A Place In The Sun

A Place In The Sun was one of the 50's most intriguing films. The release date was October 11, 1951. I celebrated my third birthday party on that exact date, but it wasn't until years later that I actually saw that film. As I was growing older, I developed a big crush, like most of my friends, on Elizabeth Taylor.

The movie depicts an up and coming George Eastman [played by Montgomery Cliff] being thrust into the blue collar life of a rich uncle's family business, and falling in love with another women, despite the fact that his own [secret] girlfriend was now pregnant.

Directed by George Stevens, who did a brilliant job,despite the constraints that were imposed on him by Paramount. This film classic was actually a remake of a film that was made 20 years earlier that was a total bomb. The studio had lost a huge amount of money on the earlier version, so the monetary restraints were put in place before they even started shooting.

A very young Elizabeth Taylor, who plays Angela Vickers,is paired with Montgomery Cliff in this classic story of doomed love.It was Miss Taylor's best work to date and her first dramatic role. Her raw natural beauty lights up the screen.Shelly Winters [who plays Alice Tripp] gives a convincingperformance of the poor homely girl who happens to fall in love with George Eastman.Upon learning that she is pregnant, she fanatasies about the life that she and George will share together but after finding out about George's real love interest, she threatens him with exposure, unless he agrees to marry her.

His mind is full of crazy thoughts about what he should do. He leaves a dinner party to meet Alice and ends up in a boat on moon lake with her. As she starts to describe the dreary, uninteresting life that both of them will live, George's mind is filled only with thoughts of the beautiful Taylor. He changes his mind about his plans of droning Alice and starts back to shore. But in one ironic twist of fate,Alice moves to be closer to George and causes the boat to capsize, falls into the lake and drowns anyway.

He is captured and prosecuted by an ambitious district attorney [played by Raymond Burr].

This is definitely one of the best classic movies that ever came out of Hollywood.It won 6 Oscars, another 7 wins and 8 nominations. This is a classic example of tragic romanticism.