey indirectly subjects censors of the day would never allowed direct explorartion of. All that said Looked at with an eye to when it was made A Place in The Sun while not perfect picture is for its time a gutsy attempt to show a slice of American life that seldom got explored with the depth and sensitivity you experience in its viewing.

I will take one star off for A Place In The Sun writers who in my humble opinion did not go far enough to develop tightly defined characters using indirect methods that would have conveyed greater depth of personality and passion than could be shown directly in a 1950's era film. I give A Place in the Sun an A- for an awesome effort. I think A Place In The Sun deserves a place in any collection of great old movies because, while not perfect its acting is powerful and its writing explores taboo subjects with a degree of sensitivity that make it worth watching.

Rating:

- A legendary film classic by a master filmmaker

I watched producer-director George Stevens' production of A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951, Paramount) on DVD for the first time ever last night. Winner of six Oscars, including Stevens' sensitive direction and the adapted screenplay, it packs an emotional wallop and is a true film classic. Theodore Dreiser's novel, AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY, has been updated by writers Michael Wilson and Harry Brown to post-World War Two Nevada. Montgomery Clift is ideally cast as millionaire mill owner's son George Eastman, who befriends a homely, but sweet and likeable factory worker named Alice Tripp (a never-better Shelley Winters). George gets promotions through hard work and falls in love with Alice, eventually getting her pregnant. But he won't marry her because he also is smitten by glamorous rich girl Ann Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor in her first truly adult role).

So we have a love triangle with a factory worker in love with a rich woman and a poor woman. George wants to basically dump Alice so he can be with and maybe marry Ann. The wealthy Eastman family is all for the marriage and does not know about Alice at all. George wants Alice to get an abortion and stay out of his life, but she demands that he marry her or she will tell everything to the Eastman family. Only Ann knows about Alice, and she sticks by George; the two share one of cinema history's greatest kisses during a party. And you thought YOU had problems. George has to find a way to get rid (i.e., murder) Alice and marry Ann. Ah yes, convenient Lake Tahoe, a rental rowboat under an alias, and poor Alice cannot swim. Hmm. We are at the 75 minute mark of a 122 minute movie that is gripping and enormously engrossing.

A PLACE IN THE SUN has been painstakingly made by one of Hollywood's greatest producer-directors--and a former cameraman for Laurel and Hardy back in the late 1920s. William Mellor's exquisite B&W photography is velvety rich, setting up visual contrasts between the worlds of Ann and Alice, along with elegant slow dissolves to also set up social contrasts; Franz Waxman's score is beautiful and sad. Both gentlemen won Oscars here in a year that included A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and AN AMERICAN IN PARIS. I was born in a great movie year.

The climax and ending to A PLACE IN THE SUN are sad and easy to guess. Anne Revere is superb in a small role as George's poverty level missionary mother. The finale packs a real punch in a movie with three truly immortal performances. This may be one of the great movie dramas of all time. Rent it, or watch for it monthly on Turner Classic Movies cable. It is on again in April.

Rating:

- Stevens took a sensitivity that hadn't been used since "Jane Eyre."
No one who had seen "Little Women" or "A Date with Judy" or, for that matter, "National Velvet" or "Courage of Lassie," could possibly insist that Stevens' movie contained Liz first "acting" performance...

Reversing Victorian stereo-type, Liz plays the good dark heroine to Shelley Winters' bad blonde heroine; she's the spirit of beauty and romance to Winter's oppressed and nagging working girl... In her finest moment, she describes, in a hushed, breathy voice, the beauty of the lake and the surrounding countryside as they appear in the early morning mist; Stevens took a sensitivity that hadn't been used since "Jane Eyre," and in this scene Taylor's beauty comes from within...

The movie adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's heavyweight An American Tragedy is, of course, a reduction of the book: consider the change in title... The movie softens the sharp social indictment of the original; as the film presents them, the events of George Eastman's history could never support Dreiser's grandiose title... This is a movie about a decent man locked in the ancient conflict between love and honor... Drawn to the world of the very rich, which come arousing expectations, he is held back, repressed, by the claims of poverty... His story, as told here, is more a romantic triangle than an American Tragedy...

In fact, "A Place in the Sun" is one of the best of the Taylor triangle movies... Montgomery Clift, the man in the middle, is dazzled by Liz and pursued by Shelley Winters... Winters had the showier role, but Taylor was surprisingly effective as what she was supposed to be, the girl of every man's dreams...

Winters was extraordinary as the distressed Alice Tripp... She made the colorless factory hand an understandable reaction to human dimensions... As she sits in the rowboat, unconsciously torturing Clift with her thoughts of their future together, Winters is both pathetic and a self-made victim, a particular candidate for elimination...

"A Place in the Sun" was nominated for nine Academy Awards, and won six...The impact of the film relies on a moral climate that has now less impact on our society... Pre-marital sex is no longer frowned upon and abortions are easier to obtain... But the film's power resided in its exceptionally convincing depiction of the issues created by these situations...

Rating:

- It's all Liz's fault!
This is not the type of movie I generally watch. Two stars for the film, but 5 stars for sweet Liz

I caught it late night on TCM, and while not totally blown away by the very film itself, blown away by the young Elizabeth Taylor. What a gorgeous woman, most people today have no idea how compelling she once was, this inspires me to find more of her films.

That said, the film itself was a mixed bag in my opinion. On the good side, I think there was some good character acting. Liz was great with what she was given, Shelley Winters was absolutely perfect in her frumpy and annoying (i wanted to toss her outta the boat!), and Raymond Burr kicked some [...]

On the bad side, I think that Liz's character falling absolutely head-over-heels for Mongomery Clifton's char was a bit ridiculous. I do understand the "high society girl drawn to the kid from the wrong side of the tracks" thing, but they just simply didnt have enough time together doing anything substantive to foment this type of "eternal love" that she supposedly feels, to the point of even pledging her undying love after he's been convicted of murdering his pregnant fiance. Granted, it was over her that he killed Alice, but come on. Almost everytime they are together, he's withdrawn, sullen, distant, acts like he's holding things back from her. I just dont see her character's motivations as realistic, that's all, and I dont think he had the chops for this role. Better left to a James Dean or someone with some freakin charisma.

But oh that Liz, I tell ya, if there ever was a classic beauty that I had no idea of then it's her..... I dont blame him, really, I dont..

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