A Place in the Sun Overview:

A Place in the Sun (1951) was a Drama - Romance Film directed by George Stevens and produced by George Stevens and Ivan Moffat.

The film was based on the novel An American Tragedy written by Theodore Dreiser published in 1925.

SYNOPSIS

A landmark, blockbuster melodrama about class striving and the loss of a man's moral bearings. This remake of the 1930 von Sternberg film based on the Dreiser novel An American Tragedy updates the setting to a '50s resort town in upstate New York. A beautiful, rich girl (Taylor) gives a handsome young laborer (Clift) entree to her world of privilege through a powerful, overwhelming passion. Just as he sees himself leaving behind a lifetime of wage slavery, his plain, needy former girlfriend (Winters) reveals that she's pregnant. Wracked with guilt and longing, he takes her for a last ride on the lake. When she accidentally drowns, he is tried for murder. A national sensation, with performances that etched Taylor and Clift, who began a lifelong friendship, in the public mind; even the party dress Taylor wears became a best-seller.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

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A Place in the Sun was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1991.

Academy Awards 1960 --- Ceremony Number 33 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best ActorMontgomery CliftNominated
Best ActressShelley WintersNominated
Best CinematographyWilliam C. MellorWon
Best Costume DesignEdith HeadWon
Best DirectorGeorge StevensWon
Best Film EditingWilliam HornbeckWon
Best Music - ScoringFranz WaxmanWon
Best PictureGeorge Stevens, ProducerNominated
Best WritingMichael Wilson, Harry BrownWon
Best Animated Short FilmFrantisek Vystrecil, ProducerNominated
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BlogHub Articles:

Review: A Place in the Sun (1951)

By 4 Star Film Fan on May 31, 2018 From 4 Star Films

George Stevens is only one among a plethora of filmmakers who came back from WWII changed. He had seen a great deal of the world’s ugliness — Dachau Concentration Camp for instance — and as a result, the films he made thereafter were more mature ruminations on humanity at large. Ad... Read full article


A Place in the Sun (1951)

By Beatrice on Jul 25, 2015 From Flickers in Time

A Place in the Sun Directed by George Stevens Written by Harry Brown and Michael Wilson from a play by Patrick Kearney and the novel An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser 1951/USA Paramount Pictures Repeat viewing/Netflix rental #249 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die George Eastman: I ... Read full article


A Place in the Sun (1951)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Mar 10, 2014 From 4 Star Films

In this film starring Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Shelley Winters, with George Stevens directing, a young man (Clift) tries to rise up in his uncle’s company. He is poorly-educated yet ambitious and he slowly moves up in the Eastman?business. While he works George begins to fall fo... Read full article


A Place in the Sun (1951)

By 4 Star Film Fan on Mar 10, 2014 From 4 Star Films

In this film starring Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Shelley Winters, with George Stevens directing, a young man (Clift) tries to rise up in his uncle’s company. He is poorly-educated yet ambitious and he slowly moves up in the Eastman?business. While he works George begins to fall fo... Read full article


A Place in the Sun (1951)

By Aurora on Mar 2, 2014 From Once Upon a Screen

The nominees for Best Motion Picture in 1952 for film achievements in 1951?were Vincente Minnelli’s An American in Paris, Anatole Litvak’s Decision Before Dawn, George Stevens’ A Place in the Sun, Mervyn LeRoy’s Quo Vadis, and Elia Kazan’s A Streetcar Named Desire. ?It ... Read full article


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Quotes from

Angela: Tell mama... tell mama all.


Charles Eastman: If he's innocent, I'll get the best defence I can get for him. If he *is* guilty, I won't spend a single cent to save him from the electric chair!


George Eastman: I love you. I've loved you since the first moment I saw you. I guess maybe I've even loved you before I saw you.


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Facts about

Elizabeth Taylor's and Montgomery Clift's beach idyll was actually filmed in October at Lake Tahoe, California. Crew members had hosed snow off the ground prior to filming.
In the Italian post-synchronized version, the actors are dubbed by: Giulio Panicali (Montgomery Clift); Germana Calderini (Elizabeth Taylor); Lidia Simoneschi (Shelley Winters); Giovanna Scotto (Anne Revere); Pino Locchi (Keefe Brasselle); Giorgio Capecchi (Fred Clark); Mario Besesti (Raymond Burr); Gaetano Verna (Herbert Heyes); Emilio Cigoli (Shepperd Strudwick), Bruno Persa (John Ridgely), Cesare Polacco (Douglas Spencer) and
Anne Revere, who played Montgomery Clift's mother, was a descendant of American Revolution hero Paul Revere, but she became another victim of the McCarthy-era "Red Scare" blacklisting because of her supposed "liberal" politics. After this film she did not appear in another movie until 1970.
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Best Director Oscar 1951






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National Film Registry

A Place in the Sun

Released 1951
Inducted 1991
(Sound)




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