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A Place in the Sun (film)
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A Place in the Sun
A Place in the Sun (film) poster.gif
original film poster

Directed by
George Stevens
Produced by
George Stevens
Screenplay by
Michael Wilson
 and Harry Brown
Based on
An American Tragedy
 by Theodore Dreiser
An American Tragedy
 by Patrick Kearney
Starring
Montgomery Clift
Elizabeth Taylor
Shelley Winters
Music by
Franz Waxman
Cinematography
William C. Mellor
Edited by
William Hornbeck
Distributed by
Paramount Pictures

Release dates

August 14, 1951


Running time
 122 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$2,295,304
Box office
$7,000,000
A Place in the Sun is a 1951 American drama film loosely based on the 1925 novel An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser and the play, also titled An American Tragedy. It tells the story of a working-class young man who is entangled with two women; one who works in his wealthy uncle's factory and the other a beautiful socialite. The novel had been filmed once before, as An American Tragedy, in 1931.
A Place in the Sun was directed by George Stevens from a screenplay by Harry Brown and Michael Wilson, and stars Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Shelley Winters; its supporting actors included Anne Revere, and Raymond Burr.[1][2]
The film was a critical and commercial success, winning six Academy Awards and the first ever Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama. In 1991, A Place in the Sun was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot summary
2 Cast
3 Reception
4 Awards and nominations 4.1 Academy Awards
4.2 Other honors
5 References
6 External links

Plot summary[edit]
George Eastman (Montgomery Clift), the poor nephew of rich industrialist Charles Eastman (Herbert Heyes), arrives in town following a chance encounter with his uncle while working as a bellhop in a Chicago hotel. The elder Eastman invites George to visit him if and when he ever comes to town, and the ambitious young man takes advantage of the offer. Despite George's family relationship to the Eastmans, they regard him as something of an outsider, but his uncle nevertheless offers him an entry-level job at his factory. George, uncomplaining, hopes to impress his uncle (whom he addresses as "Mr. Eastman") with his hard work and earn his way up. While working in the factory, George starts dating fellow factory worker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters), in defiance of the workplace rules. Alice is a poor and inexperienced girl who is dazzled by George and slow to believe that his Eastman name brings him no advantages.
Over time, George begins a slow move up the corporate ladder, into a supervisory position in the department where he began. He has submitted recommendations on improving production in his department, which finally catch the attention of his uncle, who invites him to their home for a social event. At the party, George finally meets "society girl" Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor), whom he has admired from afar since shortly after arriving in town, and they quickly fall in love. Being Angela's escort thrusts George into the intoxicating and carefree lifestyle of high society that his rich Eastman kin had denied him. When Alice announces that she is pregnant and makes it clear that she expects George to marry her, he puts her off, spending more and more of his time with Angela and his new well-heeled friends. An attempt to procure an abortion for Alice fails, and she renews her insistence on marriage. George is invited to join Angela at the Vickers's holiday lake house over Labor Day weekend, and excuses himself to Alice, saying that the visit will advance his career and accrue to the benefit of the coming child.
George and Angela spend time at secluded Loon Lake, and after hearing a story of a couple's supposed drowning there, with the man's body never being found, George hatches a plan to rid himself of Alice so that he can marry Angela.
Meanwhile, Alice finds a picture in the newspaper of George, Angela, and their friends, and realizes that George lied to her about his intentions for wanting to go to the lake. During a dinner which is attended by the Eastman and Vickers families, George appears to be on the verge of finally advancing into the business and social realm that he has long sought. However, Alice phones the house during the dinner party and asks to speak with George; she tells him that she is at the bus station, and that if he doesn't come to get her, she'll come to where he is and expose him. Visibly shaken, he contrives an excuse to the families that he must suddenly leave, but promises Angela he will return. The next morning, George and Alice drive to City Hall to get married but they find it closed for Labor Day, and George suggests spending the day at the nearby lake; Alice unsuspectingly agrees.
When they get to the lake, George acts visibly nervous when he rents a boat from a man who seems to deduce that George gave him a false name; the man's suspicions are aroused more when George asks him whether any other boaters are on the lake (none are). While they are out on the lake, Alice confesses her dreams about their happy future together with their child. As George apparently takes pity on her and, judging from his attitude, decides not to carry out his murderous plan, Alice tries to stand up in the boat, causing it to capsize, and Alice drowns.
George escapes, swims to shore, and eventually drives back up to the Vickers's lodge, where he tries to relax but is increasingly tense. He says nothing to anyone about having been on the lake or about what happened there. Meanwhile, Alice's body is discovered and her death is treated as a murder investigation almost from the first moment, while an abundant amount of evidence and witness reports stack up against George. Just as Angela's father approves Angela's marriage to him, George is arrested and charged with Alice's murder. Though the audience knows that the planned murder in fact turned into an accidental drowning, George's furtive actions before and after Alice's death condemn him. His denials are futile, and he is found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in the electric chair. Near the end, he confesses in his cell that he deserves to die because although he did not kill Alice, he wanted her dead in his heart, making him just as guilty as if he had killed her.
Cast[edit]
Montgomery Clift as George Eastman
Elizabeth Taylor as Angela Vickers
Shelley Winters as Alice Tripp
Anne Revere as Hannah Eastman
Keefe Brasselle as Earl Eastman
Fred Clark as Bellows, defense attorney
Raymond Burr as Dist. Atty. R. Frank Marlowe
Herbert Heyes as Charles Eastman
 Shepperd Strudwick as Anthony 'Tony' Vickers
Frieda Inescort as Mrs. Ann Vickers
Kathryn Givney as Louise Eastman
Walter Sande as Art Jansen, George's Attorney
Ted de Corsia as Judge R.S. Oldendorff
John Ridgely as Coroner
Lois Chartrand as Marsha
Paul Frees as Rev. Morrison

All primary cast members are deceased.
Reception[edit]
The film earned an estimated $3.5 million at the US and Canadian box office and earned critical acclaim in 1951.[3][4]
Upon seeing the film, Charlie Chaplin called it 'the greatest movie ever made about America'.[5]
The film's acclaim did not completely hold up over time. Reappraisals of the film find that much of what was exciting about the film in 1951 is not as potent in the 21st century. Critics cite the soporific pace, the exaggerated melodrama, and the outdated social commentary as qualities present in A Place in the Sun that are not present in the great films of the era, such as those by Alfred Hitchcock. The performances however by Clift, Taylor and Winters continue to receive praise.[6][7][8][9]
Many still consider the film to be a classic too; it was featured on the AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies list of 1998, and the AFI 100 Years…100 Passions list of 2002, while the film holds a strong 75% rating on Rotten Tomatoes,[10] and in 2013 the British Film Institute rereleased the picture across the United Kingdom due to its significant merit.[11]
Awards and nominations[edit]

Academy Awards[edit]
WinsBest Cinematography, Black-and-White (William C. Mellor)
Best Costume Design, Black-and-White (Edith Head)
Best Director (George Stevens)
Best Film Editing (William Hornbeck)
Best Original Score (Franz Waxman)
Best Writing, Screenplay (Michael Wilson and Harry Brown)
NominationsBest Actor in a Leading Role (Montgomery Clift)
Best Actress in a Leading Role (Shelley Winters)
Best Picture

Other honors[edit]
American Film Institute recognitionAFI's 100 Years...100 Movies - #92
AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions - #53
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes: "I love you. I've loved you since the first moment I saw you. I guess maybe I’ve even loved you before I saw you." - Nominated[12]
AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores - Nominated[13]
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - Nominated[14]
Golden Globe AwardBest Picture (Drama)
Directors Guild of America AwardBest Director
Cannes Film FestivalIn competition (1951)[15]

References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Variety film review; July 18, 1951, p. 6.
2.Jump up ^ Harrison's Reports film review; July 21, 1951, p. 115.
3.Jump up ^ 'The Top Box Office Hits of 1951', Variety, January 2, 1952
4.Jump up ^ Golden, Herb. "Review: ‘A Place in the Sun.’" Variety. 18 July 1951. 9 April 2014.
5.Jump up ^ Andrew, Geoff. "A Place in the Sun." "Cinematheque".
6.Jump up ^ Kehr, Dave. "A Place in the Sun." Chicago Reader. 9 April 2014.
7.Jump up ^ Huddleston, Tom. "A Place in the Sun (U)." Time Out. 29 January 2013. 9 April 2014.
8.Jump up ^ "A Place in the Sun." TV Guide. 9 April 2014.
9.Jump up ^ Maltin, Leonard. "A Place in the Sun." Turner Classic Movies. 9 April 2014.
10.Jump up ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/place_in_the_sun/
11.Jump up ^ Andrew, Geoff. "Hollywood's beautiful people." "BFI". 3 April 2013
12.Jump up ^ AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes Nominees
13.Jump up ^ AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores Nominees
14.Jump up ^ AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) Ballot
15.Jump up ^ "Festival de Cannes: A Place in the Sun". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved January 16, 2009.
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to A Place in the Sun (film).
A Place in the Sun at the Internet Movie Database
A Place in the Sun at Rotten Tomatoes
A Place in the Sun at the TCM Movie Database
"A Place in the Sun" at TV Guide
A Place in the Sun (1951) at Filmsite.org


[show]
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Films directed by George Stevens
































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Categories: 1951 films
English-language films
American drama films
Paramount Pictures films
1950s drama films
Film noir
Film scores by Franz Waxman
Films based on American novels
Best Drama Picture Golden Globe winners
Films whose director won the Best Director Academy Award
United States National Film Registry films
Films directed by George Stevens
Films whose writer won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award
Films whose cinematographer won the Best Cinematography Academy Award
Films whose editor won the Best Film Editing Academy Award
Films that won the Best Original Score Academy Award
Films that won the Best Costume Design Academy Award






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A Place in the Sun (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


A Place in the Sun
A Place in the Sun (film) poster.gif
original film poster

Directed by
George Stevens
Produced by
George Stevens
Screenplay by
Michael Wilson
 and Harry Brown
Based on
An American Tragedy
 by Theodore Dreiser
An American Tragedy
 by Patrick Kearney
Starring
Montgomery Clift
Elizabeth Taylor
Shelley Winters
Music by
Franz Waxman
Cinematography
William C. Mellor
Edited by
William Hornbeck
Distributed by
Paramount Pictures

Release dates

August 14, 1951


Running time
 122 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$2,295,304
Box office
$7,000,000
A Place in the Sun is a 1951 American drama film loosely based on the 1925 novel An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser and the play, also titled An American Tragedy. It tells the story of a working-class young man who is entangled with two women; one who works in his wealthy uncle's factory and the other a beautiful socialite. The novel had been filmed once before, as An American Tragedy, in 1931.
A Place in the Sun was directed by George Stevens from a screenplay by Harry Brown and Michael Wilson, and stars Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Shelley Winters; its supporting actors included Anne Revere, and Raymond Burr.[1][2]
The film was a critical and commercial success, winning six Academy Awards and the first ever Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama. In 1991, A Place in the Sun was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot summary
2 Cast
3 Reception
4 Awards and nominations 4.1 Academy Awards
4.2 Other honors
5 References
6 External links

Plot summary[edit]
George Eastman (Montgomery Clift), the poor nephew of rich industrialist Charles Eastman (Herbert Heyes), arrives in town following a chance encounter with his uncle while working as a bellhop in a Chicago hotel. The elder Eastman invites George to visit him if and when he ever comes to town, and the ambitious young man takes advantage of the offer. Despite George's family relationship to the Eastmans, they regard him as something of an outsider, but his uncle nevertheless offers him an entry-level job at his factory. George, uncomplaining, hopes to impress his uncle (whom he addresses as "Mr. Eastman") with his hard work and earn his way up. While working in the factory, George starts dating fellow factory worker Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters), in defiance of the workplace rules. Alice is a poor and inexperienced girl who is dazzled by George and slow to believe that his Eastman name brings him no advantages.
Over time, George begins a slow move up the corporate ladder, into a supervisory position in the department where he began. He has submitted recommendations on improving production in his department, which finally catch the attention of his uncle, who invites him to their home for a social event. At the party, George finally meets "society girl" Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor), whom he has admired from afar since shortly after arriving in town, and they quickly fall in love. Being Angela's escort thrusts George into the intoxicating and carefree lifestyle of high society that his rich Eastman kin had denied him. When Alice announces that she is pregnant and makes it clear that she expects George to marry her, he puts her off, spending more and more of his time with Angela and his new well-heeled friends. An attempt to procure an abortion for Alice fails, and she renews her insistence on marriage. George is invited to join Angela at the Vickers's holiday lake house over Labor Day weekend, and excuses himself to Alice, saying that the visit will advance his career and accrue to the benefit of the coming child.
George and Angela spend time at secluded Loon Lake, and after hearing a story of a couple's supposed drowning there, with the man's body never being found, George hatches a plan to rid himself of Alice so that he can marry Angela.
Meanwhile, Alice finds a picture in the newspaper of George, Angela, and their friends, and realizes that George lied to her about his intentions for wanting to go to the lake. During a dinner which is attended by the Eastman and Vickers families, George appears to be on the verge of finally advancing into the business and social realm that he has long sought. However, Alice phones the house during the dinner party and asks to speak with George; she tells him that she is at the bus station, and that if he doesn't come to get her, she'll come to where he is and expose him. Visibly shaken, he contrives an excuse to the families that he must suddenly leave, but promises Angela he will return. The next morning, George and Alice drive to City Hall to get married but they find it closed for Labor Day, and George suggests spending the day at the nearby lake; Alice unsuspectingly agrees.
When they get to the lake, George acts visibly nervous when he rents a boat from a man who seems to deduce that George gave him a false name; the man's suspicions are aroused more when George asks him whether any other boaters are on the lake (none are). While they are out on the lake, Alice confesses her dreams about their happy future together with their child. As George apparently takes pity on her and, judging from his attitude, decides not to carry out his murderous plan, Alice tries to stand up in the boat, causing it to capsize, and Alice drowns.
George escapes, swims to shore, and eventually drives back up to the Vickers's lodge, where he tries to relax but is increasingly tense. He says nothing to anyone about having been on the lake or about what happened there. Meanwhile, Alice's body is discovered and her death is treated as a murder investigation almost from the first moment, while an abundant amount of evidence and witness reports stack up against George. Just as Angela's father approves Angela's marriage to him, George is arrested and charged with Alice's murder. Though the audience knows that the planned murder in fact turned into an accidental drowning, George's furtive actions before and after Alice's death condemn him. His denials are futile, and he is found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in the electric chair. Near the end, he confesses in his cell that he deserves to die because although he did not kill Alice, he wanted her dead in his heart, making him just as guilty as if he had killed her.
Cast[edit]
Montgomery Clift as George Eastman
Elizabeth Taylor as Angela Vickers
Shelley Winters as Alice Tripp
Anne Revere as Hannah Eastman
Keefe Brasselle as Earl Eastman
Fred Clark as Bellows, defense attorney
Raymond Burr as Dist. Atty. R. Frank Marlowe
Herbert Heyes as Charles Eastman
 Shepperd Strudwick as Anthony 'Tony' Vickers
Frieda Inescort as Mrs. Ann Vickers
Kathryn Givney as Louise Eastman
Walter Sande as Art Jansen, George's Attorney
Ted de Corsia as Judge R.S. Oldendorff
John Ridgely as Coroner
Lois Chartrand as Marsha
Paul Frees as Rev. Morrison

All primary cast members are deceased.
Reception[edit]
The film earned an estimated $3.5 million at the US and Canadian box office and earned critical acclaim in 1951.[3][4]
Upon seeing the film, Charlie Chaplin called it 'the greatest movie ever made about America'.[5]
The film's acclaim did not completely hold up over time. Reappraisals of the film find that much of what was exciting about the film in 1951 is not as potent in the 21st century. Critics cite the soporific pace, the exaggerated melodrama, and the outdated social commentary as qualities present in A Place in the Sun that are not present in the great films of the era, such as those by Alfred Hitchcock. The performances however by Clift, Taylor and Winters continue to receive praise.[6][7][8][9]
Many still consider the film to be a classic too; it was featured on the AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies list of 1998, and the AFI 100 Years…100 Passions list of 2002, while the film holds a strong 75% rating on Rotten Tomatoes,[10] and in 2013 the British Film Institute rereleased the picture across the United Kingdom due to its significant merit.[11]
Awards and nominations[edit]

Academy Awards[edit]
WinsBest Cinematography, Black-and-White (William C. Mellor)
Best Costume Design, Black-and-White (Edith Head)
Best Director (George Stevens)
Best Film Editing (William Hornbeck)
Best Original Score (Franz Waxman)
Best Writing, Screenplay (Michael Wilson and Harry Brown)
NominationsBest Actor in a Leading Role (Montgomery Clift)
Best Actress in a Leading Role (Shelley Winters)
Best Picture

Other honors[edit]
American Film Institute recognitionAFI's 100 Years...100 Movies - #92
AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions - #53
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes: "I love you. I've loved you since the first moment I saw you. I guess maybe I’ve even loved you before I saw you." - Nominated[12]
AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores - Nominated[13]
AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - Nominated[14]
Golden Globe AwardBest Picture (Drama)
Directors Guild of America AwardBest Director
Cannes Film FestivalIn competition (1951)[15]

References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Variety film review; July 18, 1951, p. 6.
2.Jump up ^ Harrison's Reports film review; July 21, 1951, p. 115.
3.Jump up ^ 'The Top Box Office Hits of 1951', Variety, January 2, 1952
4.Jump up ^ Golden, Herb. "Review: ‘A Place in the Sun.’" Variety. 18 July 1951. 9 April 2014.
5.Jump up ^ Andrew, Geoff. "A Place in the Sun." "Cinematheque".
6.Jump up ^ Kehr, Dave. "A Place in the Sun." Chicago Reader. 9 April 2014.
7.Jump up ^ Huddleston, Tom. "A Place in the Sun (U)." Time Out. 29 January 2013. 9 April 2014.
8.Jump up ^ "A Place in the Sun." TV Guide. 9 April 2014.
9.Jump up ^ Maltin, Leonard. "A Place in the Sun." Turner Classic Movies. 9 April 2014.
10.Jump up ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/place_in_the_sun/
11.Jump up ^ Andrew, Geoff. "Hollywood's beautiful people." "BFI". 3 April 2013
12.Jump up ^ AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes Nominees
13.Jump up ^ AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores Nominees
14.Jump up ^ AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) Ballot
15.Jump up ^ "Festival de Cannes: A Place in the Sun". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved January 16, 2009.
External links[edit]
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to A Place in the Sun (film).
A Place in the Sun at the Internet Movie Database
A Place in the Sun at Rotten Tomatoes
A Place in the Sun at the TCM Movie Database
"A Place in the Sun" at TV Guide
A Place in the Sun (1951) at Filmsite.org


[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by George Stevens
































[show]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama



































































  


Categories: 1951 films
English-language films
American drama films
Paramount Pictures films
1950s drama films
Film noir
Film scores by Franz Waxman
Films based on American novels
Best Drama Picture Golden Globe winners
Films whose director won the Best Director Academy Award
United States National Film Registry films
Films directed by George Stevens
Films whose writer won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award
Films whose cinematographer won the Best Cinematography Academy Award
Films whose editor won the Best Film Editing Academy Award
Films that won the Best Original Score Academy Award
Films that won the Best Costume Design Academy Award






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This page was last modified on 21 February 2015, at 05:59.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
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An American Tragedy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see American Tragedy (disambiguation).
An American Tragedy
AnAmericanTragedy.jpg
First edition, published in two volumes

Author
Theodore Dreiser
Country
US
Language
English
Genre
Crime fiction
Publisher
Boni & Liveright

Publication date
 December 17, 1925
An American Tragedy (1925) is a novel by the American writer Theodore Dreiser.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot summary
2 Influences and characteristics
3 Adaptations
4 Awards
5 References
6 Further reading

Plot summary[edit]
The ambitious but ill-educated, illusioned, and immature Clyde Griffiths is raised by poor and devoutly religious parents who force him to participate in their street missionary work, and on reaching young adulthood takes low-status jobs as a soda jerk and then as a bellhop at a top Kansas City hotel. There, his more sophisticated colleagues introduce him to alcohol and prostitutes. Clyde enjoys his new lifestyle and becomes infatuated with the mercenary Hortense Briggs, who exploits this characteristic of Clyde by compelling him to buy her an expensive jacket in exchange for love, even though she clearly does not want him to be her partner. Hortense instead wants another person named Sparser, and this is clear to Clyde who is immediately and extremely jealous, but Hortense repeatedly reassures Clyde that she loves him, though she really wants him just for the jacket. Later, Clyde's life changes dramatically when Sparser, driving a stolen vehicle with everybody inside (including Clyde's colleagues), runs over a little girl and kills her, and then, trying to flee from the police, crashes into an object, and everybody inside but Sparser and his partner are still conscious and flee. This cycle of unfortunate events is bound to repeat later in the story with Clyde and another girl, later resulting in the novel being a tragedy. Clyde flees Kansas City, and while working as bellboy at an exclusive club in Chicago, he meets his wealthy uncle Samuel Griffiths, the owner of a shirt-collar factory in the fictional Lycurgus, New York. Samuel, feeling guilt for neglecting his poor relations, offers to help Clyde if he will come to Lycurgus. When Clyde does so he gives him first a menial, then a supervisory job at the collar factory, while not accepting him into the Griffiths' upper-class social circle.
It is made clear to Clyde that as a Griffiths, he should not consort with the working people of Lycurgus, and specifically with the women under his supervision. As he is not taken up socially by the Griffiths' set, he suffers loneliness. In this position, he is attracted to Roberta Alden, a poor and innocent farm girl working in his department, who falls in love with him. Clyde initially enjoys the clandestine relationship (forbidden by factory rules); he ultimately persuades her to have sex with him rather than lose him, and makes her pregnant. Meanwhile the elegant Sondra Finchley, daughter of a Lycurgus factory owner, takes an interest in Clyde primarily to spite his cousin Gilbert, with whom she is on bad terms. Clyde's engaging manner makes him popular among the young smart set and provides him with opportunities to develop a relationship with Sondra. The pregnant Roberta expects him to marry her, but Clyde dreams instead of marrying Sondra.



Dust jacket of early edition of An American Tragedy, published by Boni & Liveright, 1926
Having unsuccessfully attempted to procure an abortion for Roberta, Clyde procrastinates while his relationship with Sondra matures. When he realizes that he has a genuine chance to marry Sondra, and after Roberta threatens to reveal their relationship unless he marries her, Clyde reluctantly devises a plan to murder Roberta in an ostensible boating accident, having seen a news report of such a case.
Clyde takes Roberta on a row boat on Big Bittern Lake in upstate New York and rows to a remote area. As he speaks to her regarding the end of their relationship, Roberta moves towards him, and he unintentionally strikes her in the face with his camera, stunning her and capsizing the boat, rendering it all an accident instead of a murder. Roberta, unable to swim, drowns while Clyde, unwilling to save her, swims to shore. The narrative does imply (without stating explicitly) that the blow was accidental, but the trail of circumstantial evidence left by the panicky and guilt-ridden Clyde points to murder. The local authorities are eager to convict Clyde, to the point of manufacturing additional evidence against him, although he repeatedly incriminates himself with his confused and contradictory testimony. A sensational trial before an unsympathetic and prejudiced audience of mostly religious conservative farmers ensues; despite a vigorous (and untruthful) defense mounted by two lawyers hired by his uncle, Clyde is convicted, sentenced to death, and (an appeal having failed) is executed by electric chair. The jailhouse scenes and the correspondence between Clyde and his mother stand out as exemplars of pathos in modern literature.
Influences and characteristics[edit]
Dreiser based the book on a notorious criminal case. On July 11, 1906, resort owners found an overturned boat and the body of 20-year-old Grace Brown at Big Moose Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York. Chester Gillette was put on trial and convicted of killing Brown, though he claimed that her death was a suicide. Gillette was executed by electric chair on March 30, 1908.[1] The murder trial drew international attention when Brown's love letters to Gillette were read in court. Dreiser saved newspaper clippings about the case for several years before writing his novel, during which he studied the case closely. He based Clyde Griffiths on Chester Gillette, deliberately giving him the same initials.
The novel is a tragedy in the strict sense, Clyde's destruction being the consequence of his innate weaknesses: moral and physical cowardice, lack of scruple and self-discipline, muddled intellect and unfocused ambition; additionally, the effect of his ingratiating (Dreiser uses the word "soft") social manner places temptation in his way which he cannot resist.
This novel is full of symbolism, ranging from Clyde's grotesque description of the high gloomy walls of the factory as an opportunity for success, symbolizing how it is all a mirage, to the description of girls as "electrifying" to foreshadow Clyde's destination to the electric chair; Dreiser transforms everyday mundane objects to symbols.
Dreiser sustains readers' interest in the lengthy novel (over 800 pages) by the accumulation of detail and by continually varying the "emotional distance" of his writing from Clyde and other characters, from detailed examination of their thoughts and motivations to dispassionate reportage.[2]
Adaptations[edit]
The novel has been adapted several times into other forms and the storyline has been used, not always unattributed, as the basis for other works:
A first stage adaptation written by Patrick Kearney for Broadway premiered at the Longacre Theatre in New York on October 11, 1926.
Sergei Eisenstein prepared a screenplay in the late 1920s which he hoped to have produced by Paramount or by Charlie Chaplin during Eisenstein's stay in Hollywood in 1930.
In April 1929 Dreiser agreed that German director Erwin Piscator should produce a stage version of An American Tragedy. Piscator's stage adaptation premiered in Vienna in April 1932 and made its US debut in April 1935 at the Hedgerow Theatre, Rose Valley. The play was produced as well by Lee Strasberg at the Group Theatre in March 1936 and again by the Hedgerow Theatre in September 2010 (where it was wrongly credited to Piscator's wife Maria Ley).
Dreiser strongly disapproved of a 1931 film version directed by Josef von Sternberg and also released by Paramount.
In the 1940s the novel inspired an episode of the award-winning old-time radio comedy Our Miss Brooks, an episode known as "Weekend at Crystal Lake" and sometimes known as "An American Tragedy." The episode revolved around the characters' misinterpreting the intentions of biology teacher Philip Boyton (played by Jeff Chandler), Connie Brooks's (Eve Arden) high school colleague and love interest. The characters fear that Boynton plans to kill Miss Brooks during a leisurely weekend at their boss's lakeside retreat. The episode was broadcast twice, on September 19, 1948, and — with very minor changes — on August 21, 1949. The episode was also repeated in 1955, at a time when the show was a hit on both radio and television.[3]
The 1951 Paramount Pictures film A Place in the Sun, directed by George Stevens and starring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, is strongly based on the novel.
Further television or film adaptations of An American Tragedy have been produced in Brazil (Um Lugar ao Sol, TV series, 1959, director: Dionísio Azevedo), Italy ("it:Una tragedia americana", Rai 1, 1962, regista: Anton Giulio Majano), Czechoslovakia (Americká tragédia, TV series, 1976, director: Stanislav Párnicky), Philippines (Nakaw na pag-ibig, film, 1980, director: Lino Brocka) and Japan (Hi no ataru basho, TV series, 1982, director: Masami Ryuji).
It was transformed into an opera by composer Tobias Picker. It premiered at the Metropolitan Opera starring Nathan Gunn in New York on December 2, 2005.
Critics and commentators have compared elements of Woody Allen's film, Match Point (2005) to the central plot of the novel.[4][5]
The novel has also been adapted into a musical of the same title by three-time Tony Award winning composer and lyricist Charles Strouse. It had its premiere at Muhlenberg College, located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, United States on March 24, 2010.
Awards[edit]
In 2005, the book was placed on Time Magazine's list of the top 100 novels written in English since 1923.[6]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Nelson, Randy F. The Almanac of American Letters. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc., 1981: 195–196. ISBN 0-86576-008-X
2.Jump up ^ Howe, Irving (1964). Afterword to Signet edition. Signet.
3.Jump up ^ www.vicandsade.net
4.Jump up ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2006/jan/08/review.features7
5.Jump up ^ http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/01/09/060109crci_cinema
6.Jump up ^ TIME Specials: ALL TIME 100 Novels, Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo, Time, 16 October 2005. Accessed 2011-10-23.
Further reading[edit]
An American Tragedy: A Study Guide
Theodore Dreiser: An American Tragedy The Library of America. Accessed on October 28, 2005.
"Double Exposure," an article about differences between the two film versions of An American Tragedy, in Opera News, December 2005, pp. 24–31. [1]


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Works by Theodore Dreiser


Novels
Sister Carrie ·
 Jennie Gerhardt ·
 The Financier ·
 The Titan ·
 The "Genius" ·
 An American Tragedy ·
 The Bulwark ·
 The Stoic
 
Theodore Dreiser 2.jpg


Short stories
Free and Other Stories ·
 Twelve Men ·
 Chains: Lesser Novels and Stories ·
 A Gallery of Women
 

Plays
Plays of the Natural and Supernatural ·
 The Hand of the Potter
 

Poetry
Moods
 

Autobiography
A Traveller at Forty ·
 A Hoosier Holiday ·
 A Book About Myself (Newspaper Days) ·
 Dawn ·
 An Amateur Laborer
 

Essays
Hey Rub-a-Dub-Dub: A Book of the Mystery and Wonder and Terror of Life ·
 The Color of a Great City ·
 Dreiser Looks at Russia ·
 Tragic America ·
 America Is Worth Saving ·
 Notes on Life
 

  


Categories: 1925 novels
American novels adapted into films
Books by Theodore Dreiser
Novels by Theodore Dreiser


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An American Tragedy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see American Tragedy (disambiguation).
An American Tragedy
AnAmericanTragedy.jpg
First edition, published in two volumes

Author
Theodore Dreiser
Country
US
Language
English
Genre
Crime fiction
Publisher
Boni & Liveright

Publication date
 December 17, 1925
An American Tragedy (1925) is a novel by the American writer Theodore Dreiser.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot summary
2 Influences and characteristics
3 Adaptations
4 Awards
5 References
6 Further reading

Plot summary[edit]
The ambitious but ill-educated, illusioned, and immature Clyde Griffiths is raised by poor and devoutly religious parents who force him to participate in their street missionary work, and on reaching young adulthood takes low-status jobs as a soda jerk and then as a bellhop at a top Kansas City hotel. There, his more sophisticated colleagues introduce him to alcohol and prostitutes. Clyde enjoys his new lifestyle and becomes infatuated with the mercenary Hortense Briggs, who exploits this characteristic of Clyde by compelling him to buy her an expensive jacket in exchange for love, even though she clearly does not want him to be her partner. Hortense instead wants another person named Sparser, and this is clear to Clyde who is immediately and extremely jealous, but Hortense repeatedly reassures Clyde that she loves him, though she really wants him just for the jacket. Later, Clyde's life changes dramatically when Sparser, driving a stolen vehicle with everybody inside (including Clyde's colleagues), runs over a little girl and kills her, and then, trying to flee from the police, crashes into an object, and everybody inside but Sparser and his partner are still conscious and flee. This cycle of unfortunate events is bound to repeat later in the story with Clyde and another girl, later resulting in the novel being a tragedy. Clyde flees Kansas City, and while working as bellboy at an exclusive club in Chicago, he meets his wealthy uncle Samuel Griffiths, the owner of a shirt-collar factory in the fictional Lycurgus, New York. Samuel, feeling guilt for neglecting his poor relations, offers to help Clyde if he will come to Lycurgus. When Clyde does so he gives him first a menial, then a supervisory job at the collar factory, while not accepting him into the Griffiths' upper-class social circle.
It is made clear to Clyde that as a Griffiths, he should not consort with the working people of Lycurgus, and specifically with the women under his supervision. As he is not taken up socially by the Griffiths' set, he suffers loneliness. In this position, he is attracted to Roberta Alden, a poor and innocent farm girl working in his department, who falls in love with him. Clyde initially enjoys the clandestine relationship (forbidden by factory rules); he ultimately persuades her to have sex with him rather than lose him, and makes her pregnant. Meanwhile the elegant Sondra Finchley, daughter of a Lycurgus factory owner, takes an interest in Clyde primarily to spite his cousin Gilbert, with whom she is on bad terms. Clyde's engaging manner makes him popular among the young smart set and provides him with opportunities to develop a relationship with Sondra. The pregnant Roberta expects him to marry her, but Clyde dreams instead of marrying Sondra.



Dust jacket of early edition of An American Tragedy, published by Boni & Liveright, 1926
Having unsuccessfully attempted to procure an abortion for Roberta, Clyde procrastinates while his relationship with Sondra matures. When he realizes that he has a genuine chance to marry Sondra, and after Roberta threatens to reveal their relationship unless he marries her, Clyde reluctantly devises a plan to murder Roberta in an ostensible boating accident, having seen a news report of such a case.
Clyde takes Roberta on a row boat on Big Bittern Lake in upstate New York and rows to a remote area. As he speaks to her regarding the end of their relationship, Roberta moves towards him, and he unintentionally strikes her in the face with his camera, stunning her and capsizing the boat, rendering it all an accident instead of a murder. Roberta, unable to swim, drowns while Clyde, unwilling to save her, swims to shore. The narrative does imply (without stating explicitly) that the blow was accidental, but the trail of circumstantial evidence left by the panicky and guilt-ridden Clyde points to murder. The local authorities are eager to convict Clyde, to the point of manufacturing additional evidence against him, although he repeatedly incriminates himself with his confused and contradictory testimony. A sensational trial before an unsympathetic and prejudiced audience of mostly religious conservative farmers ensues; despite a vigorous (and untruthful) defense mounted by two lawyers hired by his uncle, Clyde is convicted, sentenced to death, and (an appeal having failed) is executed by electric chair. The jailhouse scenes and the correspondence between Clyde and his mother stand out as exemplars of pathos in modern literature.
Influences and characteristics[edit]
Dreiser based the book on a notorious criminal case. On July 11, 1906, resort owners found an overturned boat and the body of 20-year-old Grace Brown at Big Moose Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York. Chester Gillette was put on trial and convicted of killing Brown, though he claimed that her death was a suicide. Gillette was executed by electric chair on March 30, 1908.[1] The murder trial drew international attention when Brown's love letters to Gillette were read in court. Dreiser saved newspaper clippings about the case for several years before writing his novel, during which he studied the case closely. He based Clyde Griffiths on Chester Gillette, deliberately giving him the same initials.
The novel is a tragedy in the strict sense, Clyde's destruction being the consequence of his innate weaknesses: moral and physical cowardice, lack of scruple and self-discipline, muddled intellect and unfocused ambition; additionally, the effect of his ingratiating (Dreiser uses the word "soft") social manner places temptation in his way which he cannot resist.
This novel is full of symbolism, ranging from Clyde's grotesque description of the high gloomy walls of the factory as an opportunity for success, symbolizing how it is all a mirage, to the description of girls as "electrifying" to foreshadow Clyde's destination to the electric chair; Dreiser transforms everyday mundane objects to symbols.
Dreiser sustains readers' interest in the lengthy novel (over 800 pages) by the accumulation of detail and by continually varying the "emotional distance" of his writing from Clyde and other characters, from detailed examination of their thoughts and motivations to dispassionate reportage.[2]
Adaptations[edit]
The novel has been adapted several times into other forms and the storyline has been used, not always unattributed, as the basis for other works:
A first stage adaptation written by Patrick Kearney for Broadway premiered at the Longacre Theatre in New York on October 11, 1926.
Sergei Eisenstein prepared a screenplay in the late 1920s which he hoped to have produced by Paramount or by Charlie Chaplin during Eisenstein's stay in Hollywood in 1930.
In April 1929 Dreiser agreed that German director Erwin Piscator should produce a stage version of An American Tragedy. Piscator's stage adaptation premiered in Vienna in April 1932 and made its US debut in April 1935 at the Hedgerow Theatre, Rose Valley. The play was produced as well by Lee Strasberg at the Group Theatre in March 1936 and again by the Hedgerow Theatre in September 2010 (where it was wrongly credited to Piscator's wife Maria Ley).
Dreiser strongly disapproved of a 1931 film version directed by Josef von Sternberg and also released by Paramount.
In the 1940s the novel inspired an episode of the award-winning old-time radio comedy Our Miss Brooks, an episode known as "Weekend at Crystal Lake" and sometimes known as "An American Tragedy." The episode revolved around the characters' misinterpreting the intentions of biology teacher Philip Boyton (played by Jeff Chandler), Connie Brooks's (Eve Arden) high school colleague and love interest. The characters fear that Boynton plans to kill Miss Brooks during a leisurely weekend at their boss's lakeside retreat. The episode was broadcast twice, on September 19, 1948, and — with very minor changes — on August 21, 1949. The episode was also repeated in 1955, at a time when the show was a hit on both radio and television.[3]
The 1951 Paramount Pictures film A Place in the Sun, directed by George Stevens and starring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, is strongly based on the novel.
Further television or film adaptations of An American Tragedy have been produced in Brazil (Um Lugar ao Sol, TV series, 1959, director: Dionísio Azevedo), Italy ("it:Una tragedia americana", Rai 1, 1962, regista: Anton Giulio Majano), Czechoslovakia (Americká tragédia, TV series, 1976, director: Stanislav Párnicky), Philippines (Nakaw na pag-ibig, film, 1980, director: Lino Brocka) and Japan (Hi no ataru basho, TV series, 1982, director: Masami Ryuji).
It was transformed into an opera by composer Tobias Picker. It premiered at the Metropolitan Opera starring Nathan Gunn in New York on December 2, 2005.
Critics and commentators have compared elements of Woody Allen's film, Match Point (2005) to the central plot of the novel.[4][5]
The novel has also been adapted into a musical of the same title by three-time Tony Award winning composer and lyricist Charles Strouse. It had its premiere at Muhlenberg College, located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, United States on March 24, 2010.
Awards[edit]
In 2005, the book was placed on Time Magazine's list of the top 100 novels written in English since 1923.[6]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Nelson, Randy F. The Almanac of American Letters. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc., 1981: 195–196. ISBN 0-86576-008-X
2.Jump up ^ Howe, Irving (1964). Afterword to Signet edition. Signet.
3.Jump up ^ www.vicandsade.net
4.Jump up ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2006/jan/08/review.features7
5.Jump up ^ http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/01/09/060109crci_cinema
6.Jump up ^ TIME Specials: ALL TIME 100 Novels, Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo, Time, 16 October 2005. Accessed 2011-10-23.
Further reading[edit]
An American Tragedy: A Study Guide
Theodore Dreiser: An American Tragedy The Library of America. Accessed on October 28, 2005.
"Double Exposure," an article about differences between the two film versions of An American Tragedy, in Opera News, December 2005, pp. 24–31. [1]


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Works by Theodore Dreiser


Novels
Sister Carrie ·
 Jennie Gerhardt ·
 The Financier ·
 The Titan ·
 The "Genius" ·
 An American Tragedy ·
 The Bulwark ·
 The Stoic
 
Theodore Dreiser 2.jpg


Short stories
Free and Other Stories ·
 Twelve Men ·
 Chains: Lesser Novels and Stories ·
 A Gallery of Women
 

Plays
Plays of the Natural and Supernatural ·
 The Hand of the Potter
 

Poetry
Moods
 

Autobiography
A Traveller at Forty ·
 A Hoosier Holiday ·
 A Book About Myself (Newspaper Days) ·
 Dawn ·
 An Amateur Laborer
 

Essays
Hey Rub-a-Dub-Dub: A Book of the Mystery and Wonder and Terror of Life ·
 The Color of a Great City ·
 Dreiser Looks at Russia ·
 Tragic America ·
 America Is Worth Saving ·
 Notes on Life
 

  


Categories: 1925 novels
American novels adapted into films
Books by Theodore Dreiser
Novels by Theodore Dreiser


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This page was last modified on 27 February 2015, at 16:30.
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An American Tragedy (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see American Tragedy (disambiguation).

An American Tragedy

Directed by
Josef von Sternberg
Screenplay by
Samuel Hoffenstein
Based on
An American Tragedy
 by Theodore Dreiser
Starring
Phillips Holmes
Sylvia Sydney
 and Frances Dee
Cinematography
Lee Garmes
Distributed by
Paramount Pictures

Release dates

August 22, 1931


Running time
 96 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
An American Tragedy is a 1931 sound film drama produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures and directed by Josef von Sternberg. The film is based on Theodore Dreiser's 1925 novel An American Tragedy which itself alludes to the real life 1906 murder of Grace Brown allegedly by Chester Gillette.[1]
Before this film was made, a play version debuted on Broadway in 1926. In the cast was an unknown actress named Miriam Hopkins.[2]


Contents  [hide]
1 Cast
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

Cast[edit]
Phillips Holmes - Clyde Griffiths
Sylvia Sidney - 'Bert' Alden
Frances Dee - Sondra Finchley
Irving Pichel - District Attorney
Frederick Burton - Samuel Griffiths
Claire McDowell - Mrs. Samuel Griffiths
Wallace Middleton - Gilbert Griffiths
 Emmett Corrigan - Clyde's attorney
Charles B. Middleton - Clyde's second attorney
Lucille La Verne - Mrs. Asa Griffiths
Albert Hart - Titus Alden
Fanny Midgley - Mrs. Alden
Arnold Korff - The Judge
Russ Powell (as Russell Powell) - The Coroner

See also[edit]
The House That Shadows Built (1931 promotional film by Paramount)
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films:1931-40 by The American Film Institute, c. 1993
2.Jump up ^ An American Tragedy as produced on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre, October 11 1926 to April 1927, 216 performances; IBDb.com
External links[edit]
An American Tragedy at IMDb
synopsis An American Tragedy at AllMovie


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by Josef von Sternberg


Silent films
The Salvation Hunters ·
 Exquisite Sinner ·
 A Woman of the Sea ·
 Underworld ·
 The Last Command ·
 The Drag Net ·
 The Docks of New York ·
 The Case of Lena Smith
 

Sound films
Thunderbolt ·
 The Blue Angel ·
 Morocco ·
 Dishonored ·
 An American Tragedy ·
 Shanghai Express ·
 Blonde Venus ·
 The Scarlet Empress ·
 The Devil Is a Woman ·
 Crime and Punishment ·
 The King Steps Out ·
 I, Claudius (unfinished) ·
 Sergeant Madden ·
 The Shanghai Gesture ·
 The Town ·
 Macao ·
 Anatahan ·
 Jet Pilot
 




Stub icon This 1930s drama film-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.




  


Categories: 1931 films
English-language films
American drama films
Films directed by Josef von Sternberg
Films based on American novels
1930s drama films
1930s drama film stubs





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This page was last modified on 29 September 2014, at 17:12.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_American_Tragedy_(film)










An American Tragedy (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see American Tragedy (disambiguation).

An American Tragedy

Directed by
Josef von Sternberg
Screenplay by
Samuel Hoffenstein
Based on
An American Tragedy
 by Theodore Dreiser
Starring
Phillips Holmes
Sylvia Sydney
 and Frances Dee
Cinematography
Lee Garmes
Distributed by
Paramount Pictures

Release dates

August 22, 1931


Running time
 96 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
An American Tragedy is a 1931 sound film drama produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures and directed by Josef von Sternberg. The film is based on Theodore Dreiser's 1925 novel An American Tragedy which itself alludes to the real life 1906 murder of Grace Brown allegedly by Chester Gillette.[1]
Before this film was made, a play version debuted on Broadway in 1926. In the cast was an unknown actress named Miriam Hopkins.[2]


Contents  [hide]
1 Cast
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

Cast[edit]
Phillips Holmes - Clyde Griffiths
Sylvia Sidney - 'Bert' Alden
Frances Dee - Sondra Finchley
Irving Pichel - District Attorney
Frederick Burton - Samuel Griffiths
Claire McDowell - Mrs. Samuel Griffiths
Wallace Middleton - Gilbert Griffiths
 Emmett Corrigan - Clyde's attorney
Charles B. Middleton - Clyde's second attorney
Lucille La Verne - Mrs. Asa Griffiths
Albert Hart - Titus Alden
Fanny Midgley - Mrs. Alden
Arnold Korff - The Judge
Russ Powell (as Russell Powell) - The Coroner

See also[edit]
The House That Shadows Built (1931 promotional film by Paramount)
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films:1931-40 by The American Film Institute, c. 1993
2.Jump up ^ An American Tragedy as produced on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre, October 11 1926 to April 1927, 216 performances; IBDb.com
External links[edit]
An American Tragedy at IMDb
synopsis An American Tragedy at AllMovie


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Films directed by Josef von Sternberg


Silent films
The Salvation Hunters ·
 Exquisite Sinner ·
 A Woman of the Sea ·
 Underworld ·
 The Last Command ·
 The Drag Net ·
 The Docks of New York ·
 The Case of Lena Smith
 

Sound films
Thunderbolt ·
 The Blue Angel ·
 Morocco ·
 Dishonored ·
 An American Tragedy ·
 Shanghai Express ·
 Blonde Venus ·
 The Scarlet Empress ·
 The Devil Is a Woman ·
 Crime and Punishment ·
 The King Steps Out ·
 I, Claudius (unfinished) ·
 Sergeant Madden ·
 The Shanghai Gesture ·
 The Town ·
 Macao ·
 Anatahan ·
 Jet Pilot
 




Stub icon This 1930s drama film-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.




  


Categories: 1931 films
English-language films
American drama films
Films directed by Josef von Sternberg
Films based on American novels
1930s drama films
1930s drama film stubs





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Languages
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Edit links
This page was last modified on 29 September 2014, at 17:12.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
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Powered by MediaWiki
   
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_American_Tragedy_(film)