240. A Place In The Sun (1951)

Directed By George Stevens


Synopsis

Geaorge Eastman is a poor relation of the Eastmans. He goes to his rich uncle to get a job and he does, meanwhile he falls in love with this girl he works with. Suddenly he starts going up in life, and with that come prettier and richer woman. The frumpy looking girlfriend gets pregnant ruining his plans with the rich Vikers girl. He slowly hatches a plan to have Frump McFrumpypants killed. When the times comes for it he does not have the guts to go through with it but she dies anyway in an accident. He is convicted of murder, by Perry Mason.

Review

This film was actually quite fascinating for several reasons, firstly it is neatly divided into three parts. The first is clearly a social mores film, the second is a noirish murder thing and the third is a courtroom drama. They all work perfectly together, and the first one helps you understand reasons and motivations that lead to the second and third parts.

The filming is also pretty great, relying in some very good close-ups and dissolves, with those same dissolves being very effectively used to convey emotions. The acting is faultless, as is the writing.

Then the film asks interesting questions about the character that we have spent the film empathising with, is he indeed guilty due to hesitation? And is unconsciously letting someone die a crime of any kind? Is he morally or physically guilty of anything or not? A very good film.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The movie was adapted by Harry Brown and Michael Wilson from the novel An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser and the adapted play by Patrick Kearney. It was directed by George Stevens. 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".

An American Tragedy was based upon the 1906 murder of Grace Brown. In 1906, Chester Gillette was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend, Grace Brown, at Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks in upstate New York. The murder trial drew international attention as Brown's love letters to Gillette were read in court. Theodore Dreiser saved newspaper clippings about the case for some 15 years before writing the novel.

Scene, they are purdy: