Crappy film

Admirable film.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

For starters - I had always thought that actor Montgomery Clift was just another empty-headed, Hollywood "pretty-boy", and, basically, nothing more than that. But his portrayal in A Place In The Sun (APITS, for short) proved to me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was really quite a gifted performer.In my opinion, it was definitely Clift's heartfelt portrayal as the tragic George Eastman character who gave APITS's story of social snobbery and murder its depth and its meaning. I'd say that it was Clift, alone, who carried this film over its many flaws and clichés to its riveting, melodramatic conclusion.Yes. Of course, it certainly did help APITS's overall success that the gorgeous, 19-year-old Elizabeth Taylor was cast as Angela Vickers, the sole focus of George's hopes, his dreams and his burning desire.But once poor George became hopelessly involved with pretty, young Angela, this viewer could easily understand what heady and emotional turmoil drove him at first to contemplate and then commit the ultimate "crime of passion".If you ask me - I think that even today, 66 years later, this depiction of the "American Tragedy" holds up surprisingly well. It's a film that has somehow managed to avoid that inevitable "dated" feeling which seems to plague so many pictures from that particular era.

A Place in the Sun (1951): Dir: George Stevens / Cast: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters, Raymond Burr, Herbert Heyes: Compelling yet depressing classic with a title that symbolizes the need for grace after an attempt to conceal sin. Montgomery Clift plays George Eastman who arrives in town to work for his wealthy uncle. Central plot regards his forbidden relationship with a female working there played by Shelley Winters whom he gets pregnant. Elizabeth Taylor plays Angela Vickers, a society girl who Eastman also gets involved with. When Winters pushes for marriage thus threatening his job he plots her death. This happens by accident but with his path uncovered he is sought after as a murderer. Raymond Burr makes an effective appearance as a prosecutor out to see Eastman go to the electric chair. Herbert Heyes plays the wealthy uncle disturbed at the news, which began when Eastman and Vickers began courting each other. Director George Stevens weaves a fine line between what begins as an innocent romantic flick to becoming a dark conquest full of consequences. The locations are flaring with life as the upper class that Eastman has become accustom to attend dances in mansions and relax at resorts while Winters is positioned outside depressed and trying to figure out how to reel Eastman in. We reap what we sow and Eastman with his place in the sun exposing his sin. Score: 8 / 10

I have seen negative reviews of this film which call its social commentary outdated. I don't agree. This story is an all-too familiar and common one to be outdated, along with its social commentary. The quest for a better life, the quest for acknowledgment and social climbing, establishing yourself from common and modest origins as a social "lion". Those things are never easy and can take a piece of one's soul. And this is in part what this film is about.The hero or protagonist of this film is a young man who was raised in a religious home by his mother, George Eastman, played wonderfully by Montgomery Clift. Clift has always been one of my favorite actors and one of the few who possessed both great talent and great looks, really few. Despite being related to a wealthy family, he is not really treated as one of them, since they don't consider him their equal. He gets away from his mother and his home city Chicago to go to California where his uncle owns a factory. Despite being given a job by him, it's just an entry job and George is forbidden to socialize with any women who work there. He breaks the rules, unfortunately, and starts dating another poor girl, Alice, played by the excellent Shirley Winters. However, he soon finds himself promoted to a higher position in the factory and then meets a beautiful society girl Angela Vickers, played by Elizabeth Taylor at her most appealing. The two click instantly and fall in love and for the first time in his life, George is truly happy. No longer the outsider, he can now enjoy a rich social life with the cream of the crop. However, Alice finds out she is pregnant and threatens to ruin George's newfound idyll with Angela.Lets note that Taylor's character is called Angela. I think she represents a sort of angel of George's, who wants to lead him to a better life. Alice is her exact opposite, a rather shabby and not too good looking poor girl who has nothing to offer George but her love. And he doesn't want it, for she only reminds him of his poor and difficult past. Angela is the bright future, the ray of sunshine he needs. His place in the sun is therefore by her side. Alice is the darkness and gloom, if he goes back to her he will never be happy again. And here we start to question George's character: does he really love Angela for herself only or also because of her wealth and social status? Well, this is indeed meant to be the moral dilemma here and as such it helps to make the film more compelling and powerful.The ultimate tragic ending only makes it a film to be taken seriously as a drama, not just a melodrama. Its dramatic strength and the performances of its three stars is what really holds up A Place in the Sun and makes it a worthwhile experience to watch it. Its theme of quest for a better life, love, unwanted ties and ultimately tragedy is something that we can identify ourselves with even today. The message? The higher you climb, the harder you fall, perhaps. But I also like to look at it as just a tragic story of an unlucky man who tried to get himself a place under the sun and failed. It is also what I really like about it. There are no villains here, only victims.

Outstanding example of Hollywood craftsmanship, attention to detail, and sheer romanticism. The film takes up two key themes in American life--- class and morality, treating each with uncommon care. Consider the opening scene of the indigent George (Clift) standing roadside while cars whiz past, much as life seems to be brushing him aside. Mocking him at the same time is a billboard with a provocative girl advertising the Good Life. No wonder he rushes to his rich uncle Eastman's mansion where he hopes to join the fast cars and the beautiful girl, if he dare to hope so.That scene of his entering the mansion's huge reception room is to me one of the movie's best. In his cheap, wrong color suit, George couldn't be more self-conscious. How will the rich Eastmans' receive him, in their fancy party clothes ready for a night on the town. In fact, they are oh, so, polite, while keeping a social distance. After all, he does come from the poor family branch, his mother giving her life over to religious pursuits instead of money. For his brief visit, at least he gets a job on an Eastman assembly line. The scene itself is beautifully staged and performed, while Clift is simply terrific here as the uncertain, poor relation, all deference and submission.For awhile it looks like the cars will continue to whiz by as he repeats the same deadening moves on the assembly line. But at least he has someone now to share time with. Alice (Winters) is a dowdy working girl across from him. Lonely, they soon get together. But now life gets complicated for George. Suddenly, one day, he's promoted to administration; at the same time, he's invited to a party at the mansion. Eagerly, he attends, this time dressed appropriately and ready to please, but he's still bypassed by other guests. Then, in another memorable scene, lightning again strikes in the form of the beauteous Angela (note the classy name), who suddenly enters his solitary billiards room where he has retreated, friendless. Can it be, as they banter, that she's taking a real fancy to him with all her upper class ways. An unmistakable glow begins to emerge on screen, and it's a tribute to both Taylor and Clift that their chemistry is both vivid and compelling in this key scene that sets the stage for what follows. Now, it seems, a whizzing car has stopped for him and all he has to do is get in. But back at the rooming house waiting for him is Alice. Not just a reminder of the roadside life he'd like to leave, she's pregnant and insisting on marriage. So, on one hand, he's got the frumpy, working class Alice, alone and pregnant, and on the other, a budding romance with the glitzy, upper class Angela, who's opened the door to the billboard life he could only dream of. What's George to do. Then, in a gutsy scene for the repressed 1950's, Alice is sent to a doctor (Wolfe) for what, by inference only, is an abortion. The writers do a clever job getting her purpose across without violating the Production Code's prohibition on such frank talk. Nonetheless, the doctor firmly refuses, leaving both George and Alice in a real pickle.With his religious background, George still has a conscience even if he's deeply in love with Angela and drawn to her materialistic world. Thus, the question is which direction he will go in-- will he do the morally right thing and marry Alice or will he succumb to the pull of a glamorous life with Angela. In short, which is stronger: moral duty or romantic love. In a moment of moral weakness, George plans to relieve his dilemma by drowning Alice in a lake, seemingly the only recourse left open to a life with Angela. But fate (the call of the loon) intervenes and Alice accidentally tips over the small boat they're in. Importantly, the camera withdraws at that point to a distance shot so that we cannot see exactly what happens next. But Alice ends up dead by drowning, just as George had planned when giving false names to the boat rental. However, having escaped, George is now torn by a sense of guilt even as he and Angela plan to marry, the whizzing car door now open wide. But, it's at that fateful point, the cops put various clues together and arrest George for murder. But is he really guilty. We can't be sure since we never saw the exact events. It seems not even George is sure. If nothing else, at this point George is trying to come to grips with what his intention was vs. what actually happened in the water. Could he have saved her as the DA contends at George's trial. She couldn't have been far away, then why didn't he. George seems unclear himself. In a melodramatic moment, the DA (Burr) claims George struck Alice with a paddle, thereby insuring her death. But that is clearly wrong since we know what happened in the boat. But the jury apparently buys it, otherwise how could they sentence him to first-degree murder. Thus, the car door closes on George forever.The question is-what is George really guilty of. Is it just the intention but not the act itself. Or is it the act in some ill-defined sense. The movie settles for being guilty of a wrong thought at a crucial moment. That may be blameworthy in some metaphysical sense, but certainly doesn't justify his execution. As things stand George's sentence stands as a miscarriage of justice. In that sense the movie turns out to be a tragedy, particularly for Alice whose only crime is being poor and frumpy. The moral, I guess, is that what may seem an up- spiral may actually be its ironical opposite.Anyway, it's a brilliantly sensitive, thought provoking movie, deserving of its many awards.