Duel In The Sun DVD

In this classic Western, two brothers become bitter rivals after a beautiful half-Indian woman comes to live on their sprawling ranch and disturbs their dynasty.

Dubbed "Lust in the Dust" by Hollywood wags and, at $5 million, the most expensive film made up to that time, DUEL IN THE SUN stars Jennifer Jones as Pearl Chavez, a stunning young half-breed. After her father's death, she's taken in by distant relative Laura Belle McCanles (Lillian Gish), whose husband, Senator (Lionel Barrymore), is a Texas cattle baron of immense wealth. She soons finds herself attracted to the two McCanles sons: the magnetic hell-raiser Lewt (Gregory Peck) and the educated, restrained Jesse (Joseph Cotten). Since Pearl is presumed to have inherited her mother's hot-blooded disposition, she's tagged as a bad girl by Lewt, who quickly makes a pass at her without success. But with Jesse away on business, she and Lewt eventually become lovers, although she still can't decide which of the two she loves. Meanwhile, Senator is embroiled in a dispute over the invasion of his property by railroad interests, becoming enraged when Jesse chooses the pen over the shotgun as a negotiating tool. Saturated in sexual innuendo, this fabulously overripe, overproduced melodrama, which constantly teeters on the edge of camp, is, more than anything else, the product of David O. Selznick's megalomaniacal desire to top his earlier epic, GONE WITH THE WIND. That said, the acting is very good, as is Dimitri Tiomkin's score, and the crowd scenes are superbly orchestrated.

Theatrical release: December 31, 1946. Daniel Selznick, the son of producer David O. Selznick, said that his father was obsessed with remaking GONE WITH THE WIND and that this film was the closest he came to that desire. In King Vidor's autobiography, A TREE IS A TREE, he wrote about his experience with Selznick. Vidor claims that Selznick rewrote scenes several times and would show up on the set after he had finished filming a scene and ask Vidor to film it again because his rewrite was better. Vidor and Selzick battled constantly during the making of the film before the director finally quit in frustration. William Dieterle and Josef von Sternberg were brought in to shoot parts of the film.

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