Guy falls in love with co-worker. Then has a chance with a society girl and wants to dump the working class girl, except she’s pregnant. Invites walking class girl to join him on a boat…
If this story sounds familiar, then you’ve probably seen the 1951 George Stevens film, A Place in the Sun, starring Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Shelley Winters. Although that’s the film adaptation of Theodore Dreiser‘s novel that’s best remembered today, it’s not the one that came first or the one that shares the same name as Dreiser’s novel.
An American Tragedy (1931) is the pre-code version directed by Josef von Sternberg for Paramount as a job to do while Marlene Dietrich was away in Germany (von Sternberg being the director who helped create Dietrich’s early screen image).
Starring Phillips Holmes as Clyde, the factory foreman who’s more than happy to pursue Roberta (Sylvia Sidney) until he meets Sondra (Frances Dee) and starts to get ideas, the film is a fascinating counterpoint to A Place in the Sun, especially in terms of how differently they approach the two female leads.
Sidney is up there with Setsuko Hara, in terms of actresses who can crush a person with a mere facial expression and, in An American Tragedy, Sidney’s face is an open book of Roberta’s insecurities. Her performance is the reason to watch this movie and the film is completely sympathetic towards her (unlike Winters’ Roberta in A Place in the Sun, who it’s suggested is more of a nag even if she doesn’t deserve her fate)
On the opposite extreme, Dee’s Sondra doesn’t make a dent in An American Tragedy, more as she has little to do than because her performance is to blame. She’s forgettable in a way Elizabeth Taylor is never going to be, which is why the casting of both these movies is so critical. No one is going to be expected to be immune to Taylor.
Bonus Features:
For anyone unfamiliar with the story, the water imagery in this film would be innocuous if notably prevalent. However, both film historians Imogen Sarah Smith (in her booklet essay) and Josh Nelson (in his commentary) discuss the significance of water in their contributions.
Nelson’s commentary is extremely informative in general, from revealing that the film’s opening moments were written by S. K. Lauren (not Samuel Hoffenstein, who wrote the rest of the screenplay) and why, to creating food for thought when it comes to Holmes’ performance. While I’m not sure that I’ve come around to some of his acting choices, I have seen them in a different light thanks to Nelson.
There’s also a typically excellent featurette by writer Tony Rayns, who explains how von Sternberg came to direct the picture after Paramount initially signed Sergei Eisenstein (Jeff Billington’s booklet essay gets into this as well).
Film historian Tag Gallagher provides a video essay which considers the intentions of Dreiser’s novel (in blaming Clyde’s behavior on how he was nurtured) versus von Sternberg’s visual emphasis on nature.
Additional bonus features include two audio-only interviews – one with von Sternberg and the other with cinematographer Lee Garmes. The latter plays over the movie. The former is shorter and plays to a black screen, but both were recorded in 1958 by film historian George Pratt.
An American Tragedy is available on Region 2 Blu-ray from Indicator.
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