A Place in the Sun

Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters star in director George Stevens' adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's 1925 best-seller, An American Tragedy. Clift plays social-climbing George Eastman, whose brief bedroom dalliance with the working class Winters destroys his chances for having it all with the stunningly beautiful, and filthy rich, Taylor. Clift and Taylor burn up the screen in their every scene together, and Winters gives one of her best performances as the calculatingly pouty 'victim', but the whole effort is hamstrung by a strangely (and uncharacteristically) unmeasured performance by Clift. Understandably distraught with his declining prospects in the latter half of the film, Clift is curiously preoccupied through the first act as well, as if racked with a lingering fear that he may have left the iron on in his apartment. Nevertheless, boasting a commentary by George Stevens Jr. and rare interviews with most of the principals, this solid, if slightly overbaked, six Oscar winner is a must DVD for serious collections. (S. C. Sickles)