"A Place in the Sun" was a critical and commercial success, grossing $3 million. Herb Golden of "Variety" said that Taylor's "histrionics are of a quality so far beyond anything she has done previously, that Stevens' skilled hands on the reins must be credited with a minor miracle." A.H. Weiler of "The New York Times" wrote that she gives "a shaded, tender performance, and one in which her passionate and genuine romance avoids the pathos common to young love as it sometimes comes to the screen".