Review of Duel in the Sun (1946) by Devon B — 22 Aug 2010

With a lot of big name talent, the producer of "Gone With The Wind" brings us a would-be epic western that doesn't amount to very much. Really, the plot could be summarized as "a manipulative woman falls for an evil man and they spend the rest of their lives doing bad things to people".

Producer David O. Selznick wrote this film as a star-making role for his then future wife, Jennifer Jones, but the film didn't do her, or anyone else involved with it any favors. Jones plays Pearl, the indian halfbreed who is sent to live with distant relatives when her father kills her libidinous mother in a fit of jealous rage.

Her new family consists of a southern aunt (Lillian Gish), her husband, the crippled old senator (Lionel Barrymore) and their two sons, the good one Jesse (Joseph Cotten) and the bad one, "Lewt" (Gregory Peck).

Lewt isn't a badboy, he's just kind of an a-hole whose hobbie include bullying and raping and murdering. Pearl wants to be a good girl, sort of, but manages to ruin her every opportunity by not being able to keep it in her pants.

Yes, the movie is sexually charged, what with all the raping going on, but Pearl's hardly a victim. She manipulates the kindly old straw boss into marrying her just to make Lewt jealous, and basically gets the man killed for her own pride.

So where do our sympathies lie? With Jessie, I suppose. He does the sensible thing, stands up to his domineering father and goes off and makes good. He even gets a good girl to marry. Good for him, I guess.

King Vidor directs the film that in another era would recall a Benjamin Button or Forrest Gump, and while these are very acclaimed films, I find them both to be a little trite and obvious when it comes to their directing, sacrificing believability for the "perfect scene" scenes.

Jennifer Jones' overacts something frightful, and the whole thing winds up being something I frankly don't give a damn about.