NFR Project: 'A Place in the Sun' (1951)

 

NFR Project: “A Place in the Sun”

Dir: George Stevens

Scr: Michael Wilson, Harry Brown

Pho: William C. Mellor

Ed: William Hornbeck

Premiere: Aug. 14, 1951

122 min.

It’s derived from Theodore Dreiser’s 1925 novel An American Tragedy – and it certainly is. It’s a profound critique of capitalism garbed in a true-crime plot. Grace Brown fell in love with Chester Gillette, who was the nephew of the factory owner for whom Brown worked. In 1906, Grace Brown was murdered by her lover by drowning after she revealed to him that she was pregnant. Her love letters to him, which he kept, damned him. He was executed in the electric chair.

In the film, George Eastman (Montgomery Clift) is an ambitious young man without any education or connections. He falls in with his rich uncle, who hires him to work at his factory. George agrees, and while working there falls into a relationship with shopgirl Alice (Shelley Winters) – which is forbidden by company policy.

George meets and falls in love with Angela (Elizabeth Taylor), a beautiful and wealthy young socialite. Suddenly, Alice announces she is pregnant. George puts her off, keeping their relationship secret while he sucks up to and hangs around with Angela, her parents, and her rich friends. He explains to Alice that he is just trying to better their lot in life by being promoted.

Finally, Alice gives him an ultimatum. He must marry her. They go to the Justice of the Peace, but his office is closed due to Labor Day. George proposes that they spend the night at a nearby lodge. He pretends the car is out of gas, then rents a boat for the two of them under a false name.

They row far out onto the lake and Alice tries to reason with him, telling him how they will be happy, if poor; and finally wonders if he wants her dead. He denies it angrily; she stands up and capsizes the boat. She drowns; he swims to shore.

George tries to cover his tracks, but he does so poorly, and is soon apprehended. Raymond Burr has a fine turn as an intrepid prosecuting attorney; George is promptly found guilty.

In an improbable coda, Angela visits George on Death Row, proclaims her undying love for him and kisses him. As he is marched to the site of execution, his mind goes back to a vision of Angela’s rapturous face.

Poor George. His social, romantic, and economic ambitions completely dull him to compassion and good sense. His desire to be with Angela and be a big shot turns him into a murderer, in thought if not in deed. Clift plays George as a person devoid of character; thinking only in terms of the immediate future. Clift and Winters were nominated for Oscars. The film won six Oscars, including Best Director for George Stevens.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: A Streetcar Named Desire.

NFR Project: 'Gerald McBoing-Boing" (1950)

 

NFR Project: “Gerald McBoing-Boing”

Dir: Robert Cannon, John Hubley

Scr: Dr. Seuss, Phil Eastman, Bill Scott

Premiere: Nov. 4, 1950

7 min.

This delighted short animated subject was created at the studios of United Productions of America (UPA). UPA was an independent animation production house, made up primarily of defectors from Disney studios. They broke away from the realistic style of the time and emphasized a free and stylized approach that influenced animators who followed. It won the Oscar for Best Animated Short.

It’s the story of the boy of the title, Gerald McClory, who speaks only in sound effects. (The story, by Dr. Seuss, was originally made for a sound recording scored by Billy May and narrated by Hal Peary. Here, Marvin Miller provides the narration and all the voices.) He doesn’t get along with his schoolmates, who call him “Gerald McBoing-Boing.” After angering his father, Gerald decides to run away, but before he can hop a freight train, he is buttonholed by a radio executive. The man signs him up to do all the effects for his radio shows, which Gerald does par excellence. Now a success, everyone is happy about his unique talent.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Notes on the Port of St. Francis.

NFR Project: 'Duck and Cover' (1952)

  

NFR Project: “Duck and Cover”

Dir: Anthony Rizzo

Scr: Raymond J. Mauer

Pho: Drummond Drury

Premiere: 1952

9:15

It’s the most dissociative thing I’ve ever seen. It consciencelessly lies to children about their chances of survival in an atomic attack. It’s what was known as a civil-defense film; it was propaganda.

I am a Space Age kid. Born in 1960, I grew up in a house with a bomb shelter in the basement. You can read that story here.

During the Cold War, the uncertainty about the perils of Communism and the Soviet Union was intense. It provoked a second Red Scare, from 1946 to 1957 (the first being in 1919-1920). It motivated people to build bomb shelters in their backyards. Public buildings had yellow-and-back signs on them stating their status as a “Fallout Shelter.” The idea of nuclear annihilation was thought to be high, especially after the Soviets exploded their first atomic bomb in August of 1949.

There were a lot of misconceptions about what an atomic bomb could do to you, despite the excruciating reporting of John Hersey in his Hiroshima in 1946. This film reinforces them all.

We are shown a cartoon turtle, Bert. A monkey dangles a firecracker in front of him; Bert goes into his shell. The firecracker blows up. The monkey vanishes; the tree is wrecked. Bert is fine. And a cute little jingle proclaims: “There was a turtle by the name of Bert/and Bert the turtle was very alert/When danger threatened him he never got hurt/he knew just what to do:/He'd duck and cover!/Duck and cover!/He did what we all must learn to do/You, and you, and you, and you/Duck and cover!”

Then the film shows us what it means: schoolchildren get under their desks, clasp their hands behind their heads, and scrunch down into a ball. This is the government’s recommendation for the population in case of atomic attack. Duck and cover.

“If you were not ready and did not know what to do, it could hurt you in different ways.” No kidding.

In all probability, many of these schoolchildren would be vaporized. The survivors on the edges of the blast will all have been polluted with radiation, sporting tattered flesh. The film does not cover this. Instead, we are proffered the examples of good little children in various situations, ducking and covering. In the end, we are shown a family crouched under a picnic blanket.

This film was rightly cited extensively in the 1982 documentary The Atomic Café. It represents the wishful thinking of a generation of adults who had no idea what they were talking about.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Gerald McBoing-Boing.