Rent A Place in the Sun (1951)
3.8 of 5 from 121 ratings
1h 57min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Clift stars as George Eastman, a poor young man determined to win a place in respectable society and the heart of a beautiful socialite (Elizabeth Taylor). Shelley Winters plays the factory girl whose dark secret threatens Eastman's professional and romantic prospects; consumed with fear and desire, Eastman is ultimately driven to a desperate act of passion that unravels his world forever...
- Actors:
- Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters, Anne Revere, Keefe Brasselle, Fred Clark, Raymond Burr, Herbert Heyes, Shepperd Strudwick, Frieda Inescort, Kathryn Givney, Walter Sande, Ted de Corsia, John Ridgely, Lois Chartrand, Paul Frees, Robert J. Anderson, Gertrude Astor, Lulu Mae Bohrman, John Breen
- Directors:
- George Stevens
- Narrated By:
- Art Gilmore
- Writers:
- Theodore Dreiser, Patrick Kearney
- Others:
- Michael Wilson, Harry Brown, Edith Head, William C. Mellor, Franz Waxman, William Hornbeck
- Studio:
- Paramount
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama
- Collections:
- Award Winners, Holidays Film Collection, Oscar's Two-Time Club, Oscars: Winners & Losers, The Instant Expert's Guide, The Instant Expert's Guide to Todd Haynes, Top 10 Best Picture Follow-Ups, Top 10 Screen Kisses (1896-1979), Top 100 AFI Passions, Top Films
- Awards:
1952 Oscar Best Cinematography Black and White
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Reviews (1) of A Place in the Sun
Starry Melodrama. - A Place in the Sun review by Steve
This was Elizabeth Taylor's first dramatic role as a grown-up actor. She was 17 and while she doesn't have the gravity to match Montgomery Clift, their star power is a big part of the film's legend. Partly because they look so magnificent. Taylor's pristine beauty made her perfect casting as the rich dreamgirl that Monty's penniless outsider aspires to marry.
Clift is a poor relation who gets a job on the shop floor of his wealthy uncle's factory. The money that he aspires to is beyond his reach, so he dates a girl from the production line (Shelley Winters) and gets her pregnant... just as it appears a rich bombshell (Taylor) is in love with him. So, he can stand by his rainy day girl...
...Or he could get rid of her in a boating accident and marry the wealthy, lovely debutante... There's a lot of film noir in the story, but George Stevens' film seems to consciously steer away from the laws of noir. This is a prestigious studio production with A list stars and is framed as straight drama. Unfortunately this approach is sometimes ponderous.
It was made at an unfortunate time: censorship prohibited much of the impiety in Theodore Dreiser's great American novel, and McCarthyism kicked its critique of capitalism into touch. It won six Oscars, but no longer feels like a landmark. What remains is a signature performance from Clift and a star making role for Taylor, and they do make screen magic together.
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