A Place in the Sun (1951)

Director:

George Stevens

Writers:

Theodore Dreiser (novel)
Patrick Kearney (play)
(more)

Release Date:

11 October 1951 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Love that paid the severest of all penalties!

Plot:

Young up-and-comer George Eastman is thrust into the blue collar life of a rich uncle's family business...

Plot Keywords:

Marriage | Factory | Love | Assembly Line | Physician

Awards:

Won 6 Oscars. Another 7 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Montgomery Clift	...	George Eastman
Elizabeth Taylor	...	Angela Vickers
Shelley Winters	...	Alice Tripp
Anne Revere	...	Hannah Eastman
Keefe Brasselle	...	Earl Eastman
Fred Clark	...	Bellows, defense attorney
Raymond Burr	...	Dist. Atty. R. Frank Marlowe
Herbert Heyes	...	Charles Eastman
Shepperd Strudwick	...	Anthony 'Tony' Vickers
Frieda Inescort	...	Mrs. Ann Vickers
Kathryn Givney	...	Louise Eastman
Walter Sande	...	Art Jansen, George's Attorney
Ted de Corsia	...	Judge R.S. Oldendorff
John Ridgely	...	Coroner
Lois Chartrand	...	Marsha
Paul Frees	...	Rev. Morrison, priest at prison
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Robert J. Anderson	...	Eagle Scout (uncredited)
Gertrude Astor	...	Bit part (uncredited)
Lulu Mae Bohrman	...	Party guest (uncredited)
Ken Christy	...	Warden (uncredited)
Pat Combs	...	(uncredited)
Charles Dayton	...	Det. Kelly (uncredited)
Marilyn Dialon	...	Frances Brand (uncredited)
Mike Donovan	...	Prisoner (uncredited)
Frances Driver	...	Lulu, Vickers' maid (uncredited)
Ralph Dunn	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Franklyn Farnum	...	Company Executive (uncredited)
Al Ferguson	...	Bailiff (uncredited)
Bess Flowers	...	Courtroom Reporter (uncredited)
Ann Fredericks	...	(uncredited)
Kathleen Freeman	...	Factory worker, prosecution witness (uncredited)
Art Gilmore	...	Radio Broadcaster / Trailer Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Lisa Golm	...	Eastmans' maid (uncredited)
Marion Gray	...	(uncredited)
Dolores Hall	...	(uncredited)
Sam Harris	...	Man (uncredited)
Len Hendry	...	Guard (uncredited)
James Horne Jr.	...	Tom Tipton (uncredited)
Sonny Howe	...	(uncredited)
Frank Hyers	...	Guard (uncredited)
Carmencita Johnson	...	Bit part (uncredited)
Kenner G. Kemp	...	Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)
Mary Kent	...	Mrs. Roberts, landlady (uncredited)
Philip Kieffer	...	Jailer (uncredited)
Louise Lane	...	(uncredited)
Mike Mahoney	...	Motorcycle officer (uncredited)
Robert Malcolm	...	Guard (uncredited)
Hank Mann	...	Courtroom Spectator (uncredited)
Martin Mason	...	Prisoner (uncredited)
Harold McNulty	...	Jury foreman (uncredited)
Harold Miller	...	(uncredited)
Lee Miller	...	Bus driver (uncredited)
Pearl Miller	...	Miss Newton (uncredited)
Frank Mills	...	Courtroom Extra (uncredited)
Hans Moebus	...	William - Butler at Eastman home (uncredited)
Jay Morley	...	Executive (uncredited)
William B. Murphy	...	Mr. Whiting (uncredited)
William H. O'Brien	...	Servant at Eastman's Party (uncredited)
Frank O'Connor	...	Factory floorman (uncredited)
Ed O'Neill	...	Deputy (uncredited)
Ezelle Poule	...	Receptionist (uncredited)
Joe Recht	...	Prisoner (uncredited)
John M. Reed	...	Joe Parker (uncredited)
Kasey Rogers	...	Miss Harper (uncredited)
Wallace Scott	...	Factory guard (uncredited)
Bill Sheehan	...	Court clerk (uncredited)
Douglas Spencer	...	Boatkeeper (uncredited)
Larry Steers	...	Company Executive (uncredited)
Cliff Storey	...	(uncredited)
Arthur Tovey	...	Juror (uncredited)
Josephine Whittell	...	Margaret, Eastman's secretary (uncredited)
Eric Wilton	...	Vickers' butler (uncredited)
Ian Wolfe	...	Dr. Wyeland (uncredited)
Frank Yaconelli	...	Truck driver (uncredited)

Directed by
George Stevens

Writing credits
Theodore Dreiser		(novel "An American Tragedy")
Patrick Kearney		(play "An American Tragedy")
Michael Wilson		(screenplay) and
Harry Brown		(screenplay)

Produced by
Ivan Moffat	....	associate producer
George Stevens	....	producer

Original Music by
Franz Waxman

Cinematography by
William C. Mellor

Film Editing by
William Hornbeck

Art Direction by
Hans Dreier
Walter H. Tyler		(as Walter Tyler)

Set Decoration by
Emile Kuri

Costume Design by
Edith Head

Makeup Department
Wally Westmore	....	makeup supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Charles C. Coleman	....	assistant director (as C.C. Coleman Jr.)

Sound Department
Gene Garvin	....	sound recordist
Gene Merritt	....	sound recordist

Visual Effects by
Farciot Edouart	....	process photography
Loyal Griggs	....	process photography
Gordon Jennings	....	special photographic effects

Music Department
Gerard Carbonara	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Robert Emmett Dolan	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
John C. Hammell	....	music editor (uncredited)
Rudolph G. Kopp	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Roy Webb	....	music adaptor (uncredited)

Other crew
Fred Guiol	....	associate director
Howie Horwitz	....	assistant to producer

Production Companies

• Paramount Pictures

Distributors

• Paramount Pictures (1951) (USA) (theatrical)
• Paramount Pictures (1959) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1966) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Paramount Home Video (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Paramount Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Paramount (1952) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Argentina Video Home (????) (Argentina) (VHS)
• CIC Vídeo (????) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Emerald (2008) (Argentina) (DVD)

Also Known As:

An American Tragedy (USA) (working title)
The Lovers (USA) (working title)
The Prize (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

122 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Finland:K-11 (re-rating) (1986) | West Germany:12 (f) | Argentina:13 (DVD rating) | Australia:G (original DVD rating) | Australia:PG (DVD re-rating) | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #14461)

Filming Locations:

Cascade Lake, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

In the telephone scene between George and Angela on the back wall we see the painting "Ophelia" by John Everett Millais. This may be intended as a hint to Alice's death by drowning later in the film.

Goofs:

Continuity: During a one-on-one conversation between George and Mr. Vickers, George explains his family background and why he wishes to take care of Angela. He is clearly seated to the left of Mr. Vickers. Several close-up reactions reveal Mr. Vickers speaking towards his right side.

Quotes:

Angela: [George kisses Angela] Angela: Every time you leave me for a minute, it's like goodbye. I like to believe it means you can't live without me.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Film Geek (2005)

Soundtrack:

Mona Lisa

In the eddies and wakes of a boat on Big Moose Lake

In 1906 there resided in upstate New York a young man named Chester Gillette. Mr. Gillette was good looking and ambitious, and hoped to better his social and financial situation by family connections and a socially advantageous marriage to a wealthy young woman. But Gillette had been dating Grace Brown, a farmer's daughter, and Brown found out she was pregnant. She insisted that Gillette marry her, or she would reveal what he did to her. Gillette arranged for her to meet him at a resort at Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks, but they were to go there separately, and he made sure they were not seen together too much. Actually they were seen many times together - like many schemers Gillette thought he had accomplished his intentions but actually had failed to do so.

He took Grace out on a boat, supposedly to enjoy the quiet pleasures of the lake. Something occurred in that boat - we will never know for certain. The majority of us feel certain that Chester hit Grace with either an oar or a tennis racket, knocking her unconscious into the water, so that she drowned. However, he always maintained she hit her head after upsetting the boat, on the overturned boat. We just don't know. Chester's behavior after the accident was that of a skulking coward, not revealing himself to the authorities or seeking assistance, but trying to get back to his room at a local hotel to get his luggage. He was arrested within a few days, and a trial took place that became nationally prominent. At the end of the trial, Chester Gillette was convicted of first degree murder. After an appeal failed, Chester was electrocuted in 1908.

Roughly seventeen years later, Theodore Dreiser was considering his next literary project. Dreiser's social views were left of center, and he wanted to write a novel that tore open the materialist center of American social values. It was to be based on a famous homicide case that was based on misguided attempts at social advancement. Dreiser looked at several cases (another one was a notorious 1911 case, the murder of Avis Linnell in Massachusetts, by Reverend Charles Richeson - the Reverend poisoned Miss Linnell who stood in his way to an advantageous marriage). Dreiser decided the story of Chester Gillette fit the bill. It was to tell (in fictional form, of course) the background of the case, the social pressures that lead to the main event, and the trial of the hero as well as his condemnation and execution. Changing the name of the hero to Clyde Griffiths (note the same initials as Chester's), published the novel as an attack on the misguided social clawing and status seeking in our capitalist society. As such it was entitled "An American Tragedy".

The novel was a success (perhaps Dreiser's masterpiece). He helped dramatize it in the late 1920s, and in 1931 it was filmed for the first time as by Joseph Von Sternberg. But much was cut out of that version, and Dreiser was so upset he sued Paramount and Von Sternberg (and lost the case). That film version, with Phillips Holmes as Clyde, and Sylvia Sidney as the doomed girl, was actually quite good on its own merits.

In 1947 Dreiser died. In 1951 George Stevens assembled the production staff and cast, including Monty Cliff, Shelley Winters, Elizabeth Taylor, Raymond Burr, Fred Clark, and Keefe Brazzell. It is a wonderfully rich and good film, showing the shocking underside of the American dream (just as Dreiser would have hoped). The central figure is no longer Clyde Griffiths but George Eastman, but Monty Cliff shows how a basically hard working young man is destroyed pursuing his dream of success. And again, the film properly leaves the central issue - did Chester/Clyde/George kill his girlfriend, and try to make it look like an accident, or did he change his mind, but there was an accident, or did he panic when in the water, and fail to save her. Was it a moral crime rather than a factual one?

Raymond Burr's performance, in the part of the local district attorney, is one of the two movie roles (the other is Lars Thorwald in REAR WINDOW) that people recall if not thinking of his great television career. As the District Attorney, Burr (usually typecast as villains) actually is a heavy, but one with a moral mission. He is certain that this was murder, pure and simple, and he is going to avenge poor Shelley Winters. His performance when cross examining Cliff is a marvel, particularly the moment he bares down on the spot Winters was sitting at with an oar and smashes it. It has been called over the top, but it is deservedly over the top. And I suspect it was also important for Burr's future career as well. It was a great way for him to demonstrate his strength appearing as a courtroom gladiator. I am certain that when casting for the Perry Mason series occurred a few years later, the producers recalled what a splendid job Burr did here when considering hiring him. The rest was television history.