The amount of talent involved promised a great deal and A Place in the Sun lived up to it and more. The production values have such a sumptuous and haunting quality that perfectly match the romantic, tragic and darker tones A Place in the Sun has. Every frame is beautifully composed and every transition is as smooth as silk. George Stevens does a remarkable job directing, and very like with Giant he was wholly deserving of his Best Director Oscar, especially good is the very telling scene when George and Angela meet for the first time. Franz Waxman's score is lush and hauntingly beautiful in a way that is undoubtedly Waxman's style as soon as you hear it. A Place in the Sun is intelligently written with parts that are suspenseful and emotionally gut-wrenching. Equally so is the story, which personally didn't come across as dated, it is a dark and quite complex story powerfully told and quite ahead of its time too, the romantic parts are classily done and the tragedy is depicted movingly as well. The characters are compellingly real, not easy to sympathise for(apart from Alice) but that wasn't intended I don't think. The cast was a great one on paper and even greater on film, Montgomery Clift has rarely been more tortured and he does so in an enigmatic and affecting way, Elizabeth Taylor is at her most luminous(even outdoing Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Last Time I Saw You in Paris and Giant on that front) and gives one of her best performances and Shelley Winters is every bit as brilliant. A Place in the Sun may not be as solidly paced in the second half and Raymond Burr badly overdoes it as the attorney especially in the cross-examination with the breaking of the oar, but even they aren't quite enough to ruin a powerful and brilliantly made and played film that is among the best of the 50s. 9.5/10 Bethany Cox
Review of A Place in the Sun
