Determined to make something of himself, George (Montgomery Clift) takes a job in his uncle’s firm. But before he can break into the family’s charmed inner circle and fall in love with socialite Angela (17-year-old Elizabeth Taylor), he becomes embroiled with a factory girl (Shelley Winters). Pregnant, she threatens to ruin everything…
The film’s romantic despair is laid on thick (courtesy of source novel, Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy), but its architecture is impressive: subtle sound design; overlapping dissolves to juxtapose different class strata; rapturous close ups of the 17-year-old Elizabeth Taylor. Director George Stevens gives everyone his or her due, and while the word “abortion” is never uttered, the film doesn’t need to spell it out.
A profoundly hysterical film in the classic sense of the word, there’s something about it that’s deeply, romantically, morally, even erotically unhinged.
Steve Erickson (Zeroville)
Noir suspense merges with romantic tragedy in this stunning 1951 movie adapted from the Theodore Dreiser novel. It features two of the most beautiful people in movie history, Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor. They are almost like reflections of each other; when they kiss, something incestuous and thrillingly forbidden throbs out of the screen.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
The greatest movie ever made about America.
Charlie Chaplin
George Stevens
Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Shelley Winters, Raymond Burr
USA
1951
English
6 Academy Awards including Best Director
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Screenwriter
Harry Brown, Michael Wilson
Cinematography
William C. Mellor
Editor
Wiliam Hornbeck
Art Director
Walter Tyler
Also in This Series
Getting Real charts the evolution of screen acting in American film from 1945-1980, diving into the psychological realism which took audiences somewhere deeper and more authentic than ever before.
Notorious
In the first of our new Film Studies series, Ingrid Bergman is pimped out by US agent Cary Grant to Nazi-sympathizer Claude Rains (ironically the most likeable character in the film). Hitchcock's classic is a prime example of classic Hollywood star power.
All About Eve
Arguably the best backstage melodrama of them all, this story of a young actress on the make seems to have been dipped in acid before the cameras rolled. Bette Davis is the uncomfortably peaking diva Margo Channing and it's her finest role.
Sunset Boulevard
Hollywood on Hollywood: the tale of a screenwriter, Joe Gillis (William Holden), who stumbles into the orbit of a now-forgotten movie star, Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), and realizes this silent film diva could be his meal ticket.
A Double Life
In this fascinating lesser known George Cukor picture matinee idol Roland Colman plays a quintessentially English classical theatre actor, Tony John, whose dedication to playing Othello on Broadway leads to jealous fits off-stage.
Red River
Mutiny on the Bounty out on the range. Cattle driver Tom Dunson (John Wayne) is a pioneer, a self-made man who sees no reason to trust anyone but himself. In just his second film, Method man Montgomery Clift is Dunson's adopted son Matt Garth.
12 Angry Men
12 strangers (all of them white men) deliberate on the likelihood that a Puerto Rican teenager murdered his father. It's an open-and-shut case for 11 of them. But Juror 8 (Henry Fonda) is not convinced.
The Heiress
Olivia de Havilland won the Oscar for playing Catherine, a shy and insecure young woman who blossoms under the courtship of handsome gentleman caller Morris (Montgomery Clift). Her wealthy father, Ralph Richardson, looks on with severe skepticism.
A Place in the Sun
George (Montgomery Clift) takes a job in his uncle's firm. But before he can break into the family's charmed inner circle and fall in love with socialite Angela (Elizabeth Taylor), he becomes embroiled with a factory girl (Shelley Winters).
A Streetcar Named Desire
"I don't want realism. I want magic!" declares Blanche du Bois, the tragic heroine who meets her nemesis in her sister's husband, Stanley Kowalski, in Tennessee Williams' great play. Brando's performance as Stanley is a turning point in American acting.
On the Waterfront
Marlon Brando's definitive performance as Terry Malloy, a New York dockworker (and once a promising boxer) who loses faith in his union and his smarter but corrupt older brother Charlie (Rod Steiger) after a whistleblower is murdered.