A Place in the Sun

In the summer of 1906 Chester Gillette murdered Grace Brown and left her body in Big Moose Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. The reason behind the murder was complicated but boiled down to her being pregnant at the time and pressuring him to marry her. The situation got so tense between the two that he eventually agreed and took her on the trip north where he would see to it that she never came back. He was arrested for the murder, of course, and was executed in 1908. This true crime drama inspired a 1925 novel, An American Tragedy, a play the following year, and a movie in 1931. Twenty years later it was re-adapted by Paramount Pictures and retitled A Place in the Sun in an attempt to draw in a wider audience that might avoid a film with such a dour title as An American Tragedy. It must have worked because the film tripled it’s production budget in returns and it went on to be nominated for the 1951 Academy Award for Best Picture, competing against A Streetcar Named Desire and An American in Paris, losing the top prize to the latter film. 

While the details between the actual crime and the one depicted in the book and films are very similar, it is touted as being inspired by the incident and not a direct adaptation of it. This feels like mere justification to placate those directly affected by the actual events as reading up on the true details it feels like the version on the pages and screen follows what happened quite closely, only the names have been changed to protect the individuals. Certain plot points had to be softened to obtain an approval from the Breen office for general release, such as avoiding any direct reference to abortion by changing a line in the dialogue from “Doctor, you’ve got to help me,” to “Somebody’s got to help me.” It may seem like a slight alteration but, in the context of the film, it changes the meaning by a significant amount. 

The story is about George Eastman (Montgomery Clift), a poor nephew of rich industrialist Charles Eastman (Herbert Heyes). George was raised in a religious fundamentalist household but has fled that lifestyle and wishes to take on work in the family business. Charles offers to find him work in one of his factories and he settles down at the bottom of the rung packaging swimsuits into boxes to be shipped out to stores. His coworkers are almost entirely women and he has been warned not to fraternize with them but he ends up doing so, anyway, with another lonely soul, Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters). Their relationship moves quickly and it isn’t long before the two spend a night together. Shortly afterwards, George is invited to attend a family party thrown by Charles. There he meets the rich and beautiful Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor).

Angela is everything that Alice isn’t; she’s beautiful, charming and wealthy. A future with Alice would be fraught with struggles and poverty. Then Alice tells him that she is pregnant and feels that he needs to do right by her and get married. George attempts to dodge the issue, putting her off for as long as he can, but eventually she calls him up while on vacation at Angela’s family’s lake house and gives him an ultimatum: marry her immediately or she will drive up to the lake and reveal what is going on to everyone there. Trapped, George sees just two ways out of this: marry her or kill her. Knowing that she cannot swim he invites her to go out on the lake in a row boat with the intent of knocking her overboard and being rid of her forever.

The film poses the question: is it murder if you consider committing the crime but don’t? It also adds to that: is it murder if you fail to save someone whom you might have been able to save? The film takes the stance that in both cases the answer is yes and the main character will be sent to the electric chair over that assertion, a rather harsh penalty for what he actually does, and doesn’t, do. The film makes sure that when Alice falls out of the boat there is no doubt that George does not make it happen. He is not an active participant in her demise even if he initially had murder in his heart. When he is being led to the electric chair, sentenced to death by a jury of his piers, the attending priest states that, in his heart, it wasmurder. But should that be enough to put someone to death? Apparently so. 

The most damning evidence the prosecution had against him is that when Alice fell in the water and drowned George failed to report it. There is also testimony given that Alice received a blow to the head that George attributed to the boat hitting her when it capsized. We see during the actual incident that he didn’t strike her over the head and there is no scene indicating that the prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt that that wasn’t the case. If it wasn’t for the real-life incident with Chester and Grace I would think that George could have overturned the death penalty on appeals, maybe even the whole conviction. The film doesn’t spend a whole lot of time on the trial itself so we never really get a good picture why he would be sentenced to be executed rather than just a long prison term.

The character of George is a bit of an enigma. We are told that he was raised by religious fanatics and that is backed up by idle gossip coming from members of the Eastman family as they make jokes about him, saying he has come to offer prayer or prepare a sermon. We get only a couple of brief moments with his mother but nothing to really push the narrative of fanaticism as the Eastman’s make it sound. The closest we get is a brief moment after George and Alice have been on a date and they pass a choir singing out on the streets. George gets fixated on a little boy in the front, perhaps recalling times in his past where he was forced out into the cold to do that very same thing. 

We never get the sense that he actually loves Alice, either, only that he is lonely and has found a fellow soul. Later, when he meets Angela there is more sparks but is that love? He is so distant that it is never really clear or if he just sees her as the next rung in the ladder as his prospects rise. Had he been able to stay with her would he have latched on to someone else further down the line? Maybe. The way Montgomery Clift is playing the part either way could have been true. Had Angela been a rich and spoiled young woman the way these parts typically are played this wouldn’t be a problem. But Angela is a genuinely nice girl who falls in love with George even though he is not in the same social class as she is. Elizabeth Taylor is perfectly cast in this film. She was only seventeen at the time and attributed her on-screen kiss with Clift as being her first. She radiates youthful vitality and joy in life in a way that is atypical for this type of character and that makes her all the more endearing. It also makes her heartbreak, when George is arrested and what he did is exposed, all the more painful.

Shelley Winters felt that this film typecast her as a frumpy woman rather than the glamour girl she had been. To be fair, she campaigned for the part, showing up for a meeting with the director dressed down to hide her natural beauty. This is how she envisioned the role and the director played to that. She would later go onto talk shows and lament this change of her professional image. It certainly didn’t hurt her career much, if any. She would enjoy a prolific acting career well into the 1990’s. Her co-star, filmed in such a way as to enunciate her beauty and give her an almost goddess like glow, would also bail on the concept of traditional Hollywood Beauty and instead embrace a more realistic image of femininity and glamour that would suit her well as she too stayed in the limelight for decades to come. 

This whole film is one big tragedy that begins long before the opening scene. We never get a clear picture of how he was raised but we get the sense that he doesn’t really know how to interact properly with people. He also has desires beyond his means and when he tries to impress his “betters” he falls short. When initially invited to his uncle’s home he buys a nice suit only to show up and be greeted by the family, all dressed in Tuxedos that are tailored. In comparison, his new suit is obviously off the rack and makes him look poor and out of place. He’s also a bit of a coward. He cannot bring himself to take a stand when confronted by Alice and the unexpected pregnancy. Sure, it would be an awful thing to dump her in her current condition but it would also be awful to trap her in a loveless marriage. He cannot speak up for himself and it is only happenstance that prevents him from ending up married to her at all. 

Alice doesn’t come out of it as the saintly victim, either. When she discovers the pregnancy she goes to a doctor and lies multiple times trying to get sympathy and services from him. The term “Abortion’’ isn’t said but it is heavily implied and he is having none of that. She claims the father is out of the picture but the doctor observes her get into George’s car after her visit proving that she is lying about that. This testimony, among other things, is used against George in the trial. By the time Alice ends up in that rowboat she has become shrill and unpleasant, too, in stark contrast to Angela. She has forced George into a corner where he will see only one way to get out. What’s most puzzling is why she would have ever gotten into that boat with him in the first place.

This is a fascinating character study with an ethical question at the heart of it. Religious people will be familiar with the phrase: “The thought goes before the deed.” That sentiment is echoed in the words of the priest in George’s jail cell right before he is being led off to his execution. He testifies that he couldn’t save her and maybe he couldn’t. We get no clear indication either way. However, when he rented the boat he gave a false name, staged his vehicle where he could get to it later, and made sure the lake was deserted before setting out. He had murderous intent, but when the time came he couldn’t go through with it. It is only because Alice grew angry and stood up in the boat, losing her balance and falling in, that she ended up dead. The prosecution argues that it was his intent to kill her. They argue that if his story about her falling in on her own accord was true, he should have been able to rescue her and by not doing so he was as guilty as if he had clubbed her over the head and thrown her in. By not reporting the accident immediately he sealed his fate. The original title is far more fitting for this tale: An American Tragedy.

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Motion Picture: George Stevens

Best Director: George Stevens (won)

Best Actor: Montgomery Clift

Best Actress: Shelley Winters

Best Screenplay: Michael Wilson and Harry Brown (won)

Best Cinematography - Black-and-White: William C. Mellor (won)

Best Costume Design - Black-and-White: Edith Head (won)

Best Film Editing: William Hornbeck (won)

Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture: Franz Waxman (won)

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Release Date: August 14, 1951

Running Time: 122 Minutes

Not Rated

Starring: Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters

Directed By: George Stevens