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By
NICK ZEGARAC
Producer David O. Selznick
never thought small. Dreaming of a magnum opus on
the same grand scale as "Gone with the Wind" and,
perhaps a little bit self-conscious of the fact
that his recent affair with Jennifer Jones had
yielded only one stellar performance from the
starlet -- and not even in a film he had produced
-- Selznick's driving ambition to make Jones a
star on par with the likes of Vivien Leigh led him
to handcraft "Duel in the Sun." This was to be an
extravagant Technicolor epic about a doomed
mulatto, Pearl Chavez (Jones) and her rabid lust
for Lewton McCanles (Gregory Peck, in the
uncharacteristic part as the villain), the
ruthless son of a retired senator and bigoted
rancher, Jackson McCanles (Lionel Barrymore).
After Pearl's father, Scott (Herbert Marshall)
murders her mother, Pearl is sent to live with
Jackson and his wife, Laura Bell (Lillian Gish) on
their sprawling ranch, Spanish Bit. Pearl is
determined to live purely and plainly, but her
incendiary disposition leads into the arms of
Lewton. Jesse McCanles (Joseph Cotten), the good
son, is forced to leave Spanish Bit, returning
years later to find that his brother has become a
ruthless tyrant and outlaw. Buttressed by a fiery
backdrop about the colliding sensibilities of old
West morality and the true Northern ambition to
tame it, "Duel in the Sun" ultimately became an
overblown melodrama that seemed almost a garish
lampoon of "Gone with the Wind" rather than its
successor. It did respectable box office at the
time but very little to advance Jennifer Jones'
career into the echelons of super stardom. Before
its release a sensual dance sequence that Pearl
performs around a tree stump for Lewton was
deleted because the censorship of the period found
its sexual implications…well, shocking. Selznick's
usual attention to craftsmanship and story design
also seem to be absent in this occasion. He
repositions Butterfly McQueen (Prissy from "Gone
With The Wind") as the Prissy-esque house maid,
Vashti, who is even dumber than Prissy and
Selznick muddles the supporting cast with oddities
of all sorts, including Walter Huston as a
religious zealot determined to rid Pearl of her
sexual demons, and Charles Bickford, as an
over-the-hill farmer who offers Pearl his hand in
a loveless marriage. Because of its sexually
charged subject matter (there is, after all, a
rape, a murder and the prospect of lovers
committing suicide in the mountains) "Duel in the
Sun" acquired the rather unflattering moniker of
"Lust In The Dust."
"Duel in the Sun" had previously been made
available from Anchor Bay in a stunning road show
edition. MGM's reissue is the truncated theatrical
version -- also made previously available through
Anchor Bay. On all three DVD incarnations, colors
are well balanced, though on this new version they
seem a tad more dated from the rich and vibrant
colors on the Anchor Bay version. Black levels are
good but fine detail is lost in many darkly lit
scenes. There's also more noticeable film grain on
this version than the Anchor Bay edition. The
audio is remixed to stereo but only marginally
appealing, sounding rather forced and
re-channeled. There are no extras.
There's nothing to stand up and cheer about here.
If you are a die hard fan of this film, or
westerns, then you will definitely want to look up
the out of print copy from Anchor Bay, rather than
this reissue. Aside from being longer, the Anchor
Bay version also tends to be a better visual
presentation overall. |
