Montgomery Clift, Queer Star

3. The Peak of Stardom: Desire, Multiplicity, Deviancy

three The Peak of Stardom Desire, Multiplicity, Deviancy Social Disruption and the Closet: A Place in the Sun and I Confess The years 1951–53 see Montgomery Clift at the peak of his fame. Worshipped by fans, hailed as one of Hollywood’s hottest properties , and Oscar nominated twice, Clift starred in three high-profile films; while these roles further consolidated his image, they did so by crystallizing his essential multiplicity. A reluctant murderer in A Place in the Sun, a priest oppressed by secrets in I Confess, a tough yet vulnerable army misfit in From Here to Eternity, Clift imbued each role with sexual ambiguity. Matched to the films’ narratives of social deviancy and transgressive desire, Clift’s presence evoked an astonishing range of queer identifications. A Place in the Sun remains, together with Red River, the most critically discussed of all of Clift’s films. Through a powerful plot combining a love triangle with crime and guilt, A Place in the Sun places Clift at its center simultaneously as perpetrator, victim, and object of desire ; coupled with a very young Elizabeth Taylor, in a composite image of almost impossible glamour and beauty, Clift’s persona in the film achieved an enduring iconic status. Writing retrospectively, scholars chapter 3 78 have seen Clift’s character, George Eastman, as a typical expression of his star image; this assessment is based on notions of youthful rebellion and erotic power, and on the identification of a subtext of closeted homosexual desire. A Place in the Sun is based on Theodore Dreiser’s novel An American Tragedy and focuses on the socially ambitious George and his dramatic involvement with two women: the homely, working-class Alice Tripp (Shelley Winters) and the beautiful, wealthy Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor). The film begins with George hitching a ride, aiming for the town where his rich relatives, the Eastmans, own a successful swimsuit factory. Belonging to a poor and estranged branch of the family, the son of a devout woman working in a religious mission, George nonetheless exploits his connections to get a job in the factory; there he begins an affair with Alice, despite his uncle’s express ban on relationships with the employees. At the same time, through his rare forays into the Eastmans’ social circle, he meets Angela, and the two fall rapidly and passionately in love; yet George seems unable to abandon Alice, and keeps both relationships going in a complex web of deception . Soon a crisis ensues, as Alice tells George she is pregnant and presses for him to marry her. George agrees, yet desperately bides for time, managing to leave town to follow Angela to her vacation by the lakes. Trying to gain acceptance from the socially superior Vickerses, and reveling in Angela’s adoration, George starts conceiving to murder Alice as his only possible way out; just at this point Alice unexpectedly arrives on his trail, phoning him from the train station near where he is staying. Pathetic and scared, she threatens to expose their relationship and her pregnancy to George’s hosts and family, unless he marries her immediately. Panicked, George leaves the Vickerses with an excuse, and while still thinking about murder, he takes Alice to the registry office —but they find it shut. Now George grasps his last chance of getting rid of Alice. Knowing that she cannot swim, he takes her for a lonely night ride in a boat, on a deserted lake, intending to drown her. Once in the boat, however, George agonizes over his plan and finally realizes he is unable to go through with it. Yet the boat accidentally capsizes, and the film then cuts to George reaching the shore alone and running back to the Vickerses. The police soon trace him there and charge him with Alice’s murder. The defense takes the view that George desired to kill Alice, but did not do so, and is therefore innocent, but the jury The Peak of Stardom 79 finds him guilty. Stunned and confused, waiting for his execution in jail, George admits to the prison’s chaplain that he could have saved Alice when she fell in the water, but did nothing instead. Angela then appears at his cell; in a heart-wrenching farewell, she promises to go on loving him forever. George, fazed and bewildered, is then escorted to the electric chair. Superbly directed by George Stevens, with a tense...