This movie is credited as coming from a novel by Theodore Dreiser, but the story in so many critical ways is the same as THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME. But, fortunately, both are also exceptional films and have very different endings. In general, this movie is a little more polished, while THEY WON'T BELIEVE ME is a little wilder and more entertaining--especially the ending. It turns out A PLACE IN THE SUN is the older of the two stories, having been filmed in 1931 as AN American TRAGEDY.

Montgomery Clift, Shelly Winters and Liz Taylor all star in this long and very satisfying film. Supposedly nice-guy Clift is a poor fella who goes across country to work for his uncle's company. He is started at the very bottom and strikes up a romance with Winters--who eventually becomes pregnant! A bit later, he is moved up the company ladder and begins to socialize with his uncle's country club friends--where he gets to know Liz. He and Liz fall for each other. Marriage to her would mean the sweet life, but honoring his obligation to Winters would destroy all his plans for success. So, he considers killing Winters. What happens next is pretty unexpected (provided you didn't see the other film first) and the story has a lot of amazing twists and turns that make it a must-see film. The acting, writing, direction and nice location scenery really all come together nicely in this suspense film.

The amount of talent involved promised a great deal and A Place in the Sun lived up to it and more. The production values have such a sumptuous and haunting quality that perfectly match the romantic, tragic and darker tones A Place in the Sun has. Every frame is beautifully composed and every transition is as smooth as silk. George Stevens does a remarkable job directing, and very like with Giant he was wholly deserving of his Best Director Oscar, especially good is the very telling scene when George and Angela meet for the first time. Franz Waxman's score is lush and hauntingly beautiful in a way that is undoubtedly Waxman's style as soon as you hear it. A Place in the Sun is intelligently written with parts that are suspenseful and emotionally gut-wrenching. Equally so is the story, which personally didn't come across as dated, it is a dark and quite complex story powerfully told and quite ahead of its time too, the romantic parts are classily done and the tragedy is depicted movingly as well. The characters are compellingly real, not easy to sympathise for(apart from Alice) but that wasn't intended I don't think. The cast was a great one on paper and even greater on film, Montgomery Clift has rarely been more tortured and he does so in an enigmatic and affecting way, Elizabeth Taylor is at her most luminous(even outdoing Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Last Time I Saw You in Paris and Giant on that front) and gives one of her best performances and Shelley Winters is every bit as brilliant. A Place in the Sun may not be as solidly paced in the second half and Raymond Burr badly overdoes it as the attorney especially in the cross-examination with the breaking of the oar, but even they aren't quite enough to ruin a powerful and brilliantly made and played film that is among the best of the 50s. 9.5/10 Bethany Cox

A Place In The Sun provided one of those rare occasions when a remake not only betters the original, but proves to become a classic. If you will an essential that Alec Baldwin and Robert Osborne can present on TCM. Only the third and last remake of The Maltese Falcon comes immediately to mind in that category.

This film had been done by Paramount under its original title, An American Tragedy. Based on the Theodore Dreiser novel that film starred Phillips Holmes, Sylvia Sydney and Frances Dee back in 1931. It gained great critical reviews, but didn't do so well at the box office. I've never seen the film, but I understand it was filled with a lot of working class polemics which weren't presented in an entertaining way.

But as was argued in Sullivan's Travels you've got to present these kinds of films with a little sex. So when George Stevens did this version he laid the sex on aplenty.

The story concerns Montgomery Clift who drifts into town as the poor relation of the town's biggest employer, a factory owner. He shows no favoritism to his relation and Clift gets a low paying job at the factory. While there he drifts also into an affair with another of the employees Shelley Winters.

But then Clift meets the girl of his dreams in Elizabeth Taylor. This is where the sex comes in. It's all in the name Elizabeth Taylor. But not only is she gorgeous beyond belief, but dad's wealthy enough for a dozen.

The problem is Shelley and a little something Clift left behind. Shelley's not going away and not considering abortion of which references had to be tiptoed around as per the ruling Code. It all comes to a head in a lake where Winters and Clift go on a rowboat ride and Winters doesn't come back.

This version of An American Tragedy was better received. Not only to rave critical reviews, but glorious box office receipts and several Academy Awards, chiefly Best Director for George Stevens. This was a breakthrough performance for both Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters. Taylor had always been a pretty ingénue over at MGM, but this was where she first showed some acting chops. Sad to say she went right back to pretty heroines in films of varying quality until Giant in 1956 which was another loan out.

As for Winters she had been playing brassy dames also in some films of varying quality until she got this part. The little mousy factory worker was so different than anything she ever did before, people also stood up and took notice of her. Winters and Clift were nominated as Best Actress and Actor for 1951, but lost to Vivien Leigh in A Streetcar Named Desire and Humphrey Bogart for The African Queen respectively. A Place In The Sun also lost for Best Picture to A Streetcar Named Desire.

Other than that A Place In The Sun cleaned up at the Oscar ceremonies. It got awards for Best Screenplay, Best Music Score, Best Black and White Cinematography, Best Black and White Costume Design and Best Film Editing. It was and is a screen classic, a romantic one to be sure if not a polemical one.

I can't leave without mentioning Montgomery Clift who was a person of incredible talent and one who chose meticulously for the most part the films he was involved in. He did a couple of average ones, but in a career of decidedly limited output for the approximately 20 years he was a star, Clift was involved in a great number of classic films. Monty was coming off the rather ordinary The Big Lift, but before that he had starred in The Search, Red River, and The Heiress. And all of those parts and The Big Lift and A Place In The Sun show an astounding range of characters.

A Place In The Sun is a must see film on so many levels, for fans of the stars, for a great story brilliantly executed and directed by George Stevens and his great cast.