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.
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.