Duel in the Sun

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Duel in the Sun
Movie poster for Duel in the Sun
Directed by	King Vidor
Produced by	David O. Selznick
Starring	Jennifer Jones Joseph Cotten Gregory Peck Lionel Barrymore
Music by	Dimitri Tiomkin
Distributed by	Selznick Releasing Organization
Release date(s)	December 31, 1946 (U.S. release)
Running time	138 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Duel in the Sun is a 1946 Western film which tells the story of a half-Hispanic girl who goes to live with her Anglo relatives, becoming involved in prejudice and forbidden love. It stars Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, Lionel Barrymore, Herbert Marshall, Lillian Gish, Walter Huston, Charles Bickford, Harry Carey, Sidney Blackmer, Butterfly McQueen, Otto Kruger and Chief Tahachee.

The movie was adapted by Oliver H.P. Garrett, Ben Hecht (uncredited) and David O. Selznick from the novel by Niven Busch. It was directed by King Vidor, Otto Brower (uncredited), William Dieterle (uncredited), Sidney Franklin (uncredited), William Cameron Menzies (uncredited), David O. Selznick (uncredited) and Josef von Sternberg (uncredited).

It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Jennifer Jones) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Lillian Gish).

The film received the nickname "Lust in the Dust", which eventually became the name of a real movie.

David O. Selznick had high hopes for Duel in the Sun and hoped that it would surpass his success with Gone with the Wind. The film received poor reviews, however, and was highly controversial. A scene in which Jones does a seductive dance for Gregory Peck was cut from the film before it was released. Despite the bad press, it was a goldmine for Selznick. It earned USD$11,300,000 in rentals during its initial release, and much more overseas and in the 1954 re-release. But, because of the film's huge production costs (rumored to be over $6,000,000), its $2,000,000 advertising campaign (unheard of at the time), and costly distribution tactics, the film really only broke even.

Although its critical reputation is mixed at best Martin Scorsese has stated that this was the first film he ever saw and holds it high regard and even mentioned it in his documentary of American movies.