Place In The Sun, A

Growing up in the 60s and 70s, I was just a little too late to understand the aura and attraction of one adorned Hollywood diva named Elizabeth Taylor. My first impressions of her were of an overdone, overweight has-been that captivated the generation before me. I never really knew what a screen babe and beauty she was . . . until now. Her perfect complexion and dreamy eyes at age 17 were the reason she became the silver screen's first mega-starlett.

Based on Theodore Dreiser's classic novel, An American Tragedy, this ambitious movie takes on Shakespearean dynamics, where an ambitious young man named George Eastman (Montgomery Clift) uses his distant relation to an empire to work his way up. He quickly becomes passionate with a factory girl (Shelley Winters) that's closer to his class in life, gets her pregnant, promises marriage, but soon becomes bent on dropping her as his romantic prospects with the flighty society girl (Taylor) become within reach. Many common human traits and the sinful condition of man (especially the pigish characteristics of guys) are classically portrayed in black and white with all the serious acting talent and skill of its day (1951).

This DVD package increases its value with retrospective cast and crew interviews with Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters, and others; where we learn about the challenge of taking this tale to film and casting the right actors for the roles -- all fascinating stories. We also learn small incidental details, like the fact that Taylor had her first onscreen kiss with Clift only two weeks after her first real kiss in life. "The kiss with Monty was much more exciting," she confides. A commentary by George Stevens Jr (the son of the great producer) and Associate Producer Ivan Moffat, a documentary on Stevens, and a 5.1 Surround mix make for a retro re-release done right. [Paramount / Doug Van Pelt]

Ratings:
Obscenities 0
Graphic Violence 0
Nude Scenes 0
% spiritual relevancy 53

This DVD review wasn't printed in ISSUE 98 of HM Magazine, and thus is an "online exclusive."

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