Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

A Place in the Sun Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 31, 2020

For anyone who may think that the “ripped from the headlines” phenomenon in various contemporary media is at least relatively recent, being disabused of that notion might come in the form of a 1925 novel by Theodore Dreiser entitled An American Tragedy. Dreiser at least slightly fictionalized his tale, and it’s true that the headlines he was ripping his story from were a couple of decades old by the time the book came out, but the basic story was founded in actual events, and Dreiser made copious use of the actual historical record, including love letters, of a kind of tawdry tale of a social climbing factory worker who murders his pregnant girlfriend so that he can pursue a romance with a better heeled woman. An American Tragedy was almost instantly adapted into a stage play by Patrick Kearney in 1926, which was successful enough to last the rest of that Broadway season, and which kind of surprisingly was revived fairly quickly, in early 1931, perhaps because producers knew a film adaptation was imminent. That (first) film version of An American Tragedy opened in August 1931 after a rather tortured gestational period that saw none other than Sergei Eisenstein initially attached as director in what Eisenstein evidently hoped would be a “Marxist” interpretation of Dreiser’s text, which in fact is a rather trenchant critique of certain aspects of Capitalism. Another rather legendary director, Josef von Sternberg, ended up directing the film, which had been shorn of any overt political content, much to the distress of Dreiser, who evidently attempted to sue Paramount to prevent the film’s release (he obviously lost). As is disclosed in some of the supplements included on this Blu-ray disc, when George Stevens returned to Hollywood after World War II, he was on the hunt for some kind of “major” project and if I’m understanding the situation correctly, it was actually someone at Paramount who mentioned they still held the rights to Dreiser’s novel. While perhaps not quite as tortured as the gestational period encountered by the first film adaptation, Stevens’ version, which attained the new title of A Place in the Sun, did take a while to finally start shooting, but in an era already rife with anti-Communism and what would soon become the HUAC, a “Marxist” interpretation of Dreiser’s novel was probably a non starter once again.

George Eastman (Montgomery Clift, Academy Award nominated for this performance) is a seemingly decent sort who has the misfortune to come from the less affluent side of an otherwise very wealthy family. When chance offers him the opportunity to work for his rich Uncle Charles (Herbert Heyes), he jumps at it, taking a pretty menial job at the Eastman factory. In a new location and without much in the way of a social network since his “hoity toity” relatives consider him a “lesser”, George is lonely and kind of lost, but he applies himself to his new job in true “American Dream” fashion. He ultimately meets a kind of simple minded but girl working at the factory named Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters, also Academy Award nominated for this performance), and a halting romance ensues, in a kind of flagrant ignoring of rules forbidding employees from “fraternizing”.

George’s efforts at the factory actually end up catching the attention of Uncle Charles, and George finally seems to be what every good entry level employee dreams of being: upwardly mobile. At a get together at the Eastman home early in the film (the fact that he’s even there is suggestion enough of his improving status) he meets local girl Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor), who seems to be female embodiment of the economic ladder George is so desperately trying to climb — in other words, she’s definitely a rung (or more) up from Alice. Seemingly without even a pang of conscience, George starts chasing after Angela, and perhaps surprisingly, she’s more than open to his courting.

Unfortunately, it turns out that Alice has gotten pregnant, and she understandably expects George to do the “decent” thing and marry her. There are some discursive allusions to a potential abortion (another thing the production era wouldn’t allow to be overtly discussed), but the upshot is, it becomes apparent that George may indeed have to marry Alice to make things right, thereby putting the kibosh on his nearly achieved “happily ever after” with Angela and his work environment. Without completely revealing the harrowing and intentionally ambiguous climax of this kinda sorta ménage à trois, suffice it to say that Alice ends up dead and George is accused of having murdered her (whether or not this is actually the case is part of the inherent ambiguity, and different viewers may well come to different conclusions about the depth of George’s “guilt”).

The film then gives way to some protracted court material, where future Perry Mason Raymond Burr gets to see what the "Hamilton Burger" side of things is like as the prosecutor, though, unlike the hapless Burger, Burr's character of Marlowe rather unsurprisingly ends up prevailing after sharing some of the covert aspects of George and Alice's relationship, not to mention a whole litany of suspicious behavior on the part of George leading up to the ostensible murder. But there's a definite underlying tension between what actually happened and what is perceived to have happened, as well as an almost Talmudic emphasis on "intent", which layers some significant emotion onto the proceedings.

A Place in the Sun Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

A Place in the Sun is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Via Vision Entertainment and Imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. The back cover of this release touts "a 4K restoration by Paramount Pictures", and that, combined with the fact that this well regarded film has not been released previously on Blu-ray, may well spark considerable interest from fans beyond the shores of Australia, especially since this is a region free disc. The restoration is often very impressive, if not perfect, though my hunch is that "4K restoration" verbiage may raise expectations to unreasonable or at least unmeetable levels. I found the entire transfer just a tad dark at times, something that's especially noticeable in some of the lakeside material (the less said in that regard in terms of possible spoiler information, the better). That said, while there's occasional minor crush, blacks are nice looking and gray scale is almost always very appealing. Detail levels are generally very good and elements like fibers on fabrics are rendered with good precision. The grain field kind of ebbs and flows, at times fairly dramatically, throughout the presentation, and it looks like some relatively judicious filtering may have been applied. That said, grain generally resolves naturally.

A Place in the Sun Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While there are two lossless tracks on this disc, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0, there's no original mono track for purists, which may disappoint some. Fidelity here is occasionally a bit problematic from a prioritization standpoint, though both tracks deliver a forceful accounting of Franz Waxman's Academy Award winning score. Amplitude on dialogue is variable at times, but optional English subtitles may help to elide any deficiencies for some listeners. As regular readers of my reviews may know, I'm not always a fan of rejiggered surround tracks, and the good news here is there's very little of the "phasey" quality that sometimes attends these sorts of "new, improved" tracks. The bad news, at least for those wanting regular surround activity, is that the track is pretty heavily weighted toward the front and center. I noticed no actual damage or distortion in the presentation.

A Place in the Sun Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by George Stevens, Jr. and Associate Producer Ivan Moffat is an exceptional listening experience, cobbled together from what sounds like pre-recorded snippets with Moffat. Stevens fils is of course a filmmaker of some renown, and his memories of both the film and his father are fascinating.


• George Stevens and His Place in the Sun Featurette (720p; 22:23) is a well done overview of Stevens' life and work. This features archival interviews with both Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters.


• George Stevens: The Filmmakers Who Knew Him (720p; 45:27) is a fun collection of reminiscences by the likes of Warren Beatty, Frank Capra, Rouben Mamoulian, and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (among several others).


• Original Theatrical Trailer (720p; 2:37)


• Photo Gallery (1080p; 11:55)


• Imprint Trailer (1080p; 00:26)

A Place in the Sun Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A Place in the Sun is highlighted by some impressive performances (I found Winters especially heartbreaking in this film), and the story, while maybe a little on the smarmy side, is often very moving. This film won a handful of Academy Awards the year it was released, including Best Director for George Stevens, and its relatively late entry in the Blu-ray world should be welcomed by fans of classic cinema. While there are occasional hurdles both video and audio encounter, overall technical merits are solid and the supplementary package very enjoyable. Recommended.