Dark days in the California sunshine

A Place in the Sun (1951)

Directed by George Stevens this adaptation of the novel “An American Tragedy” stars Montgomery Cliff, Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters. A working class man gets a job from his rich relatives, gets a factory girl pregnant and falls in love with a socialite.

Initially this seems like a fairly average melodrama but the plot takes a decidedly dark getting some serious mature material past the production code of the time. Where the plot falls down slightly is the romance between the protagonist and the socialite being too quick to be believable but otherwise is an interesting watch. What is most impressive is that despite the events the film manages to portray all the characters in a sympathetic light right up to the end of the film.

4/5