A Place in the Sun poster & wallpaper
Get movie widget Recommend it Add to Favorites

Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters, Keefe Brasselle, Anne Revere ... see more see more... , Fred Clark , Raymond Burr , Herbert Heyes , Shepperd Strudwick , Frieda Inescort , Kathryn Givney , Walter Sande , Ted de Corsia , John Ridgely , Lois Chartand , William Murphy , Douglas Spencer , Charles Dayton , Paul H. Frees , Gertrude Astor , Ken Christy , Mike Pat Donovan , Ralph Dunn , Laura Elliot , Al Ferguson , Kathleen Freeman , Lisa Golm , Sam Harris , Len Hendry , Frank Hyers , Carmencita Johnson , Louis Lane , Mike Mahoney , Robert Malcolm Young , Martin Mason , Lee Miller , Jay Morley , Scott Wallace , Billy Sheehan , Josephine Whittell , Eric Wilton , Ian Wolfe , Frank Yaconelli , Hans Moebus , Ezelle Poule , Joe Recht , Lulu Mae Bohrman , Pat Combs , Frances Driver , Ann Frederick , Marion Gray , Dolores Hall , Mary Kent , Philip Kieffer , Ed O'Neill , James Horne Jr. , Robert Anderson , Jim Horne

Previously filmed in 1931 under its original title, Theodore Dreiser's bulky but brilliant novel An American Tragedy was remade in 1951 by George Stevens as A Place in the Sun. Montgomery Clift stars ... read more read more...as George Eastman, a handsome and charming but basically aimless young man who goes to work in a factory run by a distant, wealthy relative. Feeling lonely one evening, he has a brief rendezvous with assembly-line worker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters), but he forgets all about her when he falls for dazzling socialite Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor). Alice can't forget about him, though: she is pregnant with his child. Just when George's personal and professional futures seem assured, Alice demands that he marry her or she'll expose him to his society friends. This predicament sets in motion a chain of events that will ultimately include George's arrest and numerous other tragedies, including a vicious cross-examination by a D.A. played by future Perry Mason Raymond Burr. A huge improvement over the 1931 An American Tragedy, directed by Josef von Sternberg, A Place in the Sun softens some of the rough edges of Dreiser's naturalism, most notably in the passages pertaining to George's and Angela's romance. Even those 1951 bobbysoxers who wouldn't have been caught dead poring through the Dreiser original were mesmerized by the loving, near-erotic full facial closeups of Clift and Taylor as they pledge eternal devotion. A Place in the Sun won six Oscars, including Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Cinematography, although it lost Best Picture to An American in Paris. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Flixster Users

85% liked it

7,937 ratings

Critics

75% liked it

20 critics

Unrated, 2 hr.

Directed by: George Stevens

Release Date: January 1, 1951

Invite friends to see

DVD Release Date: August 21, 2001

Get It:

Stats: 480 reviews

report incorrect info

Photos

Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift Liz Taylor Montgomery Clift and Liz Taylor Monty Clift Shelley Winters and Montgomery Clift Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift Montgomery Clift and Liz Taylor Shelley Winters and Montgomery Clift Shelley Winters in A Place in the Sun A Place in the Sun Montgomery Clift in A Place in the Sun Shelley Winters in A Place in the Sun Montgomery Clift & Shelley Winters in A Place in the Sun A Place in the Sun A Place in the Sun Shelley Winters in A Place in the Sun
Upload a Photo | View All A Place in the Sun Photos

Your Rating


clear rating

Flixster Reviews (480)

  • gokhale1
    October 25, 2011
    gokhale1
    Oscar winning director George Stevens produced and directed one of the most popular films of our time, "A Place in the Sun" starring Montgomery Clift, Liz Taylor and Shelley Winters.

    Based on the novel "An American Tragedy" by Theodore Dreiser, the screenplay written by Michae... read morel Wilson and Harry Brown tells the tragic story centering around a young, ambitious yet financially poor man named George Eastman (Montgomery Clift) who leaves behind the religious missionary work his parents were a part of and moves out with the hopes of seeking some decent employment with his business tycoon distant uncle Charles Eastman (Herbert Heyes). Initially perceived as socially "misfit" amongst the Eastmans, George is given a menial packaging task on the Factory floor. Early on, George seems to have developed the hots for a beautiful socialite and wealthy family friend of the Eastmans, Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor). But she hardly even notices him in the beginning, and believing her to be way out of his reach owing to his social status, George probably decides to leave it aside.

    [img]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-BgvnA5bC3s0/Tnd5DyvJ8BI/AAAAAAAACBA/TMqSIHSo3Cc/vlcsnap-2011-09-19-22h45m50s178.jpg[/img]

    Meanwhile, breaking one essential rule of not mixing with the female co-workers, George gets romantically involved with one Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters). Their romance heats up quickly enough and George also finds himself steadily climbing the ladder in the Eastman industry, thanks to his hard work and last name Eastman! Soon enough he finds himself shoulder to shoulder with some of the who's who in an Eastman party and Angela Vickers finally notices him and predictably enough, falls for his boyish charms! George seizes the opportunity and gets involved in a passionate affair with Angela. Things however take a turn for the worse when Alice declares she is pregnant with George's child.......

    "A Place in the Sun" is one of those rare motion pictures which unfold in a predictable fashion, yet manage to hold our attention, thanks to the riveting performances and the superbly written scenes full of exciting drama. So we all know how it's all gonna turn out...at least initially! The romantic relationships build up most predictably and you know very early in the film how the love triangle will eventually take its shape. We all know then that there is bound to be some turbulence when Alice gets pregnant. Now it is post this point that the protagonist starts to take drastic decisions and we immediately begin to sense the outcome for his every action!

    [img]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-iYB1I9rv2lY/Tnd5DcZfoSI/AAAAAAAACA4/8YrxuJP8iCY/vlcsnap-2011-09-19-22h19m29s252.jpg[/img]

    Yet George Stevens manages to give us a highly watchable film. A film that starts with sugar-candy-floss romance, soon turns into a bleak noir-like drama! The quality of the film is only enhanced by William C. Mellor's Oscar winning cinematography and William Hornbeck's crisp editing. Stevens takes the helm of this project and ably delivers a solid drama. Only one wishes the romance wasn't as cheesily portrayed and the dialogs weren't as excessively sappy! I mean how many times have we heard "I've loved you since the first moment I saw you"!! And this is said by the protagonist to Angela not long after he has confessed his "everlasting love" to Alice! It is only human to behave like that...succumb to ravishing beauty (especially when you have the likes of Liz Taylor eating out of your hand), but Clift's portrayal of his character looks calm and gentle with a discreet charm, a far cry from being a suave, yet sly womanizer who would two-time two beautiful ladies.

    Clift was nominated for an Academy award for his portrayal, yet I felt something was certainly lacking, especially in later scenes where he is required to emote, more so for a person or character who finds himself in the sticky situation he is in! He has done a far better job in some of his other films.

    Taylor looks ravishing enough as a high society girl, whose every move makes headlines in the local papers. So even if she goes on a boating trip somewhere, she is captured by the paparazzi and it appears in the morning papers! For a girl spoilt by the media like that, it is quite surprising that she turns out to be such a fool for love, falling for a man whom she hardly knows about and even being ready to marry him! One would think such a girl would have a jolly time with several young men dying to woo her and get close to her!

    The only character that is the most realistically portrayed, then, is Shelley Winters' Alice Tripp. It is a spectacular performance that deserved the Academy award nomination. Winters clearly understands her character, that of a poor girl working in a factory; one who's afraid to bring boys to her humble rented apartment, for fear that she would be in trouble if her landlady found out. One who gives her everything to the man she loves; one whose angst is visible when she begins to sense betrayal, just as her lover gets a taste of the rich and famous (read Angela Vickers!). It is a solid performance that deserves most accolades.

    Of the supporting cast, it is Raymond Burr's portrayal of the limping District Attorney R. Frank Marlowe, that holds our attention, although he has but a few scenes to his credit.

    "A Place in the Sun" is definitely worth checking out. The sappy romance and some unconvincing character traits notwithstanding, it is one of the most accomplished works in American cinema.

    Score: 8/10
  • Saxia
    October 23, 2011
    Saxia
    MWEEEH not what I hoped or expected. Taylor's character was boring and bland, I know that she can do a lot better. Clift annoyed the crap out of me, in his attempt to play the sexy mysterious psychopath (if he really is one).
    The so called love interest was just not believable a... read morend lacked chemistry, I really didn't get why Angela falls in love with this George. He's probably different from all the other guys she usually meets, but he misses character and depth.
  • rubystevens
    March 26, 2011
    rubystevens
    rip liz :'( the film is a showcase for ms taylor at the height of her beauty, along with her male counterpart, montgomery clift. i don't believe there ever was a more breathtaking couple. good suspense tho things get slow when the action moves into the courtroom. shelley wint... read moreers is great but she can't evade her fate....
  • ajv2688
    November 1, 2010
    ajv2688
    Sometimes this movie was very good, romantic, dramatic, and brilliant, but at other times I was bored, and it was too melodramatic. Overall a pretty good movie, but it could have been better.
  • bottcorecords1
    April 23, 2010
    bottcorecords1
    Maybe it was the Hays code or maybe it's just the 1950s sense of morality, but when a man knocked up a girl back then, it was his duty to marry her, whether he loved her or not. Woe to the man who fell in love with another after impregnating his previous girlfriend, for love has... read more no place in marriage when honor is at stake. Barbaric times like these could drive a man over the edge, perhaps to murder. And that's just the thing: is desiring to kill someone just as bad as actually killing someone? Montgomery Clift stars as George Eastman, the nephew of a wealthy business tycoon who wants to escape his impoverished factory life and get in good with the wealthy side of the family. Charles Eastman (Herbert Heyes) is all too happy to have his nephew come and work for the family and starts him off in packing, to learn the business. It's there he meets a sweet girl by the name of Alice (Shelley Winters). The two begin a flirtation which leads to dating and then you-know-what. Meanwhile, George has also become acquainted with Angela, a glamourous and wealthy socialite (Elizabeth Taylor) and they also begin dating. George plans to break it off with Alice until she drops the bombshell on him: she's pregnant. He knows he must marry her, even though it will ruin his career and social standing. He tries to put it off, to continue living the good life, but Alice tracks him down and threatens to tell everyone the truth (she also threatens to kill herself) unless he marries her that day. Trapped in a corner, George let's himself be taken over by dark fantasies. A Place in the Sun is a fascinating morality play, and while it's not always riveting, the overall effect of the film is successful. Elizabeth Taylor is probably as beautiful as she would ever be, and Shelley Winters delivers a multi-layered performance. Two people paid dearly for wanting something which they couldn't have, but was so tantalizingly within their reach. The film, based on the novel "An American Tragedy" by Theodore Dreiser, lives up to it's original name.
  • hobster1
    August 12, 2009
    hobster1
    Unforgettable drama concerns young George Eastman, a destitute, though charming, blue collar worker who becomes romantically entangled with two women, one who works in his wealthy uncle's factory and the other a beautiful socialite. Rarely has a romantic tragedy been so emotiona... read morelly graphic in exposing the true yearning of people in love. Profound drama cuts through the depths of human behavior in a way that will make you uncomfortable. There is real heartbreak here, but also real desire. The full facial close-ups of Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor enrapt in passion are nothing less than spellbinding. Taylor, in fact, is breathtakingly gorgeous and Clift is fascinating as the morally troubled young man. Shelley Winters, who also stars, is a standout as the woman who will not be ignored. And this film is not to be missed.
  • jennifxu
    April 5, 2009
    jennifxu
    This is basically a showcase for two exceptionally beautiful people, a proverbial f*ck-you to those who complain of overbloated big budget projects celebrities simply use to exploit their public images with no artistic merit at all. Judging by how egocentric such a project can be... read more, it's not all-in-all such a bad movie.
  • groaningbitch
    January 22, 2008
    groaningbitch
    "a place in the sun" is the milestone for the careers of montgomery clift and elizabeth taylor, adapted from theodore dreiser's another classic called "an american tragedy"...inevitably the movie is somehow embellished with the dreaminess of first love, how could audience resist ... read moresuch a divine bond of clift and taylor who could two of the most fair-looking people on earth?

    it's a sad tale about a poor young lad named george who intends to evolve himself by purchuing a work position in his uncle's enterprise. then to cope with loneliness and his raging libido, he dives into a frivolous relationship with his female co-worker(winters)...but trouble occurs as he encounters his goddess heaven above, angela, the symbol of everything he craves for: wealth, fame, status, of course she's also so damned beautiful that he's immediately capitivated as the prisoner of his love for her. amazingly angela also falls head over heels in love with timid but gorgeous george. meanwhile his transient girlfriend happens to be conceived of his child... now george has to confront a moral issue, how should he get rid of this nuisance who will hinder his life ambition, his career and his mostly intense passion? then he schemes to drown her in some lake as some unknown victim...could george be able to pull this task off???

    as usual, the production romanticizes the story by savoring taylor's role as a debutante socialitte who is an indifferent snob in the original, and the script beautifies her as a prime gently innocent woman firstly in love with a poor lad. when it comes to the part of monty clift, this movie does do justice to the inward conflicts of the protagonist who is ashamed of his prole background and tangled with mental chaos of "to be or not to be"....at the scene he's on the boat with shirley winters in the lake, his pupils are foggily dazed with various complexity, you could sense hatred, animosity shimmered upon his transparent pupils, but a sudden ease of mercy strikes, the gaze of his eyes get softened right away. thru various scenes, the audience feels the empathy of diverse emotions thru monty's effectively expressive eyes relentlessly, then you shall witness the essence of good actings.

    despite the romanticism of taylor and clift, this flick still vents the core of the protagonist's disorientated thoughts thanks to monty's performance, such as his aspiration to climb toward the top by staring into the company advertisement and the expensive convertible of taylor's. basically the original novel attempts to render a sort of existentialistic bewilderment when the protagonist approaches the death sentence still without a sense of salved comprehesion toward his god nor a bit mercy granted by the rich girl whom he thught he loved, at last he suffers from the angst of estray life right toward his demise. but in the flick, everything's relieved due to the baptism of love and his finally enlightened atonement: the last image flashes to monty's mind is taylor's contour as she kisses him while he's looming toward the gas chamber.

    but this flick is still worthy of acclaim for its daring attitude to tackle the taboo of pre-marital pregancy and possibly concocted abortion at moralistic 50s with maccthyism. but what intruded the censor to forbid this flick and require some edited revison for release? the long ignited kiss of taylor and clift. ha.
  • tsigur
    November 28, 2007
    tsigur
    That rich poon gets you every time. Clift is genius.
  • binky013
    April 21, 2007
    binky013
    Poor Shelley Winters. What a way to go. Clift is excellent, and Taylor lights up the screen. It really is the intention. The chair is inevitable.

View All A Place in the Sun Reviews

Critic Reviews

Dave Kehr
November 13, 2007
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

A good example of the kind of soporific nonsense that won rave reviews and armloads of Academy Awards back in the 50s, while the finest work of Ford, Hawks, and Hitchcock was being ignored. Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum
November 13, 2007
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

Hopelessly inadequate as a reading of Dreiser's great novel, and as usual Stevens seems too preoccupied with the story's monumentality to have much curiosity about its characters. Full Review

Emanuel Levy
March 3, 2008
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

Though not as powerful as Von Sternberg's first version, it still merits attention for the strong perfromances of Clift, Taylor, and Shelley Winters--and that mega clos-up of a kiss, which broke recor... Full Review

November 13, 2007
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Dreiser's story was first filmed in 1931 by Josef von Sternberg in a much starker, more realistic manner. This version is almost cartoony by comparison. Full Review

Tom Milne
June 24, 2006
Tom Milne, Time Out

Typically slow and stately in the later Stevens manner. Full Review

Pablo Villaca
April 7, 2006
Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena

Um melodrama moralista que só sobrevive graças ao desempenho torturado de Clift, à obsessão pateticamente comovente de Winters e à beleza de Taylor.

Dennis Schwartz
February 19, 2006
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Far less powerful than the novel. Full Review

Brian Webster
November 5, 2003
Brian Webster, Apollo Guide

A compelling, troubling film. Full Review

Christopher Null
November 5, 2003
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com

The classic tragedy, in classic form. Full Review

Bob Bloom
December 19, 2002
Bob Bloom, Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)

A timesless treasure. Taylor is at her most beautiful, Clift is at the top of his form and Shelley Winters is great in one of her earliest big parts.

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Cast

More Like This

Click a thumb to vote on that suggestion, or add your own suggestions.

  • Match Point
    Match Point (46%)
  • Suddenly, Last Summer
    Suddenly, Last Summer (100%)
  • The Postman Always Rings Twice
    The Postman Always Rings Twice (25%)
  • Alice Adams
    Alice Adams (100%)

More Movies like A Place in the Sun

Facts

Submit a Fact | View All
    • George Eastman: I love you. I've loved you since the first moment I saw you. I guess maybe I've even loved you before I saw you.
Submit a Fact | View All

A Place in the Su... : Watch Free on TV

A Place in the Sun Trivia

  • Who was Elizabeth Taylor's leading man in the 50s drama "A Place in the Sun"?  Answer »
  • Who was Elizabeth Taylor's leading man in the 50s drama "A Place in the Sun"?  Answer »
  • In which movie does Montgomery Clift's character get a girl pregnant, plot her murder, doesn't follow through with it, but is convicted of murder for her accidental drowning anyway?  Answer »
  • Which of the following movies did Marlon Brando NOT appear in?  Answer »
More A Place in the Sun Trivia

Movie Quizzes

No quizzes for A Place in the Sun. Want to create one?

Video Clips

Upload a Video |

All A Place in the Sun Videos

Meet Other Fans

Add A Place in the Sun to favorites

Recent News

No recent headlines. Got one?

Recent Lists

Make a List |

View All Lists

Most Popular Skin

No skins yet. Interested in creating one?