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Duel in the Sun (1946) 6.9
Beautiful half-breed Pearl Chavez becomes the ward of her dead father's first love and finds herself torn between her sons, one good and the other bad. Director:King Vidor |
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Title: Duel in the Sun (1946)
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Cast
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Jennifer Jones | ... |
Pearl Chavez
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| Joseph Cotten | ... |
Jesse McCanles
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| Gregory Peck | ... | ||
| Lionel Barrymore | ... |
Sen. Jackson McCanles
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Herbert Marshall | ... |
Scott Chavez
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| Lillian Gish | ... | ||
| Walter Huston | ... |
The Sinkiller
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| Charles Bickford | ... |
Sam Pierce
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| Harry Carey | ... |
Lem Smoot
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Joan Tetzel | ... |
Helen Langford
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Tilly Losch | ... |
Mrs. Chavez
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| Butterfly McQueen | ... |
Vashti
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Scott McKay | ... |
Sid
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| Otto Kruger | ... |
Mr. Langford
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| Sidney Blackmer | ... |
The Lover
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Plot Summary
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Plot Synopsis
Storyline
When her father is hanged for shooting his wife and her lover, half-breed Pearl Chavez goes to live with distant relatives in Texas. Welcomed by Laura Belle and her elder lawyer son Jesse, she meets with hostility from the ranch-owner himself, wheelchair-bound Senator Jackson McCanles, and with lustful interest from womanising, unruly younger son Lewt. Almost at once, already existing family tensions are exacerbated by her presence and the way she is physically drawn to Lewt. Written by Jeremy Perkins {J-26}
Taglines:
Emotions . . . As Violent As The Wind-Swept Prairie ! See more »Parents Guide:
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Details
Country:
USALanguage:
EnglishRelease Date:
12 September 1947 (Mexico) See more »Also Known As:
King Vidor's Duel in the Sun See more »Box Office
Budget:
$8,000,000 (estimated)Gross:
$20,400,000 (USA)Company Credits
Show detailed
company contact information
on
IMDbPro »
Technical Specs
Runtime:
| (roadshow)Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Recording)Color:
Color (Technicolor)Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1
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(uncredited)
Traditional
Sung by Gregory Peck
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Did You Know?
Goofs
At end of Jesse's conversation through the window with Sid, Jesse's right hand moves from the sill to inside the window. See more »Soundtracks
"I've Been Working on the Railroad"(uncredited)
Traditional
Sung by Gregory Peck
See more »
In the trade, this film was derisively known as "Lust in the Dust" and the critics were lukewarm. The Catholic Film Office rated it "C" for "condemned," presumably due to its smoldering sexuality, and Protestant churches denounced it for Walter Huston's windbag and satirical preacher, "The Sinkiller." Just about the only people who liked it were producer David O. Selznick and the public.
By late 1980's, times had changed so much that "Duel in the Sun" was shown in the early evening on Baltimore's Channel 24, then a family-oriented station owned by a bible publisher, Thomas Nelson. It was available on video at that time from Playhouse Video, a family imprint of CBS-Fox! Today, nearly sixty years after its release, we can perhaps consider the film objectively.
In a filmed interview years later, King Vidor said that he signed on to this film expecting it to be a small scale psychological Western like the later "High Noon." However, producer Selznick, relatively young and already living in the shadow of his "Gone With the Wind," consciously or/and unconsciously tried to equal or outdo that film with this one. The result is a Western epic built upon a non-epic story, making it seem a bit grandiose or overblown. Tiomkin's grand and beautiful score for this film would seem better suited for a tale about a true epic, such as a story about the cavalry campaigns or the building of the Pacific railroads.
Inspite of itself, the core of this film is a fascinating psychological Western based on the interplay of varied and sometimes contrasting characters. The acting is excellent, a possible exception being Lionel Barrymore's hamming, which burns up the scenery like a prairie fire and is often irritating. The production values are superb and the scenes of the confrontation with the railroad should be studied by student filmmakers.