Charles Chaplin attended an early prescreening of A Place in the Sun in Hollywood and told director George Stevens that "This is the greatest movie ever made about America." The press picked up on the quote and reported it widely as the movie opened.

Shelley Winters, referring to the drowning scene in A Place in the Sun, seemed to feel that water sequences were good luck, and later said in her autobiography, "...in every film where I've either drowned or had to swim, such as The Night of the Hunter [1955] and The Poseidon Adventure [1972], I have had a great personal success."

Anne Revere, memorable as Hannah Eastman, the mother who raised her son in a Salvation Army atmosphere, was brought up before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1951, the same year that A Place in the Sun was released. Here she pleaded the 5th, and refused to testify. As a result, she was blacklisted and the Stevens movie was her last film appearance for many years.

by John M. Miller

FAMOUS QUOTES from A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951)

Alice (Shelley Winters): You know what the girls would say if they saw me walking along like this with you - they'd say I was making up to the boss's nephew.
George (Montgomery Clift): That's silly. I'm in the same boat as the rest of you.
Alice: If you're an Eastman, you're not in the same boat with anyone.

George: You lonely all of the time?
Alice: Not on weekdays.
George: How come?
Alice: Well, remember how we put swimsuits in boxes six days a week?
George: (laughs) Yeah. What about Sunday? Maybe then you put yourself in a swimsuit.
Alice: Not me.
George: Why? You don't look good in a swimsuit?
Alice: Sure I do. I can't swim.

Angela (Elizabeth Taylor): You look unusual.
George: Hah! That's the first time anybody ever said that.
Angela: You keep pretty much to yourself, don't you?
George: Yes, sometimes.
Angela: Blue, or exclusive?
George: Well, I'm neither right now.

Alice: I think you could have phoned me.
George: Yeah, I know - I know, I could have phoned.
Alice: Never mind. (Motions to table) A present's waiting for you on your plate... Happy Birthday.
George: Thanks. (opens gift ? a new pen) Hey, that's wonderful. Why, I'd sure use that on my new job, huh?
Alice: Were there many young people there tonight?
George: A few, why?
Alice: Was your cousin Marsha there? All those other pretty girls you read about in the papers?
George: Some of them were, yes. They're not all pretty.
Alice: Was Angela Vickers?
George: What?
Alice: Pretty? Did you like her very much?
George: I liked her some. Sure, she's a pretty girl. She wears nice clothes.
Alice: Why shouldn't she with all that money?
George: Honey, why do you have to keep needling me all the time?
Alice: I can't help it. I still don't see why you couldn't tell them you had another appointment.
George: Oh, I can't tell them about you. You understand the fix we're in.
Alice: Yeah, I know. If the family found out about us, we'd both be out of a job.
Alice: George? Maybe you don't want to see me so much anymore. Is that it? Maybe you don't want to see me at all now that you're head of a department.

Alice: George, it's awful. I can't tell you now... Oh, I'm so afraid... George, I'm in trouble - real trouble, I think... Remember the first night we came here? Oh, I'm so worried.

George: It's wonderful when you're here. I can hold you. I can... I can see you. I can hold you next to me. But what's it gonna be like next week? All summer long? I'll still be just as much in love with you. You'll be gone.
Angela: But I'll be at the lake. You'll come up and see me. Oh, it's so beautiful there. You must come. I know my parents will be a problem, but you can come on the weekends when the kids from school are up there. You don't have to work weekends. That's the best time. If you don't come, I'll drive down here to see you. I'll pick you up outside the factory. You'll be my pickup. Oh, we'll arrange it somehow, whatever way we can. We'll have such wonderful times together, just the two of us.
George: I am the happiest person in the world.
Angela: The second happiest.
George: Oh, Angela, if I could only tell you how much I love you, if I could only tell you all.
Angela (whispering): Tell mama, tell mama all.

Dr. Wyeland (Ian Wolfe): I see. Mrs. Hamilton, when you went to the altar three months ago, you must have realized you might have to face a situation like this. Well now, once you make up your mind to face this bravely, you'll find all these problems have a way of sorting themselves out. Medical bills, clothes. I know, my wife and I worried at first, but now we can look back and realize...
Alice: (tearful) It's not like that. I'm not married. I haven't got a husband.
Dr. Wyeland: All right. That won't do any good. Where's the young man?
Alice: He deserted me. What'll I do? Somebody's gotta help me.
Dr. Wyeland: Miss Hamilton, my advice is go home and see your parents and tell them. It will be much better that way, I assure you. So if you've come here to place yourself under my professional care during your pregnancy, I'll do everything to insure your health and that of your child. On the other hand, if you've just come for... free advice on material and financial problems which I can't help you... No, I cannot help you.

Angela: It's in two parts with a little channel in-between. There's a crumbly old lodge down at the end of the other part, and its crumbly old boats. It's nice now. At night it's weird, especially at sundown. I've never been able to feel the same about it since the drowning.
George: What drowning?
Angela: A man and a girl last summer. Nobody knows exactly what happened. I guess their boat capsized. It was five days before they found the girl's body.
George: And the man?
Angela: They never found him.
George: What was that?
Angela: A loon.

Alice: I'm here at the bus station. You lied to me, George, for the last time. Now I want you to come and get me.
George: It's not going to be too easy right now.
Alice: NOW!
George: Tomorrow morning.
Alice: I said NOW! If you're not here in half an hour, I'll come where you are. I'll tell them everything George, I mean it.

George: Say, there's a wonderful lake near here, Loon Lake, just the kind of place you've always wanted to go for a honeymoon. We could go up there. Hey, there's a lodge on it too. If you like, we could, uh, spend a day there, and then tomorrow we can come back here. Al, are you listening? Tell you what, why don't we - let's make a holiday out of it. Everybody else is. Why don't we go get some sandwiches? Then let's have a picnic on the lake. How's that?

Alice: It's lonely here. It's like we were the only two people left in the whole world. Maybe we are. Maybe when we get back to shore, everybody else will have disappeared. I'd like that, wouldn't you? Then we could go anywhere we wanted. We could live in the biggest house in the world. Only I'd like to live in a little house, just big enough for the two of us. Only there's gonna be more than two of us, isn't there? What's the matter, George? You look sick.
George: Nothing, well, I'm out of breath. I'm not used to rowing.

Angela: Darling, what is it?
George: I'm tired. I'm tired.
Angela: Yes, you must be.
George: Darling, let's never leave this place. Let's just stay here alone.
Angela: Don't let father upset you. I'm the one who counts.
George: You're the only one. The only one. People are gonna, they're gonna say things, I know it. Things about me, about me, I know. It's gonna make you stop loving me.
Angela: Shhh, don't talk like that.
Defense Attorney Bellows (Fred Clark): This boy is on trial for the act of murder - not for the thought of murder. Between the idea and the deed there's a world of difference. And if you find this boy guilty in desire but not guilty in deed, then he must walk out of this courtroom as free as you or I. However, since the prosecutor lacked evidence, he's given you prejudice; lacking facts, he's given you fantasy. Of all the witnesses he's paraded before you, not one actually saw what happened. I will now call to the stand an eyewitness - the only eyewitness - the only one who knows the truth, the whole truth. George Eastman, will you please take the stand?

Dist. Attorney R. Frank Marlowe (Raymond Burr): Eastman, that night when you left that dinner party at the house at Bride's Lake to meet Alice Tripp in the bus station, do you remember leaving anything behind you?
George: No, I don't. I don't remember leaving anything.
Marlowe: I'm referring to your heart, Eastman. Did you leave that behind you? Did you, Eastman? Out there on that terrace in the moonlight? You left behind, didn't you, the girl you loved - and, with her, your hopes, your ambitions, your dreams? Didn't you, Eastman? You left behind everything in the world you ever wanted, including the girl you loved. But you planned to return to it, didn't you, Eastman? Answer me!
George: Yes.

Hannah Eastman (Anne Revere): Death is a little thing, George. You mustn't be afraid of it. You must fear now only for your immortal soul. Blessings on your soul, my son. You must make your peace with God.
George: I don't believe I am guilty of all this. I don't know. I wish I knew.
Hannah: If you are guilty, then I too am guilty. I must share your guilt.

Angela: Goodbye, George. (She starts to leave, then turns back) Seems like we always spend the best part of our time just saying goodbye.

Compiled by John M. Miller