George Stevens won an Oscar for his 1951 adaptation of Theodore Dreiser's 1925 novel An American Tragedy, the plot from which most recently inspired Woody Allen's Match Point. Montgomery Clift's performance as a working-class man so drawn to a rich, beautiful girl (Elizabeth Taylor) that he contemplates killing his lower-class fiancee (Shelley Winters) is powerful, sympathetic, and mesmerizing. An 18-year-old Taylor makes a strong impression in her first adult role and Winters is great in the less-glamorous role. A Place in the Sun won five other Academy Awards for screenplay,score, cinematography, editing, and costume design. Mandy Merck, from the Media Arts Dept. at the University of London, will be giving a talk on An American Tragedy and its film adaptations on Monday, April 2 at 4:30pm in HEC Auditorium in Goldwin Smith as part of the Ruth Woolsey Findley and William Nichols Findley History of Art Distinguished Lecture Series, hosted by the Department of History of Art and Archaeology at Cornell University. Cosponsored with the American Studies Program.
1951, color, 2 hours 1 minute, USA