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In the film Clift plays George Eastman, a nephew of Charles Eastman (Herbert Heyes), the owner of a successful swimsuit company. But George hails from the rather "poor" side of the Eastman family, and has been invited to New York to work of his uncle's company. After a rather awkward introduction to the Eastman clan, George is given a demeaning position in the company's packaging lines by his cousin Earl (Fred Clark). While working in the plant, the frustrated George falls in lust with Alice (Shelly Winters), a naive coworker.

While this seems like just a simple little love story, the film has many disturbing layers, and is methodically paced like peeling back an onion. As the story moves along, many complications arise for George and Alice. First, it is against company policy for workers of the plant to date each other. Second - and an even bigger problem - is that while George may care about Alice, he casts a wandering eye toward rich and beautiful debutante Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor). While Angela is off attending to school there are no problems, but once she returns to town... uh, oh. George, driven by his libido, is torn between the two women and conflicting societal mores of right and wrong. Angela does not know about Alice, but Alice sure has noticed George's lack of attention...

Now, warning, spoiler alert. Eventually, Alice become pregnant and wants to marry George. Of course, abortion is a taboo topic in 1951, but the film still manages to spin the story in an interesting way. Should he marry Alice? What happens when Angela discovers the relationship? It would jeopardize both his or her future within the company, much less the family and the fact that Angela, who has fallen head over heals in love with him, and he with her. Then we have the ever-present clash of the two social circles and class distinction.

I won't ruin any more pf the film's many surprises, suffice to say you'd be hard-pressed to successfully guess the outcome. Based upon the novel An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, A Place In The Sun is a classic drama that just borders on the edge of being a thriller. A must-see.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Even though A Place In The Sun was filmed in 1951, when widescreen presentations were common, George Steven's elected to shoot the film in the it was Academy standard aspect ratio of of 1.37:1. (After doing a little research, this is not too shocking considering the only films Stevens shot wider than 1.37 were The Greatest Story Ever Told and The Diary of Anne Frank. Even Shane and Giant were shot full frame and matted off to 1.66:1.) As with most of Paramount's recent black and white catalog releases, the image in nearly flawless. The print is very clean, smooth and sharp. The blacks are rock solid with excellent contrast, and maintain even the finest detail in the image. The only faults of this transfer is the periodic shifts in brightness during poorly lit scenes, and some minor digital artifacting when there is excessive grain. Besides these two faults, this is another great looking catalog title from Paramount. Well done!

Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?

To compliment the sparkling transfer, A Place In The Sun has been blessed with a new 5.1 soundtrack, too. But despite the laudable effort, given the results I am still a bit puzzled as to why. There is literally no surround information and barely any sound coming from the left and right front channels. Wait I take that back, there is some minor audio bleed from Franz Waxman's score. While the soundtrack is reproduced very cleanly, there are still moments where the dialog is muddied by dated recording techniques. This is most noticeable during the phone conversations. While I expect the person off screen to be muted, I don't expect this from the person on screen. Obviously, since the film is fifty years old, there are no low-end frequencies present. While I would normally applaud Paramount for the creation of a 5.1 track, there really was no reason to bother for this film. By the way, where is the original mono soundtrack, guys?

There are no other audio or subtitle features available on this disc, aside from English Closed Captioning.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

I must have been asleep when this title was announced, I didn't realize it was going to be a special edition. Even after looking back at the press release, there is more on this disc than first promised. First up we have a twenty-two minute featurette entitled George Stevens and His Place in the Sun. This 2001 retrospective is a nice combination of interviews with George Stevens, Jr., associate producer Ivan Moffet, Elizabeth Taylor and Shelly Winters. Stevens, Jr. talks about his father's life and introduction to the world of film, including how he arrived in California and eventually found work as a cinematographer on his first film, Rex King Of The Horses (never even heard of this one!) and other pictures. Ivan Moffet also reminisces about how he met Stevens, Sr. during World War II, and how serving solidified many of their working relationships for the rest of their lives. Elizabeth Taylor contribution is also entertaining as she remember the awkwardness of first meeting Montgomery Clift, plus the fear of her first major starring acting role at age 17. Shelly Winter's interview segments are culled from 1983 footage and aren't quiet as enlightening, but do round out this doc nonetheless. While there is no dedicated still gallery on this disc, this doc is well edited with numerous behind- the-scenes photos to break up visual monotony of the interviews.

And just in case you want to know more, there is a full 45-minutes devoted to filmmakers recalling their association with Stevens, Sr., in George Stevens: Filmmakers Who Knew Him. Culled entirely from the 1984 documentary George Stevens: A Filmmaker's Journey, I assume Paramount was not able to include the whole documentary due to rights clearances? Paramount has reedited interview segments with Warren Beatty, Frank Capra (yes, the first one), Rouben Mamoulian (best know for being canned on Cleopatra), Joseph L. Mankiewicz,, Alan J. Pakula, Antonio Vellani (associate producer on A Place In The Sun), Robert Wise and Fred Zinnermann (High Noon) into a pretty decent feature. While each interview is available separately, there is also a helpful "Play All" function which is much more convenient. I wish Paramount could have secured the full original documentary, but this compilation of interviews is still very enlightening.

As promised on the original press release, George Steven's Jr. and Ivan Moffet provide a screen-specific audio commentary. Unfortunately, after all that has come before, this is a bit of a disappointment, as it includes little on the making of A Place In The Sun itself. Of course, last but not least, Paramount has also included the original theatrical trailer, presented in full frame and in very good shape.

Parting Thoughts