A stark retelling of Theodore Dreiser's naturalistic novel about love and social status. The author sued the production company for the liberties they took with the story. If Dreiser thought that von Sternberg's "An American Tragedy" took too many liberties, he must be known to the other cadavers as Ol' "Pinwheel" Dreiser after 1951's "A Place in the Sun," directed by George Stevens in an echt-romantic mode.Well, just look at the name changes from Dreiser to Stevens, for instance. "Clyde Griffiths" becomes "George Eastman." That in itself is an improvement over Dreiser. Who wants to sympathize with a guy named Clyde? Besides, the story -- in the book and in both films -- is set in upstate New York. And Rochester is in upstate New York, where "Eastman" is a name to conjure with. Look up Eastman School of Music in Rochester, or Eastman-Kodak. If George is less alienating than Clyde, then certainly Alice Tripp in 1951 is a quantum leap in pathos beyond 1931's Roberta Alden, and Angela Vickers is a rich improvement over Sondra Finchley.But the 1931 version, whatever Dreiser may have thought of it, is by no means bad. It's not nearly as manipulative as the later version, with Montgomery Clift looking so young, beautiful, and brooding. It's important to remember that von Sternberg was operating under the technological strictures of the period. The sound is crummy. That's because recording techniques were primitive in 1931. There were mikes hidden in boutonnieres, coffee cups, table lamps, and various other props like toilet facilities. (Well, not that.) In this movie, Clyde (Philip Holmes, Philip Holmes in a deliciously ambiguous performance) comes from a stern but loving religious family. He runs into a rich relative who gives him a job out of pity in a factory in New York state, near the town of Fonda, named after THAT family. Clyde is a lonesome young fellow, naive with a dash of the engaging charm that obvious ignorance sometimes brings with it. Against the rules he courts and seduces factory girl Roberta (Sylivia Sidney) and she winds up preggers. This puts Clyde's morality in a vice. Illegitimate children weren't looked on with pride in 1931 and their mothers were a disgrace in every respect. Meanwhile, Clyde is more and more estranged from Roberta because he's fallen in with the rich crowd of his relatives and because he's now in love with Sondra Finchley (Frances Dee, looking good. In fact, she looked even better with the passage of years: check out "I Walked With a Zombie"). Sondra takes Clyde out in a speedboat for a spin on the same lake where the other girl is about to meet her fate.What to do, what to do? The obvious answer is to take Roberta out in a rowboat to an isolate bay then throw the unswimming slut overboard. Clyde initiates the plan but once out in the boat finds himself incapable of murder. He spills the beans about his situation. Roberta, understandably upset, leaps to her feet and advances towards him until not only she but the rowboat are upset. She drowns while Clyde swims towards shore. It doesn't take the law long to pin it on Clyde, who is not only morally weak but pretty dumb. The courtroom scenes that follow may strike a modern viewer as overblown -- all the shouting and nastiness -- but a peek at the trial proceedings of Bruno Richard Hauptmann in the case of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping reveals that trials weren't nearly as decorous then as they are now. At any rate, both fictitious Clyde and factual Hauptmann suffer the same fate.And it's in these last scenes that Dreiser's novel beats both film versions. His description of the prison is captured with precision, the floor plan, the stone walls, the bars. His sketch stands out because elsewhere his prose can become unbuttoned: "She wore ruby earrings in her ears." And the somewhat air-headed rich girl, who speaks baby talk to Clyde, as in, "Is my widdle pooky wooky saddy waddy?", disappears from the plot at the first hint of scandal, never to be heard from again, thank God. That's as it should be.You won't regret having watched this if you have the chance.

Like all the studios Paramount did not believe in idle hands. In between Marlene Dietrich projects, Josef Von Sternberg got assigned to do this adaption of Theodore Dreiser's novel An American Tragedy. Of course Paramount's second adaption of this story A Place In The Sun is far better known.Paramount was never known as a studio which did films with a message of social significance. Interesting to speculate what the results would have been had this been done at Warner Brothers. Von Sternberg did do a good piece of film making. But the story died at the box office. I suppose the story of a man trying to marry upward to secure a better place in society and the tragedy resulting just wasn't of interest to Depression audiences.Whether it was or it wasn't Paramount sold the next one with sex, the love story of Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor heating up the screen. That went over big in 1951.In this story Phillips Holmes is the ne'er do well relative of factory owner Samuel Griffiths who gives him a job in his factory, but keeps him at a distance socially. More than anything else Holmes wants acceptance from the upper crust.At the factory he drifts into an affair with fellow worker Sylvia Sidney, but when he sees rich Frances Dee she's the ticket to all he's ever wanted. But Sylvia's now pregnant, what's a guy to do?Dreiser's thoughts about class and class distinction are carefully preserved here. Yet in the most class conscious era in American history this didn't go over with the public. I guess even in those times you need a little sex to get people to the box office.All the leads performed well and I also would commend Irving Pichel as the prosecuting attorney. This part was also a milestone for Raymond Burr who did it in A Place In The Sun.An American Tragedy holds up well for today's audience which is also thinking about class distinctions and upward mobility today.

This seems much closer to the facts of Theodore Dreiser's great novel than the soapy 50s version, good in its own way, with Montgomery Clift.Even with florid Josef von Sternberg directing, the film follows the basic plot of the novel although there seem to be a few holes. Still, the courtroom scene is electric and makes this all worth it. I also like the casting of Phillips Holmes as Clyde. Holmes is able to capture the bizarre passions and inability to really care that embody Clyde. His subtle performance in the courtroom scenes, as he slowly breaks down and loses any sense of truth under the barrage of lawyers, is quite excellent. His voice goes higher and thinner as he becomes just a frightened boy answering the stupid questions posed by the sadistic and ambitious lawyers.Sylvia Sidney is quite good as the tragic Roberta, and Frances Dee captures the haughty attitudes of the wealthy of that era. Charles Middleton and Irving Pichel play the lawyers. And Lucille LaVerne plays Clyde's mother.This was a big hit in its day and helped establish Holmes and Sidney as stars. Holmes had a relatively short starring career and died in WW II but he made several memorable films with Nancy Carroll.

Not having read the book, nor seen the Taylor remake, I had no bias when I watched this film the other night on French television. I almost turned it off after the first 20 minutes, it was slow to start and seemed to be going nowhere. However I stuck with it and it was worth it in the end. The court scene was too long and the histrionics of the defence and the prosecution over the top, but I found the characters believable and became involved in the fate of Clyde. Not a film I would want to keep as a classic, but definitly worth watching.