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Duel in the Sun
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786304953846
Format: Color, HiFi Sound, Original recording reissued, NTSC
ISBN: 6304953844
Label: Video Treasures
Languages: English (Original Language), Analog
Manufacturer: Video Treasures
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Video Treasures
Release Date: July 14, 1998
Running Time: 138 minutes
Studio: Video Treasures
Theatrical Release Date: 1946
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Editorial Review:
Legendary producer David O. Selznick dreamed of another magnum opus like his 1939 production of Gone with the Wind; he also purposed to make Jennifer Jones, his ladylove and eventually second Mrs. Selznick, a megastar. Accordingly, he micromanaged the making of Duel in the Sun (Lust in the Dust to some), an extravagant Technicolor epic about the collision of the old West with the new, wide-open spaces with railroads and barbed wire, and hot-blooded outlaws with civilized folk, often wimpy or unwell. Beginning among giant rocks drenched in a blood-red sunset, with velvet-voiced Orson Welles intoning the leibestod legend of doomed Pearl Chavez and her demon lover, Duel never strays far from lush romanticism, spiced with a dash of S/M. Orphaned Pearl (Jones) comes to live at Spanish Bit Ranch, where frail Laura Belle McCanles (Lillian Gish) tries to make a lady of her, despite her questionable origins and insistent voluptuousness. Sexual license versus law--Pearl's choices--are symbolized by the McCanles brothers: dark, undisciplined Lewt (a lubriciously wicked Gregory Peck) and reasonable, forward-looking, repressed Jesse (Joseph Cotten). The cast is huge (Lionel Barrymore, Walter Huston, Harry Carey, Herbert Marshall, Charles Bickford, Butterfly McQueen) and there are unforgettable set pieces: summoned by a cacophony of bells, the gathering of McCanles cowboys from the four corners of the earth; Pearl in heat, clutching Lewt's leg and being dragged across the floor as he makes his getaway to Mexico; and the lovers' final shootout among those red rocks, as orgiastic a finale as you could ask for. --Kathleen Murphy
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Gregory Peck as a bag guy, oh my!
This has always been one of my favorites westerns, although I never went to the trouble of getting a DVD version, until it came up on my Amazon recommendation list. I ordered it right away, and received the usual good Amazon service, and quick, free shipping, and have not been disappointed. Gregory Peck is one of best actors, and makes the movie, playing the bad guy this time, instead of his usual hero role. I can personally recommend this movie, going against a number of the negative reviews that ... Read More
Rating: - A "Bad Movie We Love" Must-See!!!!
We who love Bad Movies positively worship David Selznick's overproduced, overwritten, overwrought DUEL IN THE SUN. This film was Selznick's futile effort to make a sex symbol our of his Oscar-winning girlfriend Jennifer Jones by casting her as a wanton half-breed Injun gal who makes men's blood turn to, well, firewater. You've got to wonder about the private life of any famed movie producer who writes a script expressly for his young actress protegee that includes self-appraisals such as: "I'm trash, ... Read More
Rating:  - Turgid Is The Word.....
My quick opinion: 3 stars because I'm sentimental about the great stars in it. The fatal flaw, picked up on decades ago--and correctly--is that the emotions are overwrought, the characters underdeveloped, and the attempts to create genuine emotional tension, and involvement on the part of the viewer, too calculated and artificial to be "real". Rightfully assessed as a failed attempt to reproduce the oomph of "Gone With The Wind". It's basically a turgid, forced melodrama, despite the best scene-chewing ... Read More
Rating: - A love with two faces!
"Duel in the sun" is the "Gone with the wind" of the Western genre. The movie begins with a warning, a cactus flower that epitomizes and warns us about the tragic love of Perla Chavez , a free and gentle flower who grew wild, a half bred girl who was born signed by the disgrace. She is witness of her mother' s death by the hands of her own father, who sends her to his second cousin Laura Belle, happily married with a wealthy Senator and mother of two sons; Jesse, the good guy and prominent lawyer (Joseph Cotten) ... Read More
Rating: - A highly original piece of work that remains impressive, baroque folly, not least for the final scene...
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 ... Read More
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