#672) A Place in the Sun (1951)

The Plot: George Eastman (Montgomery Clift) hitchhikes from Chicago to upstate New York to work for his wealthy uncle Charles (Herbert Heyes) at his factory. Lonely and isolated from the high society of his family, George begins a romantic relationship with his homely but loving co-worker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters). When George is finally invited to an Eastman social event, he immediately falls for glamorous socialite Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor). The two begin their own affair as George tries to call things off with Alice, only to learn that Alice is pregnant. With Alice threatening to expose his affair to the Eastmans, George does the honorable thing and…plots to murder Alice by drowning her in the middle of a lake? Well this certainly took a turn.

Why It Matters: This is definitely one of the NFR’s weirder write-ups. There’s the usual plot recap and production rundown, but then it goes on a tangent about how modern audiences find the film “slow-paced and lacking in depth or social relevance.” I’ll never understand when the NFR doesn’t support its own choices.

But Does It Really?: “A Place in the Sun” is one of those movies where I get why it’s on the list, but I also get why it’s not as revered as it once was. Every individual element of the film works; the direction, the cinematography, the performances, but overall it just didn’t make a collective whole for me. What was praised as a quality drama in 1951 comes across as a muddled melodrama in 2023. “A Place in the Sun” is on the list as an Important Movie of its day and its NFR standing is warranted, but over the decades it continues to lose its “classic movie” luster. Its “place in the sun”, if you will. You won’t? Okay, I’m sorry.

Title Track: Paramount did not like the idea of another remake of “An American Tragedy”, seeing as their 1931 film version was such a bomb that even Theodore Dreiser disowned it. Part of Paramount’s compromise with George Stevens was that his version couldn’t be titled “An American Tragedy”, and Stevens’ associate producer Ivan Moffat successfully pitched the title “A Place in the Sun”.

Seriously, Oscars?: “A Place in the Sun” received nine Oscar nominations, second only to “A Streetcar Named Desire” in total nomination tally. “Place” tied eventual Best Picture winner “An American in Paris” for most wins with six, including Best Director, Screenplay, and Edith Head’s fourth (of an eventual eight) win for Costume Design. Clift lost Best Actor to Humphrey Bogart in “The African Queen” and in a definite no-contest competition, Shelley Winters lost Best Actress to Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois.

• Shoutout to Anne Revere in the brief but pivotal role of George’s religious mother Hannah. A proud member of the Communist party and equally proud critic of the House Un-American Activities Committee, Revere was blacklisted in 1950 (“Place” was filmed in 1949) and wouldn’t appear in another movie until 1970’s “Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon”.
• The scene of George and Angela professing their love for each other feels like the quintessential Classic Hollywood love scene: big close-ups of the stars (with Liz being filmed with the softest lens) as Franz Waxman’s score swells in the background. It’s a stirring cinematic moment; now if I only gave a damn about any of these characters.

• The stigma of illegitimacy brushes up against the Production Code in the scene where Alice visits her doctor and the two imply a conversation about abortion without ever directly saying the word. The Code’s one mandate about the scene was changing Alice’s line “Doctor, you’ve got to help me” to “Somebody’s got to help me.” The whole scene is so subtle and oblique that I had to double-check that they were in fact talking about abortion.
• My favorite unintentionally funny moment in the movie is the dramatic music cue when George and Alice see that the courthouse they want to get married in is closed for Labor Day. Speaking of, does this scene make “A Place in the Sun” the quintessential Labor Day movie? I can’t think of any other movie in which a major plot point happens during/because of Labor Day.
• [Spoilers] Alice’s drowning in the lake is a suspenseful moment, though maybe not as impactful as it should be. I feel like George has given her enough red flags that she should know getting on a boat with him is a terrible idea, no matter how much she still loves him. Also I’m confused: I thought Shelley Winters was an excellent swimmer.

• Oh right, Raymond Burr is in this. It’s no wonder that Burr’s dramatic turn here as a rather theatrical District Attorney would one day win him the plum role of Perry Mason.
• Burr’s opening statement in the court claims that George committed an act that has “broken every commandment”. Every commandment? I counted three, maybe four if you consider George’s love for Angela a form of coveting.
• The movie and novel are both based on a real-life murder in 1906 which, like this movie, ended with the boyfriend being convicted and sentenced to the electric chair. And this is in 1908; the electric chair hadn’t been around that long. Hell, electricity hadn’t been around that long! Anyway, my point being that if you know anything about the source material you know that this will not end well for George. The one upside to this ending is that the Reverend who visits George in his cell is a rare substantial on-camera role for veteran voice actor Paul Frees! You expect the Reverend to start talking about “Moose and Squirrel” or “999 happy haunts” at any moment.