Duel in the Sun (1946) User Reviews (116)

A highly original piece of work that remains impressive, baroque folly, not least for the final scene

[Nazi_Fighter_David · 8/10 · 19 November 2007]

King Vidor was a long-serving and much-respected Hollywood grandmaster who took a serious interest in movie-making… "Billy the Kid" and "Duel in the Sun" hold an important place in the history of the genre… These two films in particular, along with "Northwest Passage," show Vidor's romantic vision of backwoods America and his love of natural landscape; they share, too, an earthy quality which is missing from his more routine action Westerns, "The Texas Rangers" and "Man Without a Star."

Photographed in rich color, the visual magnificence of the film was manifested in the shots of the cowboys galloping across the rolling hills; in the spectacular confrontation between the McCanles forces who aimed to defend Spanish Bit with lead and the U.S. Cavalry; in the deep red sunset sequence with Lionel Barymore as "the lonely Senator"; and in that long shot of the surreptitious meeting between Lewt and his father on the hilltop at sunset…

"Duel in the Sun" is extravagantly and grandiosely passionate and romantic and its characters are much larger than life… A poignant scene was the tremendous moment between two legendary actors (Lionel Barrymore & Lillian Gish) when Laura Belle said to her husband "I'm a nuisance to you even to the end. It's the first time you've been in this room since that night./I loved you, Laura Belle. Yes, sir, I loved you."

Now, when a single movie offers murder, rape, attempted fratricide, train wreck, fiery sensual dance, drunkenness, religion, range wars, prostitution, sacred and profane love and sex as the principal motivation and not as an incidental subplot, and all that against an epic background of empire-building, well, it is for the first time in a Western in such a big scale…

The film featured the story of Pearl Chavez whose past is dark as her coca-stained skin and who loves everybody but loves bad Lewt most often…

Gregory Peck character as Lewt is barbaric, undisciplined, untamed, overwhelming… He is a bad man, all bad, but he is also the lowest, dirtiest, meanest and cool, and he knows how to laugh and have a good time…

Jennifer Jones as Pearl, is the 'prettiest girl ever to set foot on Spanish Bit.' She is a marvelous overwrought minx, wild and sexy…

Joseph Cotton is the calm, educated, refined, pleasant son Jesse who ultimately sides with the railroad against his father…He even threatens to cut the fence wire promising: "I'd rather be on the side of the victims than of the murderers."

Lionel Barrymore is the invalid Senator Jackson McCanles who orders his son, calling him a "Judas," to leave his ranch for as long as he lives…

Lillian Gish is the delicate Laura Belle who blames her husband of spoiling Lewt and she let him do so ever since he was a child making him think that rules weren't made for him…

Herbert Marshall plays Scott Chavez the condemned Southern aristocrat gentleman who sends his daughter to Laura Belle, his second cousin…

Charles Bickford plays Sam Pierce, the boss who gets a little ranch of his own but never run across anybody he wanted to marry… Besides, he never got up nerve enough to ask anybody…

Impassions, pulsating, barbaric, and thunderous, the music matches perfectly the fervid emotionalism of the story…

The film received only two Academy Awards nominations

She's a good girl that Pearl

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 20 December 2005]

David O. Selznick spent the rest of his life trying to top Gone With the Wind. What other mountains did he have to climb after making the most acclaimed motion picture ever?

In addition he had another obsession, his second wife Jennifer Jones. He was going to make her the greatest leading lady in the history of film.

Well he didn't succeed at either, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Jones herself was in a peculiar position similar to her husband's. She got an Oscar for her first feature film after she changed her name from Phyllis Isley to Jennifer Jones. Selznick knew that she couldn't play saints all her life as she did in The Song of Bernadette. So for this western answer to Gone With the Wind as Pearl Chavez she plays about as opposite a character from Bernadette Soubirous as you can get.

Duel in the Sun got mixed reviews by the critics, but the public ate it up. It's the story of the McCanless family, parents Lionel Barrymore and Lillian Gish and sons Joseph Cotten and Gregory Peck. Cotten is the good son, Peck the bad one. In fact as Lewt McCanless Peck played his worst character until Josef Mengele in Boys from Brazil.

A kissing cousin of their's Jennifer Jones comes to live with them. She's the offspring of an old beau of Lillian's, Herbert Marshall and the Indian wife he ran off with back in the day. Lillian and Herbert were kissing cousins also.

As Pearl Chavez, Jen gets the McCanless boys testosterone going into overdrive. Take one look at her and you can hardly blame them.

One of the not so hidden subtexts of Duel in the Sun is racism. Jennifer's good for a quick roll in the hay, but marriage is out of the question, at least for Gregory Peck. Barrymore's and Peck's racism is overt, the others not quite so, but it's still there.

The negotiations with Louis B. Mayer for Lionel Barrymore must have been interesting. Selznick's former wife was Irene Mayer, Louis's daughter.

One thing with Selznick, he spared no expense. He got the best in talent for this film. Dimitri Tiomkin did the score, King Vidor the direction, Ray Rennahan the color photography which is absolutely stunning.

He even got Bing Crosby to record Gotta Get Me Somebody to Love with Les Paul's guitar. Peck sang it in the film, Crosby's record sold a few platters.

He even got Orson Welles to do the off-screen narration if you don't recognize that voice.

It misses being a classic mainly because Selznick couldn't keep his hands off it. Sometimes the acting is about as subtle as a sledgehammer from all the performers. I'm willing to bet it's Selznick more than Vidor.

Yet it's good entertainment and Duel in the Sun does have its moments.

A Unique Film Work

[harry-76 · 8/10 · 26 July 2000]

The restored "Road Show" DVD of David O. Selznick's production of "Duel in the Sun" is a most impressive experience. What this restoration has done is to place the viewer back to 1946 at the premiere itself.

Selznick's vision was huge, romantic, and sumptuous. He had the means to spare no expense or effort in realizing this grandiose concept. The result is a sweeping drama set in the west, yet rising above the normal trappings of most movie westerns.

First a trio of photographers headed by the peerless Lee Garmes, and assisted by Ray Rennahan and Hal Rosson, provided a rich and colorful canvas of romantic artistry and beauty. Then a screenplay by producer Selznick emphasized the Gothic and overripe emotions with great relish. If you're going to do it, do it, was the attitude. Let the trash explode on the screen. Added to this formidable group of artists came director King Vidor, beautifully directing a carefully chosen and extremely talented cast, and creating some magnificent and memorable set pieces.

Lastly came the legendary composer, Dimitri Tiomkin, crafting a superb score, exuding the pent up and released emotions of the characters and painting the hot and sultry essence of the desert setting. The way to fully experience the Selznick vision is to take the time to position one's self before the DVD monitor, adjust the sound volume to near peak level, and absorb the score from the first note of the 15-minute Prelude, the 5-minute Overture, through the 144-minute drama, and continue until the final, crashing chord of the 5-minute Postlude (Exit Music). Only then will the true meaning and power of "Duel in the Sun" be realized.

It's a one-of-a-kind film work, and a lasting tribute to that mad, disorganized, titanic and great genius of film production, Selznick.

Overproduced Western Epic Is A Guilty Pleasure!

[Doylenf · 25 March 2001]

Everything about 'Duel in the Sun' is overripe: the music, the photography (those red sunsets a la GWTW), the strong emotions and the climactic duel on a blazing desert sun by the two mismatched lovers. Indeed, the excesses are almost operatic in proportion--and yet, a viewer can get caught up in this sprawling western rightly termed "Lust in the Dust" by some reviewers. The rampant sensuality of the steamy scenes between Peck and Jones are emphasized by Dimitri Tiomkin's luscious background score which becomes blistering and intense for the climactic shootout. Overproduced, overacted, overwritten--it still entertains and makes us appreciate the genius of David O. Selznick whose hand on all of the material is quite evident. Jennifer Jones was nominated for her tempestuous Pearl Chavez (but lost to Olivia de Havilland for 'To Each His Own'). Lillian Gish deserved her Oscar nomination. And last but not least, let's not forget Walter Huston, who gives the most realistic and enjoyable performance in the entire film as The Sin Killer--a wickedly funny portrayal. Weakest aspect of the film is Gregory Peck's easygoing villain--his whole performance strikes a false note and is not the least bit convincing. He and Joseph Cotten should have switched their roles--Cotten always made a more believable villain than Peck. Selznick obviously was striving to make a western on the level of GWTW--even including Butterfly McQueen for comic relief. All in all, fun to watch if you don't take any of it seriously. Not exactly a work of art--but definitely worth watching. And, oh, that ripe technicolor!

More Drama Than Western

[ccthemovieman-1 · 6/10 · 2 May 2006]

For those who prefer soap operas instead of horse operas, this western might be for you. If you prefer the normal action-packed western you'll still might enjoy this if you have the patience to go past the first hour. The second half of the this far more interesting.

Jennifer Jones, who became famous playing some wholesome roles in the '40s, was the definition of "sultry" in this movie. She really demonstrates the weakness of the flesh that human beings deal with many times. She wants to be good, but succumbs quickly to temptations almost every time.

Gregory Peck also plays against type, playing an arrogant pig in this movie. It was the first time I had ever seen him play the bad guy, and it looked strange. Lionel Barrymore also shines as the bigoted tyrant-type father. Who was the "good guy?" Joseph Cotten, who almost always gives a good performance as the other actors just named. Add Herbert Marshall, Lillian Gish, Walter Huston and Charles Bickford and you have some cast!

Some of the cinematography is nice, too, reminiscent of film noirs with the shadows and light and a number of night scenes.

Yet, despite all these positive things going for it, it is not a film I would watch many times because it drags in spots and is too long (app. 2 hours, 20 minutes). It also gave a cheap shot to the traveling lay preacher in here, but that's nothing new in films.

All in all, not one of my favorites. I guess I would rather see Jones and Peck play "good guys."

Melodramatic Soap Opera in the Old West

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 20 February 2017]

When Scott Chavez (Herbert Marshall) kills his wife and her lover, he contacts his cousin and former passion Laura Belle (Lillian Gish) and makes arrangements for his daughter Pearl Chavez (Jennifer Jones) to live with her and her family since he will be executed. On the arrival, Pearl is welcomed by Jesse McCanles (Joseph Cotton), the younger son of Belle that is a lawyer that brings her to the huge ranch Spanish Bit that belongs to his father, the invalid Senator McCanles (Lionel Barrymore) that lives on a wheelchair. Pearl is also welcomed by Laura Belle, but the Senator is cold and ironic with her, calling her half-breed. Soon Pearl meets Belle's older son Lewton 'Lewt' McCanles (Gregory Peck), who is a scoundrel and a wolf, and he tells his intentions to her. One night, Lewt forces Pearl and she submits to him and she becomes ashamed and angry with Lewt. Meanwhile the railroad is ready to trespass the Spanish Bit fence and the Senator organizes a group of men to defend his real estate. However the railroad people has a court order and the army on their side and Jesse tries to explain the Senator that he should let them in. However the Senator expels his son from the ranch and when Jesse is going to say goodbye to Pearl, he finds Lewt in her room. Jesse leaves Pearl behind and Lewt promises to marry her; but when she learns his real intention, she believes she is trash and becomes her lover.

"Duel in the Sun" is a melodramatic soap opera in the Old West, with detestable characters. Jennifer Jones does not fit to the role of a naive young woman and the viewer does not feel sorrow for her due to her promiscuous behavior. Gregory Peck has an excellent performance in the role of a scum. David O. Selznick's pretension to make a film comparable with "Gone with the Wind" is quite absurd. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Duelo ao Sol" ("Duel in the Sun")

Lusty Western soap opera is grand entertainment

[Wuchakk · 9/10 · 13 June 2017]

Released in 1946 and directed by King Vidor, "Duel in the Sun" stars Gregory Peck and Joseph Cotton as two rival sons of a ranch baron (Lionel Barrymore) in West Texas in the 1880s. When a striking half-breed (Jennifer Jones) comes to live on the ranch, she inspires love in the mild-mannered, educated son (Cotton) and unpredictable lust in the mocking, wild one (Peck). Lillian Gish plays the mother stuck in the middle while Walter Huston appears as a semi-questionable minister known as The Sinkiller. Charles Bickford is on hand as an older man also interested in the drama mama.

While the movie runs 2 hours and 24 minutes, a full 16 minutes is opening and ending music, which makes the runtime of the story itself just over 2 hours. Speaking of the opening "Prelude" and "Overture," the music (by Dimitri Tiomkin) is thoroughly passé and goes on way too long at 12 minutes before the credits, which last another 1:35. If you can get past that, though, this is a great old Western where the producers pulled out all the stops to entertain. Producer, writer and (uncredited) director David O. Selznick's ambition was to top "King Kong" (1933) and, particularly, "Gone with the Wind" (1939), two other pictures he produced.

Although critics fittingly dubbed it "Lust in the Dust," the movie WAS popular with the masses, no doubt helped by its controversial sexual content (which is tame today) and Selznick's affair with Jones, which broke up both of their marriages. They got married a few years later and it lasted till his death in 1965. Despite its box office success, "Duel" couldn't top "Gone with the Wind" and, being the most expensive film ever made at that point, it only broke even, although it eventually went on to make a profit with a re-release in 1954, etc.

Jones is notable as the heavy-breathing babe, but I personally prefer Joan Tetzel as the fiancé of the older son (Cotton). Also, Peck plays the bad son surprisingly well, considering how he's known for playing more noble protagonists, e.g. "The Big Country" (1958) and "Mackenna's Gold" (1969).

Bottom line: "Duel in the Sun" was just too big of a production to lose. Its story, while decidedly melodramatic, is compelling from beginning to end and there are highlights spiced throughout, including some stunning cinematography, amusing moments with horses and a couple of almost shocking sequences and story turns (e.g. the shootout in the saloon and, later, on the town street). To be expected, there are also some lowlights, but the movie always quickly recovers and maintains its footing. Lastly, there's a valuable moral hidden within the Western soap operatic shenanigans.

The film was shot in Arizona & California (too many places to list). The script was written by David O. Selznick & Oliver H.P. Garrett (and, uncredited, Ben Hecht) suggested by a novel by Niven Busch. ADDITIONAL CAST: Herbert Marshall, Harry Carey, Scott McKay & Butterfly McQueen.

GRADE: A

Camp Classic!!!

[Colonel Ted · 6/10 · 21 January 2000]

Duel In The Sun has to rank as one of the worse films I have ever seen, but different from a lot of other dreadful films, this one is so awful it's brilliant!! David O. Selznick clearly tried to do another Gone With The Wind and threw a massive chunk of money at the project, which is why it looks so spectacular. However on the human side, he ended up with was one of the most ridiculous melodramas of all time. Jennifer Jones is half-breed Indian, Pearl, expect she's caked in make up and makes Scarlett O'Hara look calm. After her father is hanged for murder she goes to live on grouchy Senator Barrymore's ranch and falls in love with both his sons: callous cowboy Peck and calm lawyer Cotton. Except she can never bring herself to love Cotton fully, while her relationship with Peck is extremely love-hate that tragedy strikes several times. All this sounds like it could have made a serious and stirring epic, except it that the script and direction are so dreadful that from beginning to end it's soap-opera mush, except most soaps aren't as silly! However everyone to do with it, the actors in particular are going at it hammer and tongs, (clearly under the illusion that they ARE making Gone With The Wind), that it's perversely compelling stuff all the way. Even if you spend most of the time laughing, especially the spectacularly ludicrous finale, perhaps the most memorably awful in cinema history. Thank you Michael Sauter, author of: The Worst Movies Of All Time, who yet again introduced my to yet another pricelessly bad gem!

Fantastic romantic classic!

[HotToastyRag · 9/10 · 8 August 2017]

Everyone knows Gregory Peck as the very picture of American integrity, but my favorite of his performances is Duel in the Sun. There's no trace of Atticus Finch in this movie; every bit of him is bad, and he never looked so good. In this wildly romantic drama, Jennifer Jones is torn between the kind, stable, respectful Joseph Cotten and the bad, manly, sexy Gregory Peck. Tough decision!

After his successful production of Gone with the Wind, it's no wonder David O'Selznick created such a beautiful, exciting love triangle. And while the script was originally written for Teresa Wright, Jennifer Jones ended up playing the lead and marrying her producer three years later. You can find lots of trivia about what a headache the film was to make, including a very funny argument between O'Selznick and Dimitri Tiomkin about the musical score, but in my review I'd rather focus on the positives.

Jennifer Jones plays a "half-breed" who comes to live with Lillian Gish and Lionel Barrymore in Texas. Yes, it's terribly politically incorrect, but you've got to get into the dated mindset to appreciate the story. Lionel is grouchy and racist, Jonesy desperately wants to cling to her "purity", and marrying a "half-breed" is unthinkable in a respectable family. Despite all that, it's a wonderful romantic drama. Lush, exciting, well-written, well-acted, dramatic, and heart-wrenching, Duel in the Sun earns its place among the greatest classic romances of all time. Jonesy gives a wonderfully layered performance, juggling sweet, sultry, innocent, trampy, and passionate. Greg is a delicious bad boy; it's a miracle he didn't get typecast as a villain for the rest of his career. Add in crotchety Lionel, Lillian as an unfair mother, Joseph Cotten as a pre-Atticus Finch, Herbert Marshall, Charles Bickford, Walter Huston, and Butterfly McQueen, and you have an unforgettable cast.

While this might not be the best first date movie, watch this with your long-time sweetie pie, or with a bunch of your girlfriends. It's pretty heavy, but it's definitely one to watch. I'm the only one in my family who likes it, but I never tire of making myself a large bowl of popcorn (it's a long movie) and popping it in the tv. Jonesy is dramatic, sultry, and beautiful; and while she does give girls a bad name, most of us can appreciate where she's coming from. Who hasn't fallen in love with the wrong man even though he'll kick us (literally, in her case) when we're down?

"Under that heathen blanket there's a full-blossomed woman built by the Devil to drive men crazy!"

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 8 September 2014]

A half-Indian girl named Pearl Chavez (Jennifer Jones) is torn between the two sons of a wealthy cattle baron. Jesse (Joseph Cotten) is the educated, mannered 'nice' one. Lewt (Gregory Peck) is a ladies' man and a bad boy. We can tell which is which because the good one typically wears lighter colors and the bad one wears darker colors. Helpful. Pearl just can't resist Lewt no matter how bad he treats her. Leave your political correctness at the door, folks. This one's got a little something to offend almost everybody.

Extravagant "epic" western from David O. Selznick was an attempt to achieve the same success of Gone with the Wind. It's pure tawdry hokum. Yet another starring vehicle for Selznick's protégé (and future wife), Jennifer Jones. I've never been a huge fan of hers. She's certainly attractive enough, with her high cheekbones and radiant smile. I even find her lisp endearing. But she was a very limited actress. Usually she was cast in sensitive parts where she spoke most of her lines in a whispery tone while soft music played. Here she plays to the rafters, hamming it up so loudly she makes Hedy Lamarr's performance in White Cargo seem subtle. Starring with Jones are Gregory Peck and her frequent costar, Joseph Cotten, one of the few male leads the jealous Selznick trusted around his lady love. Cotten is perfect (when wasn't he?) but Peck is miscast and overacts even worse than Jones. The absurd ending with those two is justifiably infamous. The rest of the cast is made up of exceptional talents like Lionel Barrymore, Lillian Gish, Walter Huston, Harry Carey, and Herbert Marshall. The Dimitri Tiomkin score is fantastic. The sets and costumes are lavish, as they should be given the high production values this one had. The Technicolor is gorgeous. The script is laughably awful. Some of the dialogue these poor people have to say is just cringeworthy. Overall, it's a movie low on substance but high on spectacle. It keeps you interested throughout, despite its flaws (and maybe because of them). Definitely warrants a look but not everybody's cup of tea, for sure.

Lots of talent, hidden well

[MeYesMe · 3/10 · 25 January 2002]

Well, it's obvious that Selznick was trying his best to recapture that GWTW magic...but this is an unbelievably inept failure. Here's what you can expect from this overblown sex-western:

--Jennifer Jones (in pancake make-up so orange that she put me more in mind of an Oompa-Loompa than the half-breed we're supposed to see) apparently directed to act as though she's Scarlett O'Hara with a lobotomy and bad grammar.

--Gregory Peck as rogue murdering rapist and the apple of his daddy's eye. At one point even doing a pretty decent vocal imitation of Clark Gable -- too bad it's just the voice.

--Lionel Barrymore lazily repeating his "It's a Wonderful Life" role from the same year -- wheelchair & grumpiness standing in for effort.

--Butterfly McQueen as kerchiefed ditzy maid. Hmmm, wonder where they got that idea?

All in all, a miserable movie experience. You'd think that since they cribbed from the best it'd have turned out better! Go figure.

Magnificent and Colorful Western; It Works as Drama and Tragedy Both

[silverscreen888 · 8/10 · 29 July 2005]

More critical nonsense has perhaps been written about "Duel in the Sun" than about any other U.S. made film. It is a big, intelligent and well-acted western. It had the great King Vido as the director for much of its beautiful footage,, plus contributions by several other very-fine directors. it was adapted from a good little novel by Niven Busch, with a script credited to Oliver H.P. Garrett as adaptation to the screen and to Ben Hecht and David Selznick for the screenplay. Th sterling cinematography was done by the great lee Garmes, Harodl Rosson and Ray Rennahan, with production design by J. McMillan Johnson and art direction by James Basevi. Costumes were the work of famous designer Walter Punkett. Dimitri Tiomkin did the music and producer Selznick spared no expense to make this project work. He also quarreled with Vidor over the production, and is probably responsible for the literate but needless fatality element and narrated prologue that alter the production a bit but do not harm it badly. The argument by so-called critics has been about "scale". Selznick, trying to repeat his triumph with "Gone With the Wind" they argued, kept trying to make his films 'bigger'--as if that were the key to an even-greater achievement in cinema for Selznick. But in this novel, the author is the one who suggested that the saloon in which the central character's mother dances was very large; I believe Selznick took this and the size of the desolate country within which the action takes place as cues for him to increase the physical scale of the drama. And for the most part, his decision seems to me to have been unarguably a good one. Many of the shots from Vidor and the other directors are legendary--riders racing along the tops of hills in silhouette against colorful skies, spacious interiors at the Spanish Bit ranch, the sump-hole sequence, the great dance sequence that ignites the action at the film's beginning, the train wreck disasters and many more... The story-line can actually be stated rather swiftly. Pearl Chavez is the daughter of an exotic female who dances and is married to a ne'er-do-well cultured fellow, a distant cousin of the wife of Senator McCanles, owner of a huge ranch in the 1880s. After her father kills his mother over a lover, and is hanged, Pearl is sent to live with the McCanles family. From the first, one son, Jesse, a lawyer, is attracted to her and she to Lewton, the wild cowboy scion of the family. She worries a lot about sin, but to no avail, since the viewer never sees any. What happens is a land dispute, which alienates Jesse from the senator and sends Lewt on a rampage against the railroad who has challenged his father's empire of cattle and dictatorial pseudo-benevolent despotism. he is also angry that Pearl has sent him away after being his lover. Realizing that she is as responsible as anyone for what Lewt has become, blaming her own sexuality for his wrongness, she goes after him and they shoot each other to rags on a desolate hillside, as they were perhaps fated to do in a U.S. mental environment of pseudo-Christian surrealism that helped make the Judge, Lewt and Pearl what they felt they had to be--and also set Jesse, the normative mind in the piece, as an outsider watching the dissolution of their hopes. The critics who have called the film never-dull, bizarre and a product of Selznick's tampering with the script have all been obviously correct; but as some have noted, when it is big the film is very good and memorable. From the great theme song to the powerful scenes, much of this re-engineered-fatalistic drama works. In the leads, Gregory Peck is handsome and showy, which he needs to be, to outshine his attractive but less-charismatic brother, very ably portrayed by Joseph Cotten. Lionel Barrymore does well as the dictatorial senator, and Lillian Gish as his wife proves to be very skilled indeed. Herbert Marshall as Scott Chavez and Tilly Losch are extremely fine; other very able supporting actors in the large cast who show to advantage include Walter Huston as a sin-killing preacher, Charles Bickford, Sidney Blackmer, Butterfly McQueen, Joan Tetzel, Scott McKay, Harray Caray and Otto Kruger. The central performer in the film is Jennifer Jones. I found her quiet and intelligent portrayal to be outstanding in every regard; she was lovely, repressed, sensual, bright, feral and tormented by turns. If Selznick intended this film as a showcase for his wife's wide range of acting abilities, I suggest it worked just about as intended. What is 'bizarre' about the film as a project, I suggest, apart from Selznick's torturing a simple melodrama into an epic drama and very cleverly too is that he then tried to reduce his splendid project to a diatribe against sensuality in order to turn its ending into a work of fate, or a commentary on human weakness. The two strains work against one another in the film at certain times, diminishing however only a little of the film's unusual power, only channeling it toward occasional exaggeration. A splendid piece of film-making by Vidor and every one of the actors and creators involved in its realization

Pearl, you're curved in the flesh of temptation.

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 25 August 2010]

Duel in the Sun is predominantly directed by King Vidor and is produced and written by David O. Selznick who adapts (with help from H.P. Garrett & Ben Hecht) from Niven Busch's novel. It stars Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, Lillian Gish and Lionel Barrymore; with a huge support cast list that contains the likes of Herbert Marshall, Walter Huston, Charles Bickford & Harry Carey. The plot centres around Pearl Chavez (Jones), a half Indian girl who is orphaned after her father kills her mother and her lover. Pearl is sent to live with an old sweetheart and friend of her fathers, Laura Belle McCanles (Gish), here she becomes involved in prejudice and forbidden love that turns the McCanles family inside out.

David O. Selznick had hoped to recreate, even surpass, the success he had had with Gone With the Wind 7 years previously, only in a Western setting. Plagued with controversy both on and off the screen, the film, in spite of poor reviews, was a box office hit. Tho it's believed that due to high production costs and a cash driven advertising campaign, that the film ultimately only broke about even. The controversy on the screen stemmed from the sexual nature of the story, something that earned the film its famous "Lust In The Dust" nickname. Yet were it not for the Hays Code censors and religious review boards, the film would have been far more controversial, out went rape and a downplaying of the overt sexuality that existed prior to the cuts. Off screen controversy came in the form Selznick's relationship with Jones, a coupling that would break up both their respective marriages. The role of Pearl was originally meant for Hedy Lamarr, and even Teresa Wright was lined up too, but both women fell pregnant. Thus Selznick got the chance to shoehorn in his love and push her to the forefront of the movie with almost tyrannical urgings. 8 directors, 3 writers, 3 cinematographers & 4 editors would ultimately be used (that we know of). While bad weather, strikes and illness to Jones would also plague production. It's a wonder the film got finished at all.

It's an odd film in many ways, but one that appears now to have been very harshly treated by the critics of the day. That's not to say it's a masterpiece of classic Oater cinema, because it's not. But if viewed as a fun Horse Opera with Selznick getting away with as much as he can, then it's not half bad at all. Certainly the cast seem to be playing it as a fun piece of work, especially the wonderful Huston as OTT minister man, The Sinkiller. So viewed without expectation of serious melodrama, Duel In The Sun delivers some fun entertainment. Granted not all of it is intentional; the ending for one is preposterous and mirthful when really it shouldn't be. But the fact remains that the film is entertaining. Action wise it scores well, with stand out scenes including Jones on a runaway horse, hundreds of mounted horsemen riding to defend grumpy Jackson McCanles' (Barrymore) land against railroad incursion, and Peck (playing a sexual rebel type) taming a sex crazed stallion (even the horse knows what is expected of it here!).

Then there's the vast scope of the Western vistas, that are in turn dripping with lurid Technicolor. The terms beautiful and sordid spring to mind, now that is surely two words that aptly apply to the film as a whole? For the best performances one needs to look into the support cast, where Bickford, the afore mentioned Huston, Gish and the always enjoyable Butterfly McQueen, all deliver stoic like performances. Jones is a touch miscast, saddled with being the epicentre of the film (and Selznick's attentions), she at least deserves credit for trying to make the so-so writing work. She certainly looks beautiful and in the more quiet moments for her character the good actress threatens to break out. Peck, in a role originally meant for John Wayne-who balked at the sexiness of the plot, gives it gusto supreme, but whilst acknowledging it being an unusual role for him-so thus a brave choice, he never once convinces as a sexual dynamo. Cotton gets the short straw in that the role is badly underwritten, which when one considers that the story is essentially a Cain & Abel based story; he deserved better. While Barrymore is solidly doing what he does best and his only failing here is to not be as good as his on screen wife. Musically, Dimitri Tiomkin provides a competent if unmemorable score.

Fun, sexy and with little snatches of daring in the plot, Duel In The Sun is better than some would have you believe. But maybe, just maybe, it needs to be viewed with a glint in the eye and the tongue firmly planted in cheek? 7/10

Dud in the Mud

[kenjha · 3/10 · 10 April 2006]

Selznick's attempt to create another "Gone with the Wind" in the form of an epic Western is a complete disaster. The sets are cheesy, the script is uninteresting, and the direction is atrocious. Peck gives the worst performance of his career and is matched on the hamminess scale by Barrymore and Huston. However, Jones takes the cake. Has there ever been a worse performance by a star in a major motion picture? This movie can be viewed as a great comedy except all the laughs are unintentional. It goes on way too long and the score is overdone. The ending has to be one of the worst in all of moviedom. It only gets a rating of 3 because of some decent cinematography and the acting of Cotten and Gish.

Overheated Fandango

[dougdoepke · 5 May 2013]

No need to recap the plot.

One thing about this overblown fandango— once seeing it, you won't forget it. How could anyone when everything is done to such tasteless excess. Poor Pearl (Jones). Apparently, Jones was told her part was that of a hot-blooded wench, which she unfortunately took to mean parboiled. It's hard not to laugh at the first hour when she acts like a nympho on steroids, tossing hair and leering wildly like pampas grass in a windstorm. Not far behind is that vintage ham Lionel Barrymore doing his usual blustery bit, like we won't get his hard-bitten patriarch unless he takes it into hyper speed. And who could have guessed that the usually constricted and constrained Gregory Peck could actually over-act. I think it was his first and last time—good thing, too.

It's possible to go on about the unrelenting excess— the sunsets that appear to hemorrhage, a musical score that's as necessary as sugar on molasses, and a loony ending that defies parody. But you get the idea. Too bad so much money and effort went into such a generally overheated result. Only Cotten, Gish and the black stallion come through unscathed. I'm thinking RKO could have made a dozen worthwhile programmers on the same budget. As things turned out, Selznick did his beloved Jones no favors with this one. It's hard to believe the man responsible for Gone with the Wind (1939) is also responsible for this swollen mess.

Epic Western with great success dealing with a passionate rivalry among two different brothers

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 20 September 2011]

This lavish film focuses a passionate drama between a half-breed Indian girl named Pearl Chavez and Lewt , son of a powerful baron land . Gorgeous Mestiza Pearl Chavez (Jennifer Jones who had Academy Award nomination) becomes the ward of her dead daddy (Herbert Marshall)'s first love (Lillian Gish) and finds herself torn between her sons, one good guy (Joseph Cotten) and the other bad guy ( untypically cast as baddie , Gregory Peck). Living on a powerful dynastic ranch in Spanish Bit , Texas , and ruled by racist Senator McCanles (Lionel Barrymore) ; she incites the two brothers to conflict . The picture is full of largest-of-life characters as vivacious Perla Chavez built by the devil to drive men crazy ; Lewt McCanles (Gregory Peck) violent as the wind-swept prairie with blood-spilled on his hands ; Jesse (Joseph Cotten) , rebelling against the tyranny of his father ; Senator McCanles (Lionel Barrymore), rich , proud , master of a million of acres ; Raoul Chavez (Herbert Marshall) , ill-fated son of Creole aristocracy ; Laura Belle (Lillian Gish) as martyred mother of a strange brood ; , the pastor (Walter Huston) as the Sinkiller , lusty philosopher of the far-flying prairie .

This stirring drama Western plenty of lyric images deals with victory of civilization and defeat of feudal spirit represented by the proud Senator .Selznick's last lusty effort at outdoing his big hit ¨Gone with the wind¨ , he spend almost 5 million of this epic Western and over-budgeted the classic film of the 30s . Sensational main cast as a beautiful spitfire Jennifer Jones at her best , Gregory Peck as rebellious and violent son and Josep Cotten as fine lawyer ; all of them backed by extraordinary secondary cast as Lionel Barrymore as the magnate owner , Walter Huston as fanatic pastor and Lillian Gish who win Oscar nomination , among others .

Impressive scenes on the raid with lots of riders towards railway and cavalry arrival . The movie had quite a few problems with censorship caused for frank loving relations between Pearl and Lewt ; it aroused great controversy , US religious organizations protested about the lack ethic and morals and the lots of bloodletting , however it ensured success at box-office and awesome critics . Passionate screenplay by the same producer , David O'Selznick suggested by Niven Busch's novel . Filmed nearly Tucson , Arizona and California , including spectacular landscapes photographed by three cameramen , Lee Garmes , Roy Rennahan ,and Hal Rosson . The motion picture is very well realized by King Vidor , though he was missed by David O'Selznick (Jennifer Jones's husband) , being completed by six directors as Otto Brower (2ª unit) ,William Dieterle , Breezy Reeves Eason (second unit), and minor collaboration from Joseph Von Stenberg and William Cameron Menzies . Rating : Better than average . Essential and indispensable seeing .

Great Cast enhances a weak script!

[Sylviastel · 7/10 · 10 May 2007]

First of all, you can't ask for a better cast of actors and actresses including Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, Lillian Gish, Jennifer Jones and others. The film is typically a mix of Western drama with rifles, horses, ranches, and drama including the beautiful Jennifer Jones caught in a love triangle with Gregory Peck. Anyway, the cast makes up for a weak script. Gish's dying scene is almost laughable. Peck and Jones are believable as a couple. Of course, Jones' character Pearl Chavez is an interesting character and a first in mainstream cinema. This film was supposed to be the equivalent of Gone with the Wind but it doesn't go that far to be that memorable. It's still a beautiful film but the script is weak but your cast is strong and brilliant to overcome such odd.

Worth it for Jennifer Jones and Lillian Gish.

[DL-5 · 8/10 · 24 September 2005]

Synopsis: Pearl Chavez, (Jennifer Jones), the half-breed daughter of Scott Chavez, (an American), and his Native American wife, (Tilly Losch), is left orphaned when her father shoots her mother and her mother's lover after they blatantly flaunt their affair in public. As Pearl's father is about to be hanged for these murders, he tells Pearl that he has made arrangements for her to live with his second cousin, Laura Belle McCanles, (Lillian Gish), and hopefully she will be given all the chances to improve her lot in life that she deserves. Laura Belle and Scott were once in love, but Laura Belle chose to marry a rich Texan, Senator Jackson McCanles, (Lionel Barrymore), in stead, and said Senator is not too happy to have Pearl in his house because she is a half-breed and the daughter of his wife's great love. The Senator and Laura Belle have two sons, Jesse, (Joseph Cotton), and Lewton, (Gregory Peck). Jesse is a lawyer and is very thoughtful while Lewton is a violent, spoiled man-boy. Pearl immediately falls for Jesse, but Lewton wants her for his own. Pearl struggles with her emotional attraction to Jesse and her physical attraction to Lewton. Neither one will marry her, (for different reasons), and her confusion and actions become more erratic as her love/lust and inevitable disappointment grows. Pearl tries to break free from her situation, but is never able to. This all leads to a tragic shootout where death seems to be the only salvation.

Recommendations: Legendary director, King Vidor, creates an epic western more in line with Gone With The Wind than Stagecoach. He masterfully directs and frames each shot in beautiful Technicolor. The acting is very good from the usual suspects, Gregory Peck, Lionel Barrymore, Herbert Marshall, Joseph Cotton, Walter Huston, (as the Preacher/Sinkiller), Charles Bickford, (as Sam Pierce the man who may be Pearl's last chance at happiness), Harry Carey, (as Lem Smoot, an old friend of the Senator's), and Butterfly McQueen, (as Vashti the maid). With all that talent around I still must state that it is Jennifer Jones and Lillian Gish that make this epic worth watching. Jennifer Jones does a brilliant job with one of the most complex characters I have ever seen put to film and Lillian Gish, especially in her final seen with Lionel Barrymore, is so exceptional that words escape me. I can not imagine these two performances ever being replicated or improved upon. A visually stunning film with two great performances to sweeten the entire experience. Well worth a look.

Overblown with the Wind

[wes-connors · 7/10 · 23 June 2008]

Hot half-breed Jennifer Jones (as Pearl Chavez) goes to live with her family of Caucasian cousins, after her parents' passionate demise. At the Texas ranch, Ms. Jones' low-cut dresses and shimmering tresses immediately arouse the McCanles brothers: nasty Gregory Peck (as Lewt) and nice Joseph Cotten (as Jesse). Kindly matriarch Lillian Gish (as Laura Belle McCanles) accepts, and comforts, Jones; she once had a passion for Jones' father. Wheelchair-bound patriarch Lionel Barrymore (as Jackson McCanles) thinks Jones is trashy, due to her mixed race. And, Jones agrees...

In "Duel in the Sun", producer David O. Selznick's slip is showing; and, it is firmly attached to Jennifer Jones. The actress, with her body make-up and florescent teeth, looks lovely but ludicrous. Playing the film's central character, Jones needed to be more convincing than overwrought. Suffering less among the all-star cast are Ms. Gish and Mr. Peck. Gish, consistent and convincing, fits the film like a glove; and, she looks like she should be playing more passionate, leading roles. Peck is uneven, but valiant throughout; and, he does a great Clark Gable impression when he catches Jones swimming...

Star-studded and overproduced, with a killer ending; "Duel in the Sun" is, on that level, a lot of fun. Albeit unintentional, it's a classic send-up of its type.

******* Duel in the Sun (12/31/46) King Vidor ~ Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, Lillian Gish, Joseph Cotten

A Whole New Concept of True, Intense Love - Courtesy of David Selznick and Nevin Busch

[theowinthrop · 10/10 · 19 June 2007]

It is common for people to say that DUEL IN THE SUN was an attempt (one of several) for David Selznick to repeat his greatest production success in Hollywood. He had produced GONE WITH THE WIND, and tried repeatedly to duplicate it. It was impossible. I feel the closes he got was with SINCE YOU WENT AWAY, which is still a very moving film showing the alterations World War II caused on the home front. But his films with Hitchcock (including REBECCA and SUSPICION and NOTORIOUS and SPELLBOUND) and DUEL IN THE SUN and A FAREWELL TO ARMS all fall short. This does not mean the films are negligible. Most of the Hitchcock-Selznick partnership films are damned good, and one finds even A FAREWELL TO ARMS worth watching. But GONE WITH THE WIND, despite the stereotypes Margaret Mitchell put into it, showed the collapse of a whole way of life in this country a century earlier due to the Civil War. It can't be reproduced in a western - the west was an entirely different problem of survival in a hostile atmosphere - not one that had built up a set of institutions (unfortunately including slavery) and traditions that were just destroyed.

Still DUEL IN THE SUN tries hard, and succeeds to some extent. The story is one of racism in 19th Century Texas. The McCandless Family (Lionel Barrymore, Lillian Gish, Joseph Cotton, and Gregory Peck) are Texas royalty (in a sense) with a huge estate. It is supposed to be the equivalent of Tara in GONE WITH THE WIND. Into their world comes Lillian's cousin, Jennifer Jones, whose father was Mexican (the father was Herbert Marshall). Marshall kills his wife and her lover at the start of the film, and is hanged (his execution scene is very moving actually, as he willingly accepts his death but regrets the loss of his contact with his daughter). Barrymore hates the girl - she is part Mexican and part Indian (he refers to her as "Pocahontas" at one point), and he hates her dead father, who may have had an affair with Gish. Barrymore favors his son Peck over the more civilized Cotton, and the latter is aware of this. Peck is quite charismatic, but he is also quite a murderous type. Luke McCandless was the wickedness villain Peck played prior to the film THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL thirty years later.

Jones' Pearl Chavez is also wicked in her ways, using her attractiveness to destroy men (Cotton and Peck are both interested in her, as is Charles Bickford). She likes Cotton, but her inner sense realizes that she and Peck are very much the same, and she wishes to win him. But Peck is too uncontrollable, and he and Jones rarely get their chemistry together properly.

There are some good moments: the death of Gish, when she confronts Barrymore on her death bed and the wind and rain push her porch rocking chair back and forth as she leaves this world. Or when Peck destroys a railroad track with dynamite, and starts humming, "I've Been Working On The Railroad"!

The film got the nickname (since taken by a comedy that starred Divine and Tab Hunter back in the 1980s) of LUST IN THE DUST. This was due to the odd conclusion of the film. 1946/47 was a year where twice men and women killed each other in films. Orson Welles (who narrates the start of this film) would direct THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI the following year, wherein Rita Hayward and Everett Sloane shoot each other in a crazy house hall of mirrors. But they really hated each other in that film. Here a desperate Jones shoots Peck to prevent him from killing Cotton, and he returns the favor. Both bleeding to death from multiple wounds they crawl to each other and die in a final embrace. The mutual shooting has been subject to much interpretation. My guess is that the two characters were just so super-sexed that it was impossible to imagine them riding off together into married bliss. Possibly they just had to destroy each other - certainly nobody else could have satisfied their desires. Whatever the reason, it was the final reason that the film remains so memorable to this day.

Surprisingly engrossing melodrama

[revere-7 · 7/10 · 22 March 2007]

It's everything you expect, and yet it's still pretty good. I was expecting to be bored to tears with this. It is in fact an Overproduced, Overacted, Over- the-top O. Selznick melodrama with cheesy dialog. It tells the story of a vixen with always- flawless makeup who's torn between the white hat good brother and the black hat bad brother, and has the inevitable showdown. And yet, despite all of that, despite it's predictable, formulaic construction and contrived situations, somehow it still draws you in the way the best Golden Age Hollywood films do.

At nearly two and a half hours long, you better have nothing else to do for the afternoon, but once you're wrapped up in it, you'll hardly even notice the length. While 'Duel In The Sun' falls way short of greatness, for all the reasons noted above, it is nevertheless an entertaining ride.

Doodie in the Sun

[senortuffy · 5/10 · 31 October 2002]

Rarely does such a great cast turn in such a terrible performance. The acting borders on parody most of the movie, and in truth, this film is almost fodder for the bots on MST3000.

* The great actress, Lillian Gish, is relegated to playing a Southern belle. Her death scene was almost too painful to watch.

* Lionel Barrymore is never out of character, even when the role calls for it. He utters the lines that signify mood changes, but you don't believe them for a minute.

* Joseph Cotton plays a southern dandy - on a ranch in Texas no less - and looks utterly bored the entire time.

* Gregory Peck is supposed to be the bad son, but the writers couldn't seem to make up their minds whether to make him a sympathetic character of not. He winds up acting goofy instead.

* Jennifer Jones is buried in awful makeup and plays dumb most of the movie.

* Charles Bickford appears suddenly, falls in love with Jones, asks her to marry him - again, you don't believe it for a minute - and is gunned down, all in the space of about ten minutes.

* Walter Huston has a bit role as a preacher, and hams up the few scenes he appears in.

* Butterfly McQueen appears way too much and is so annoying you want to strangle her.

By far the best acting performance is turned in by Dice, the horse Peck gives to Jones early in the film.

BIG, SPRAWLING WESTERN WITH A HUGH CAST AND GOOD STORY.

[gpramsey · 10/10 · 8 December 2002]

When this movie was made 1946) I was 16 years old and in love with Jennifer Jones, so any movie that she was in was all right with me. I enjoyed the movie than and I still enjoy it every time I see it,even though the story line is trite and at times a little "corny". (I just finished watching it on Turner Classic Movies)

Passé in its configuration and ideology notwithstanding, DUEL IN THE SUN effuses a sizable magnitude of spectacular whether to accommodate one's eyes or stir one's sentiments

[lasttimeisaw · 7/10 · 18 April 2018]

Hollywood mogul David O. Selznick's artistic follow-up of GONE WITH THE WIND, DUEL IN THE SUN is a lush western drama with King Vidor ostensibly at the helm, alas, in the wake of the creative difference between him and Selznick, the latter had to hire no less than six directors (himself included) to finish the shooting when the former reneged, so it is accountable that the final product is somewhat a curate's egg.

After her her Caucasian father Scott Chavez (Marshall) is hung for killing her "trash" two-timing Indian mother (Losch), a beleaguered mestiza Pearl Chavez (Jones) enters the foster family of Laura Belle (Gish), Scott's second cousin and quondam squeeze, who has been married to Senator Jackson McCanles (Barrymore), the landowner of a vast cattle ranch called Spanish Bit, and borne him two sons, the genteel, open-minded Jesse (Cotten) and the younger, louche Lewt (Peck).

Beyond any shadow of a doubt, a brotherly rivalry is fomented when there is such a nymphet in the household, to Pearl, although the two candidates' Manichaean disparity is clear as day, it is her own conflict between a tamed good girl (being educated like a lady by Jesse) and a wild bad girl (the trash like her mother, pining for Lewt's obsessive libido) that afflicts her profoundly, like her mixed parentage, these two congenital forces are constantly at loggerheads, and are not helped by Jesse's overtly lofty moral compass and Lewt's toxic masculinity and megalomania (who reckons her as his exclusive property, but cannot marry her due to her dark skin), she seesaws between them, to a point it is too bathetic and abject for one's palate, but when the crunches comes, under that broiling sun against the rugged man-face mountain, she knows the price to pay for being enamored with a hardened rascal, here is the most torrid and sensual love/hate self-destruction that takes two to tango, credits must be given to its morally incorrect dare that circumvents the Hays Code censors of its time.

To today's eyes, DUEL IN THE SUN is roundly tarnished by its culturally insensitive casting, the unmasked racism (Barrymore's Senator is too intractable and bombastic to merit a feel-good reconciliation), and some wide inconsistency in the narrative (e.g. a gratuitous train wrecking scene has no import or whatsoever in the context other than to create some action and noise), but as for its visual grandeur and horseback bravado, the film is for shizzle a gas for oater-philes, not to mention a young Peck is furnished with a rare opportunity to play up his villainous side, laced with his drop dead gorgeousness and a mischievous self-consciousness, completely outstrips Joseph Cotten's meek benevolence; Jennifer Jones, under her ethnicity-altering warpaint, emulates a feral posturing to a slightly hokey impression but totally earns her stripes in the coda when all her emotions well up affectingly, mixed with dirt, tears and blood.

Among its bankable supporting players, a delicately amiable Lillian Gish is vouchsafed with her one and only Oscar nomination through her extraordinary career; Lionel Barrymore has an overbearing presence too big to ignore but it is Herbert Marshall who bowls audience over with his brief but poignant appearance in the beginning, ire and contrition is alternately checked inside or oozing outside; lastly, Butterfly McQueen evokes sharp compassion as a barmy maid who can never finish her sentence more because her status doesn't deserve no one's time than her apparent prolixity. In toto, this far-off Hollywood epic is passé in its configuration and ideology, but effuses a sizable magnitude of spectacular whether to accommodate one's eyes or stir one's sentiments.

Selznick's attempt to top GWTW

[mfisher452 · 5/10 · 27 May 2005]

Say you're 44-year-old Hollywood producer David O. Selznick and it's been seven years and a World War since your last Technicolor feature, "Gone with the Wind," which beat out not only "The Wizard of Oz" but "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "Stagecoach" and "Wuthering Heights" for the Best Picture Oscar of 1939. How does a nice Jewish boy from Pittsburgh top that? Why, with "Duel in the Sun," so overblown and grandiose that it's acquired the nickname "Lust in the Dust". The screenplay was written by Niven Busch, whose wife was Teresa Wright, for whom the female lead role was intended as a departure from her terminally wholesome image, but in a spectacular piece of bad timing, she became pregnant early in production and had to drop out. Selznick then offered the role to his 27-year-old gorgeous Gentile girlfriend Jennifer Jones (the former Phyllis Walker), whom he later married.

I don't know if the film's historical background is accurate, but the action is set against the coming of the railroad to the Texas ranchlands and the opposition of the ranchers to the government's appropriation of rights-of-way by eminent domain for their cronies, the railroad magnates. Jones plays Pearl Chavez, a "half-breed", whose father kills Pearl's mother and her lover and is sentenced to death. Pearl goes to live with distant relatives on a ranch in Spanish Bit, Texas, and the sultry beauty's arrival immediately stirs up trouble in the already dysfunctional household, aggravating tensions between the brothers Jesse and Lewt (like lewd, get it?) McCanles. Jesse (Joseph Cotten) is the good but "gutless" son and Lewt (a very young Gregory Peck) is handsome and charming but also arrogant, insecure and violent. Intrigue, treachery and murder follow in Pearl's wake, friends and family take sides, and Pearl is torn between the two brothers who are well-defined "good" and "bad" characters. An attempted fratricide ensues, leading up to a climactic confrontation at Squaw's Head Rock in the Mexican desert (the "lust in the dust" part).

This is film-making at its best and worst. The best: The sets, costumes, outdoor locations and cinematography are magnificent, except for one or two inexplicable goofs such as a brief scene where Lionel Barrymore, in the center foreground, is perceptibly out of focus. I've seen this film both in a theater and on TV, and the richness of Technicolor comes through even on a TV screen. Even the computer-enhanced color effects of modern films can't surpass the brilliance and subtlety of the old 3-strip Technicolor process. There has just never been anything like it. The director was that old veteran of both silents and talkies, King Vidor. The location shooting, unusual in those days when productions rarely ventured off the studio backlot, is spectacular. Some scenes, such as the lineup of the U.S. cavalry across from a line of angry ranchers on horseback along a stretch of unfinished railroad track, and the derailing of a train on a hillside, are breathtaking even today. You do notice certain differences in the old technology; for example, there is a tracking shot of Pearl and Lewt on horseback where it may have been impractical to lay track for the camera, which jiggles up and down in a way that you never see in these days of the Steadicam.

The worst: The overheated, baroque, melodramatic plot and the operatic, stylized dialogue that had them on the edge of their seats in the 1940s will have you rolling in the aisles (either with mirth or in severe intestinal distress) in the 2000s. The casting is often equally absurd: The Tulsa-born Jennifer Jones in brown body makeup playing a "half-breed." The London-born Herbert Marshall playing her father, a Texas Creole. The Vienna-born Tilly Losch, also in brown body makeup, playing Pearl's mother, an Indian. Gregory Peck does his best, and maybe it's because of my memory of his later, generally sympathetic roles, but he is only marginally believable as the bad son Lewt.

Lionel Barrymore had for a number of years been confined to a wheelchair because of crippling arthritis, but that didn't stop him from working, and he supplies his usual hammy, melodramatic performance. Joseph Cotten does a serviceable job as Jesse although he seems too old for the part, and in fact he was about the same age as Selznick, so maybe there was symbolism there. Lillian Gish is excellent and the always brilliant Walter Houston chews up the scenery every chance he gets in his small role. No big, splashy Western would be complete without Charles Bickford and Harry Carey, and they look and act their parts perfectly here. The score by the legendary film composer Dmitri Tiomkin resembles the work of John Williams in that it more than makes up in enthusiasm what it lacks in subtlety.