A Place in the Sun (1951)

Written by Michael Wilson & Harry Brown

Directed by George Stevens

1998 List Ranking: 92

2007 List Ranking: NA - Removed

Across these various lists, there are sometimes films that I have never heard of, even distantly. Sometimes those films just need a descriptor, like “it’s a Marx Brothers” film for me to instantly get what it is. And then there’s films like this one, A Place in the Sun, that I went into with no context for what I was about to see, except for its three leading actors. At first glance, I found this movie to be really interesting and pretty ahead of its time, but as I think back on it, I find more and more issues. Perhaps that’s why the film was excluded from AFI’s updated Top 100 list in 2007: It’s good until you stop to really think about it.

(There’s a lot of spoilers in the next paragraph, so…you know what to do)

Clift and Taylor finally speak to one another

A Place in the Sun depicts a young man, played by Montgomery Clift, who is somewhat outcast from his wealthy extended family, and who falls in love at first sight with two different women, one of whom he gets pregnant. The other is Elizabeth Taylor, so…we know how that choice is going to go. Torn between Taylor and a now-pregnant Shelley Winters, Clift decides to murder Winters (and his own unborn child) and does so; he is then arrested and convicted and sent to the electric chair. The whole film is…a lot.

Clift and Winters

This film is the third that I’ve seen starring Clift, and I have to say I’m not a fan. He enjoys his dark, brooding faces; I think he smiles in the film…twice? Maybe? Even his happy expressions are tinged with something dramatic. He just becomes boring to watch. This is the first film that I believe I’ve seen with Elizabeth Taylor (not counting that “White Diamonds” commercial in the early ’90’s), and she doesn’t really have a lot to do here. She just is…there, sometimes showing an emotion, but the pace of the film (which I’ll talk about momentarily) doesn’t do her any favors. Finally, I loved Shelley Winters in The Poseidon Adventure, so seeing her in this film made me happy (there is, however, a strange irony that in the two roles I’ve seen her in, both involve swimming with varying degrees of success).

(Oh, apparently I’ve seen Elizabeth Taylor in 1994’s The Flintstones, but I think it’s best if we collectively just try to forget that that film exists)

This is not going to end well

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the movie is its discussion of pregnancy and abortion. I’m obviously not going to get into my views of that topic here, but the way it’s handled in the film was really surprising, particularly that it was handled at all. The word “abortion” isn’t used once, and indeed the whole idea is discussed in very roundabout ways (it’s 1951, after all), but the fact that it’s even a topic is pretty shocking, considering that at the time Lucy and Ricky are still shown as having separate beds on TV! Now, almost 70 years later, the idea of abortion is not that shocking (well, yes, I guess it still kind of is), but for the time, I was surprised they made as much attention about it as they did. It was a strange choice in the scene in which Winters tells Clift that she’s pregnant to not show their faces; perhaps it’s more mysterious, but that was such a pivotal moment that at least ONE of their faces should have been on camera. Instead we just see their backs in yet another darkened room.

(Also the big abortion discussion scene ultimately boils down to a man telling her to go home and that she’ll feel better once she has the baby. Ugh.)

Shelley Winters REALLY needs to get better at staying off of boats that tip over

The biggest issue in this film is its pace. The film hurtles through its various plot points at breakneck speed, allowing no time for the characters to live and breathe. Clift’s George arrives in town and falls in love at first sight with Taylor’s Angela. Then, the next day, he gets a job and falls in love at first sight with Winters’ Alice. They begin dating and pretty quickly sleep with each other (hilariously depicted as a dark room with some low “Oh George”’s thrown out there). Suddenly Alice is pregnant, Angela falls for George pretty much the moment she pays attention to him, and then George is all set on murdering Alice. He does so, and then he is promptly caught because the cops know instantly that it was a murder and who did it. It’s just so PLOT-PLOT-PLOT-PLOT that the characters never get to seem like real people.

I will say that the sound design of the film was very nice, with police sirens becoming a near-constant background noise effect; it’s a nice subliminal effect as George feels guilt over the murder. There was also a great use of score during the short sequence in which George tries to escape through a forest to evade the police (until he runs right into an officer who is just…chilling?). So…there’s some positives in the film?

Obviously, on reflection, this film really isn’t all that great. It takes a ton of great plot points and then screams MAKE THEM FIT at its two-hour runtime. Split the plot in half (by literally getting rid of either Winters or, even better, Taylor) and the film might have been pretty good. Instead, it’s a jack of all trades, master of none.

FINAL GRADE: C-