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MOVIES / ON DVD / A PLACE IN THE SUN
A Place in the Sun

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A Place in the Sun (1951)

76%
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82%
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N/A
76 %
Reviews Counted: 21 Fresh: 16  Rotten:5 Average Rating: 6.7/10

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 2 hrs 2 mins

Synopsis: George Stevens' lavish adaptation of this classic casts Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor as the star-crossed lovers. As George Eastman (Clift) hitchhikes into the town where a job awaits him at the factory of his affluent Uncle Charles (Herbert Heyes), the lovely Angela Vickers... George Stevens' lavish adaptation of this classic casts Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor as the star-crossed lovers. As George Eastman (Clift) hitchhikes into the town where a job awaits him at the factory of his affluent Uncle Charles (Herbert Heyes), the lovely Angela Vickers (Taylor) speeds by him. Although the job entails packing bathing suits all day, the young man works hard in his eagerness to get ahead. Driven by loneliness, he becomes involved with coworker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters), a simple woman of limited appeal, in a relationship which defies company policy. After receiving a promotion, he's invited to a party at the home of the wealthy Vickers family, where he meets Angela, and the two quickly fall in love. While he and Angela continue to see each other, he is forced to continue his involvement with Alice, who threatens to get him fired by revealing their relationship. At the end of a whirlwind summer George and Angela receive the approval of her father (Sheppard Strudwick) on their marriage plans. Shortly thereafter, Alice informs George that she's pregnant with his child. Stevens transforms Theodore Dreiser's biting critique of America's caste system into a glossy romantic melodrama. Sumptuously photographed by William Mellor, who frames the almost inhumanly attractive couple in some of the most dizzyingly enraptured close-ups in movie history, the film features excellent performances by Shelley Winters and Clift, whose presence maintains an earnest, haunted passivity. [More]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters, Raymond Burr, Herbert Heyes

Director: George Stevens
Producer: George Stevens
Screenwriter: Michael Wilson, Harry Brown
Story: Theodore Dreiser, Patrick Kearney
Composer: Franz Waxman

DVD Info

Release:

Feb 8, 2002

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Keep Case

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - English
  • Dolby Digital Mono - French

Additional Release Material:

  • Audio Commentary - 1. George Stevens, Jr. - Son of producer/director, Ivan Moffatt- Associate Producer
  • Trailer - 1. Original Theatrical
  • Featurette - 1. GEORGE STEVENS: FILMMAKERS WHO KNEW HIM
  • Interviews - 1. Cast & Crew

Interactive Features:

  • Interactive Menus
  • Scene Selection

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Ratings Image
N/A

Typically slow and stately in the later Stevens manner.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/24/06
Tom Milne
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
5/5

No review available.

comment Comment
03/12/08
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
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B

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 records of erotic imagery at the time.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/03/08
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
Ratings Image
N/A

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 | comment Comment
11/13/07
TV Guide's Movie Guide
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N/A

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 | comment Comment
11/13/07
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
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N/A

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 | comment Comment
11/13/07
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
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3/5

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

comment Comment
04/07/06
Pablo Villaca
Cinema em Cena
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B-

Far less powerful than the novel.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/19/06
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
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4/5

No review available.

comment Comment
07/22/05
Thomas Delapa
Boulder Weekly
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5/5

No review available.

comment Comment
07/07/05
Joe Williams
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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3/5

No review available.

comment Comment
06/15/05
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
Ratings Image
2/5

No review available.

comment Comment
06/23/04
Andy Klein
Los Angeles CityBeat
Ratings Image
84/100

A compelling, troubling film.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/05/03
Brian Webster
Apollo Guide
Ratings Image
4/5

The classic tragedy, in classic form.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/05/03
Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com
Ratings Image
4/5

No review available.

comment Comment
08/22/03
Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Ratings Image
5/5

No review available.

comment Comment
03/13/03
Beth Accomando
KPBS.org
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4/5

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.

comment Comment
12/19/02
Bob Bloom
Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)
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4/5

No review available.

comment Comment
07/30/02
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Ratings Image
3/5

No review available.

comment Comment
07/27/02
Rob Vaux
Flipside Movie Emporium
Ratings Image
N/A

A Place in the Sun (1951), a melodramatic film adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's lengthy, best-selling 1925 novel, An American Tragedy, was also

Full Review | comment Comment
01/01/00
Tim Dirks
Tim Dirks' The Greatest Films
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