I loved this film. I might be a bit biased, seeing as though it is based on one of my favorite novels and I came into it with the preexisting knowledge of the character's backstory, much of which could not be included in the film. With that being said, I thought the film was beautifully executed with some excellent suspense and great moments of tension. The acting was strong and it is a compelling story with interesting themes. I enjoyed it very much.

In many ways the movie is typical melodrama of its era, however George Stevens' direction and the editing are anything but. Also, there's no real moral center of the story which only enhances the tension.

I didn't see this movie till about 10 yrs ago... I cant begin to say how this movie grabbed me.. No idea what it was about, could predict anything I loved the not knowing... Had to stay with it.... What is so amazing, is without all the blood and violence of Today....it was that fear, the suspense that pulled you in... You where there with them on that beach... If you have never been surrounded by a mob, and fear to were you Can't breath....even today, this got me. Elizabeth Taylor....the name alone Says everything....never again such a presence on screen. This film stayed with me for months....MONTGOMERY CLIFT TRULY A GREAT ACTOR.IF HE NEVER SPOKE A WORD, HIS FACE TELLS YOU ALL. IT LEAVES YOU IN A ODD MOOD, BUT I LIKED THAT.

Tragic soap opera, stunningly photographed, and well acted by Elizabeth Taylor, and Montgomery Clift. in probably his best performance. Taylor has never looked more beautiful onscreen. Movie's plot fuel are Clift's angst ridden life choices about faithfulness, versus the pursuit of happiness.

In 1950, George Eastman (Montgomery Clift), the poor nephew of rich industrialist Charles Eastman, arrives in town following a chance encounter with his uncle while working as a bellhop in Chicago. Although George is regarded as an outsider by the Eastmans, Charles offers George an entry-level job at his factory. George starts dating fellow factory worker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters) in defiance of the workplace rules. Alice is a poor and inexperienced girl who is dazzled by George and slow to believe that his Eastman name brings him no advantages. Over time, George begins a slow move up the corporate ladder and is invited by Charles to a social event, where George meets and falls for socialite Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor), who is also attracted to him. They fall in love. Just as George enters the intoxicating and care-free lifestyle his new life with Angela brings, Alice announces she is pregnant and, unable to procure an abortion, expects George to marry her. George puts Alice off and continues spending more time with Angela without Alice's knowledge. George is invited to Angela's family lake house over Labor Day and tells Alice the visit will advance his career. Alice discovers George's lie after seeing a newspaper photograph of George and Angela boating with friends. Alice calls George at the Vickers home and threatens to come there and reveal herself unless he leaves and returns to her. Shaken, George tells his hosts his mother is sick and he must leave. The next morning, George and Alice drive to City Hall to get married but it is closed for Labor Day. George is relieved and, remembering Alice cannot swim, begins forming a plan to drown her in the lake by feigning an accident... The film earned an estimated $3.5 million at the U.S. and Canadian box office, and earned critical acclaim in 1951. Upon seeing the film, Charlie Chaplin called it "the greatest movie ever made about America". One impact of the film was from the Edith Head white party dress with its bust covered with flower blossoms worn by Taylor; it was the most popular prom dress style in the U.S. in 1951 and influenced prom and wedding dress design for the rest of the decade. The film's acclaim has not completely held up over time. Reappraisals of the film find that much of what was exciting about the film in 1951 is not as potent in the 21st century. Critics cite the soporific pace, the exaggerated melodrama, and the outdated social commentary as qualities present in A Place in the Sun that are not present in the great films of the era, such as those by Alfred Hitchcock and Elia Kazan, although the performances by Clift, Taylor, and Winters continue to receive praise. (via Wikipedia) "A Place In The Sun" is based on the 1925 novel An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser and the 1926 play, also titled An American Tragedy. It was inspired by the real-life murder of Grace Brown by Chester Gillette in 1906, which resulted in Gillette's conviction and execution by electric chair in 1908. The film was a critical and commercial success, winning six Academy Awards and the first-ever Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama. In 1991, A Place in the Sun was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". This is a wonderful 1951 drama about the great American tragedy with an excellent Montgomery Clift in the lead, a just stunning Elizabeth Taylor and a great Shelley Winters in the other leading roles. This film together with "From here to eternity" shows Montgomery Clift´s magnificent method acting were just his presence says soo much about his character´s emotions. It´s just great to see him own this part as George Eastman. Yes, some things in the film might not feel so potent today as it did back then as mentioned, but that´s not changing the greatness of this film.

Brilliant casting, Able direction, and stellar performances by the leads make this tale of haves and have nots a compelling viewing. While I think Monty Cliff gives a bravado performance I can see Brando as the George character. The only drawback to this classic is that most of the scenes were shot on Hollywood movie sets and not on location. But then it was 1951.

What were those ****ers thinking?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My favorite Monty Clift movie. He oozes sexuality here and is about as beautiful a man that has ever appeared on screen. I still find Liz Taylor's legendary beauty a bit baffling - to me she is not remotely in the league of someone like Rita Hayworth or Ava Gardner. But here, I kind of get it. She looks stunning. Their chemistry is superb and you can see why Monty was ready to kill to have her.

Interesting again, but yes this old way of filmmaking just doesn't do it for me.

Brilliant film with amazing performances and direction.

A classic about class, envy, and belonging. Great acting from Clift, Taylor, and Winters. Could have included more of the religious tones present in Dreiser’s An American Tragedy.

It's the old classic tale, the one night stand that goes wrong and messes up your future plans. Things spiral from there in this classic oldie. Remains a great drama and definitely stands the test of time. One to watch for sure.

Attempts to be a sincere take on class structure, ambition, and deceit (a polluted Horatio Alger tale), but instead ends up being a simplistic and naive tragic romance that must be buoyed by traditionally great performances from Clift and Taylor to stay afloat. The runtime could be substantially abridged to more tautly tell the story, and this slow pacing robs any sense of suspense even during the most climactic scenes. While A Place in the Sun may have been a critical darling upon release and a feather in the cap of its more prominent stars, the lack of any profound meaning doesn't create a compelling case decades on. (3/5)

Kind of melodramatic, but I can see why some call it one of the greatest movies considering the great performances by Montgomery Clift, Shelley Winters, and Elizabeth Taylor.

This film is to romance, what Reefer Madness is to marijuana. Its uncomfortable, but really plays out well with a strong ending. Editing is above average for films of it's time. The story is well told, and certainly not the kind of film that would be made these days. - It has it's significance. But, it's not one I would want to revisit.

This is one I remember liking a lot when I first saw it; one that doesn't quite hold the same power today. While Montgomery Clift, Shelley Winters and even Elizabeth Taylor are all solid, the film sometimes moves at a glacial pace and the melodrama does get a bit overheated. Facing the issues of class division and sexual yearning, Montgomery Clift is from the black sheep side of a well-to-do family who wants the American Dream of the 1950s: a good job, lots of money and Elizabeth Taylor on his arm. And he could have it, too, if it was not for his embarrassing, ultra-religious mother, and his own lower-class impulses. This is the uniquely American Tragedy: his identity is the very thing that prevents him from attaining what he desires. An interesting look at the manners and mores of the 1950s, whose lack of subtlety renders it a less than heartfelt tragedy. Raymond Burr plays the district attorney here, just a few years before he would switch sides and become a defense lawyer in "Perry Mason."

In many ways the movie is typical melodrama of its era, however George Stevens' direction and the editing are anything but. Also, there's no real moral center of the story which only enhances the tension.

One of two overrated George Stevens melodramas produced in the 1950s that have not aged well despite all of their supposedly high minded ideas. Fortunately this film is considerably shorter than the equally ponderous Giant (1956) at a tidy two hours and a two minutes but it still feels like a slog. I can say that this is one of the few films that I hated that contained a performance that I absolutely loved as Shelley Winters is able to escape the horror of the rest of the film and craft a fascinating character with depth not found in the other performances. It is difficult to see why Stevens won Best Director for his work on this film when Elia Kazan, William Wyler and John Huston produced some of the best work of their careers in films that have held up to modern scrutiny. The poor George Eastman, Montgomery Clift, sees a chance to move up in the world when he obtains a job at the company of his wealthy, upper class uncle Charles, Herbert Heyes, who looks down on him. He falls in love with his equally poor co-worker Alice Tripp, Shelley Winters, and seduces her into having sex with him resulting in an unwanted pregnancy. Meanwhile he is able to earn a promotion and is enamored of the wealthy Angela Vickers, Elizabeth Taylor, who he begins seeing without Tripp's knowledge. Tripp wants to marry and move away but Eastman attempts to divert her while romancing Vickers who becomes more receptive to his affections. He is eventually accepted by Vickers and her family and becomes engaged to her but he believes that in order to pursue a romance with her he must kill Tripp. He changes his mind at the last minute but Tripp accidentally drowns and he is arrested for murder. The film intends to be an indictment of the class system, or at least the book it was based on is, as Eastman is driven to do terrible things due to his desire to move into a higher social class. This message is all but discarded in the film as it turns into a classic tale of rooting for two attractive people to get together while not considering the feelings of the slightly less attractive third wheel who is the only morally decent person in the film. Stevens opts to make this a full on love story as he spends his time ogling Taylor while presenting Winters in the darkness and trying to convince the audience that she is shrill and unlikable. I was never convinced and I was often disgusted by the fact that the film prefers a docile, childlike woman who is valued mainly for her physical attractiveness to an assertive woman with ambitions of her own who has never been seen as simply a sex object. It is a testament to the phenomenally talented Winters who was at the height of her powers here that she gives Tripp layers and makes her character's progression believe despite uneven writing. In the opening scenes she conveys a wonderful sense of shyness that is overcome only due to her painful loneliness as she is at once uncertain and over eager in her interactions with Eastman. She seems positively girlish in these moments without giving up any of the fierce wit and intelligence that Winters was known for. The scene in which she is angrily turned away by a doctor is heartbreaking and she has the good sense to play it with restraint as she doesn't devolve into the fireworks that other actresses of this era would have fallen prey to. With the sudden turn of her character from sympathetic heroine to annoying, nagging shrew, in the eyes of the filmmakers at least, she continues to be the stable, grounded force in the film, much like Kim Hunter in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). She is utterly unforgettable and adds complexity to a character who turns into an all out villain in the hands of the screenwriter and director Stevens but is really a flawed, sensitive and achingly sympathetic young woman. When Winters is not on screen the quality of the film plummets as Clift is tasked with an impossible role and doesn't make the nonsensical choices that the character makes understandable. He has that intense gaze and you get the sense that he is really "committed" to this role but on his own he is a crashing bore and his lack of chemistry with Taylor does not help matters. Taylor is her usually vacuous self in a role that could use some layering as I suspect that Vickers did not truly love George but was only interested in him momentarily. Taylor brings none of this to the role and uses her high pitched, breathy voice to excruciating effect as all she seems to do is announce that she is happy to see Eastman. The pair are two of the dullest romantic partners I have witnessed in a long time and I will remember Winters long after they have evaporated from my mind.

I know the film lacks a lot compared to the play but there are a lot of great moments in it.

AFI 100 Greatest Films - #92: Excellent performances from the three leads however this one was hard for me to rate as I just read An American Tragedy recently. In what is usually the case with most adaptations of great works the brilliantly detailed novel by Dreiser would be nearly impossible to live up to in a 2 hour film. I would have personally rated this lower being unable to avoid making the comparisons.