Duel in the Sun, A 1947 Western Movie Review

A Duel In The Sun is a passionate romance movie that is set in the wild west and full of action. The Film Daily said it was 'flawlessly cast' and it included some pretty big names including Jennifer Jones, Gregory Peck, Joseph Cotten, Lionel Barrymore and Lillian Gish. The story is that of a daughter (Pearl) whose father hanged for murdering his wife. A wealthy Texan and his family adopt Pearl and she becomes trapped between love of one son and lust of the other. Definitely a movie ahead of its time.

Duel in the Sun was a controversial movie in its day. It was known as "Lust in the Dust" because of a seductive dance scene, which was cut before the movie was released to the public. It was heavily edited in order to please the Hays Code censors and religious review boards. Rape scenes became love scenes and the sexuality of the movie was played down.

Producer David O. Selznick had initially hoped to surpass his success with Gone With The Wind. However, poor reviews, controversy about the sexual content and controversy about his relationship with the movie's female star negated the possibility of Duel in the Sun reaching the height of that movie.

Despite these controversies, Duel in the Sun was a box-office success. However, huge and unheard of costs for production ($6,000,000), advertising ($2,000,000) and expensive distribution tactics, meant that the film only broke even.

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The Amazon customer reviews of Duel in the Sun are enthusiastic and include words like sweeing, magnificent, corny and romantic. They talk about this movie showing a wild west that never really existed and called it just right...containing as it does lots of suds, steam and foamy froth in a hacienda named Spanish Bit. Others say it is over the top, but many love it for exactly that reason.

Duel in the Sun was released in 1947 and went on to become one of the largest grossing western movies of all time. The popular movie stars featured into this film turned it into a blockbuster and an entertaining movie.