Duell in der Sonne (1946)
38KDuell in der Sonne: Directed by King Vidor, Otto Brower, William Dieterle, Sidney Franklin, William Cameron Menzies, David O. Selznick, Josef von Sternberg. With Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, Lionel Barrymore. Beautiful, biracial, 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.
“King Vidor was a long-serving and much-respected Hollywood grandmaster who took a serious interest in movie-making u0026quot;Billy the Kidu0026quot; and u0026quot;Duel in the Sunu0026quot; hold an important place in the history of the genre These two films in particular, along with u0026quot;Northwest Passage,u0026quot; show Vidoru0026#39;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, u0026quot;The Texas Rangersu0026quot; and u0026quot;Man Without a Star.u0026quot;u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePhotographed 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 u0026quot;the lonely Senatoru0026quot;; and in that long shot of the surreptitious meeting between Lewt and his father on the hilltop at sunset u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;Duel in the Sunu0026quot; 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 u0026amp; Lillian Gish) when Laura Belle said to her husband u0026quot;Iu0026#39;m a nuisance to you even to the end. Itu0026#39;s the first time youu0026#39;ve been in this room since that night./I loved you, Laura Belle. Yes, sir, I loved you.u0026quot; u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNow, 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 u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe 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 u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eGregory 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 u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJennifer Jones as Pearl, is the u0026#39;prettiest girl ever to set foot on Spanish Bit.u0026#39; She is a marvelous overwrought minx, wild and sexy u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJoseph 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: u0026quot;Iu0026#39;d rather be on the side of the victims than of the murderers.u0026quot; u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eLionel Barrymore is the invalid Senator Jackson McCanles who orders his son, calling him a u0026quot;Judas,u0026quot; to leave his ranch for as long as he lives u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eLillian 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 werenu0026#39;t made for him u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHerbert Marshall plays Scott Chavez the condemned Southern aristocrat gentleman who sends his daughter to Laura Belle, his second cousin u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eCharles 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 u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eImpassions, pulsating, barbaric, and thunderous, the music matches perfectly the fervid emotionalism of the story u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film received only two Academy Awards nominations”
