The Basic Plot in the Form of a Haiku: Alice Tripp is poor/Angela Vickers is rich/Guess which one George kills?

The Back Story: This is the story of George Eastman, based on the story of Clyde Griffiths from Theodore Dreiserís An American Tragedy, based on the true story of Chester Gillette, who (at the start of the century) was executed for drowning his pregnant girlfriend in a lake in the Adirondacks. According to Dreiser (whose novel A Place in the Sun was based on), he did it because he was in love with a High-Society Chick and Pregnant Girlfriend (who was a Low-Society Chick) was threatening to tell the world she was pregnant unless he married her.

My Basic Ramblings: Montgomery Clift is really cute. I know, I know, he spent a good portion of his life conflicted over his homosexuality and his drug use, but heís really cute. Especially in the factory scenes where he wanders around in a little tight T-shirt. Sigh....

This movie is from 1951 and appears to be of the "Slow Dissolve" school of film. Each scene takes about thirty seconds to dissolve into the next scene, which can be really irritating to watch after youíve grown accustomed to the "Super-Hyper-Rapid Cutting" school of film thatís prevalent today. I wanted to scream "Hurry up, already!" at the screen. (Itís like Chrisís Dirty Harry laser disc set, which has the original trailers from all five movies. The trailer from Dirty Harry is leisurely-paced, whereas The Dead Pool looks like it was directed by a kid in dire need of Ritalin.)

Somewhere, in one of my "How To Write A Screenplay" books, it talks about ways to indicate the passage of time via montage. It specifically says to avoid the stereotypical "calendar pages flipping" method of time passage, which this movie does use. But, then again, it probably wasnít stereotypical at the time.

There are distinct differences between An American Tragedy and A Place in the Sun, the most obvious being at the end. In the novel, once heís arrested, Clyde Griffiths never hears from Sondra Finchley (High-Society Chick, Novel Version) again. In the movie, George Eastman gets an emotional visit from Angela Vickers (High-Society Chick, Film Version), and she tells him she loves him, sheíll always love him, and they kiss. This didnít work for me, for some reason.

I also didnít like the very last shot of the film. The movie ends with Eastman walking into the room with the electric chair (though you donít see it) and does a Slow Dissolve into a prior scene where Angelaís kissing him. Although you probably couldnít show an execution in a 1950ís movie, I wouldíve liked to see him at least get strapped into the thing.

There were, however, several things about it that I did like. I liked how from Georgeís window in his boardinghouse room, you could see the sign from the Vickersí company blinking. I liked how when the boat tipped over in the lake, the camera held back, so you couldnít see what was happening - George Eastman was the only eyewitness.

This movie was nominated for several Academy Awards - Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Original Screenplay, Cinematography (Black & White), Costume Design (Black & White), Film Editing, and Music Scoring. It won all except Picture, Actor, and Actress. (The award for Best Picture went to An American in Paris. The last time the Best Director winnerís movie did not win Best Picture was in 1989, when Oliver Stone won for Born on the Fourth of July but Driving Miss Daisy took Best Picture.)

Go rent this movie. Now.