A Place in the Sun

** out of ****

Moody George Eastman (talk, dark, handsome, and pre-alcoholic Montgomery Clift) is in love with neophyte socialite Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor), but he cannot be with her until he gets rid of his pregnant “baby mama,” working class Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters, in a splendid performance). A mostly dull film with many stagnant sequences, “A Place in the Sun” becomes exciting only at the boating scene. The tender shots of Clift and Taylor in each others’ arms are also memorable images. George Stevens’ direction deserved the nod for the Oscar, perhaps the only redeeming quality to the whole film, which is based on Theodore Dreiser’s “An American Tragedy.” 1951, 121 mins.