The story was born in another man's attempt to influence the career of the actress he loved. Niven Busch wrote the novel, then pitched it to RKO with himself as producer in hopes that it would provide a career-changing role for his wife, Teresa Wright, who was typed in "good girl" roles. When Wright got pregnant, however, the studio had to find another leading lady, particularly since they'd already signed John Wayne to play Lewt. When their second choice, Hedy Lamarr, turned down the role because she, too, was pregnant, studio head Charles Koerner tried to borrow Jones, who was under contract to Selznick's production company. The choice was unconventional -- Jones was primarily identified with her Oscar®-winning role as St. Bernadette of Lourdes -- but it appealed to Selznick, who was having an affair with her at the time. But the deal was never closed. Complaining that Wayne didn't have the sex appeal for the male lead and a first-time producer like Busch couldn't make the film important enough for Jones, he refused the loan out. When RKO lost interest in the project, he bought the rights himself. Not only did he ink Jones to play Pearl, but he cast two other actors whose contracts he held -- Gregory Peck and Joseph Cotten -- as Lewt and his honorable half-brother, Jesse, respectively.
Selznick first considered William Dieterle as director because Jones had just had a good experience working with him on Love Letters (1945), but then decided he'd put too much emphasis on the romance. Instead he chose King Vidor, who'd excelled with westerns and other outdoor films like Billy the Kid (1930) and Northwest Passage (1940), but had also directed strong women's pictures like Stella Dallas (1937). Initially, he offered Vidor the chance to serve as his own producer, saying he was too busy to spend a lot of time on the picture.
As he worked on the script, however, Selznick's attitude changed. He started seeing the opportunity for spectacle and became increasingly intrigued at the thought of presenting Jones to the filmgoing public in a new, sexier image. By the time the film went on location in Arizona, Selznick insisted on approving every setup and was re-writing the script daily. Some of his revisions were incredibly picky; he would change only a single line of dialogue or, in one case, the position of Cotten's arm as he sat on a sofa. One day he arrived on the set after Cotten had been released for the day with a new version of the scene they'd just shot. To get one minor line change in, he had Cotten called back and kept him shooting until midnight.
He also had various additional directors -- including Dieterle, Joseph von Sternberg and William Cameron Menzies -- on hand to shoot additional scenes or serve as consultants. He even tried to shoot a few scenes himself when Vidor fell ill. At least that meant there was somebody handy when Selznick's interference and on-set tantrums finally led Vidor to walk off the film. Ostensibly there were only two days left, and Selznick got Dieterle to fill in. Then as the film was being cut, Selznick kept adding scenes that dragged the production out for almost a year and tripled the budget.
Among the new scenes were a prologue, in which Pearl's father kills her mother for cheating on him, and a sexy dance Pearl performs for Lewt. The latter posed special problems for Jones, who had little confidence in her dancing abilities and was already uncomfortable with the character's sexual nature. It didn't help that the sequence had to be shot three times to get past the Production Code. After the film was released, Selznick had to cut it entirely to appease the Catholic Church's Legion of Decency and avoid a boycott of the film.
The entire process was grueling for Jones. On location in February and March, she had to endure snowstorms and sub-zero temperatures. In the final scene, Pearl and Lewt shoot each other, then she crawls through a jagged canyon so they can die together. For this sequence, Vidor wanted to use padding to protect Jones from the rough terrain. But Selznick insisted that it wouldn't look natural. By the time they were done shooting, the actress was covered with welts and bruises. The film was emotionally trying, too. Her relationship with Selznick had already contributed to the breakup of her marriage to actor Robert Walker. Shortly before production began, Selznick told his wife about Jones. Throughout filming and postproduction, he vacillated between leaving his wife for her and then trying to break things off to save his marriage. Shortly after the film was finally finished, Jones even attempted suicide, in despair over the state of her relationship with Selznick. Some of that emotional turmoil made it onto the screen. Pearl Chavez is now considered one of her best performances, and she still amazes audiences with the passion and commitment of her work in the film.
Further production delays were caused by a series of strikes, including one at Technicolor that almost kept the film from opening in time for the 1946 Academy Awards®. On the day of its premiere, a freshly struck print was rushed to Loew's Egyptian. Selznick also ran into trouble with his usual distributor, United Artists, partly over the film's sexual nature. Faced with their refusal to distribute Duel in the Sun, he created his own distribution company, Selznick Releasing Organization. Because all of his money was tied up in the film, he took a chance on a new releasing pattern, opening the film in hundreds of theaters around the country rather than starting slowly in a few first-run houses in the major cities, as was then the custom. Opening the film wide was decades ahead of its time, but proved a box-office bonanza as audiences, prodded by a $2 million publicity campaign, raced to see the film wherever it played. Despite pretty awful reviews, the picture grossed $10 million, making it the second-highest-grossing film of the year (behind The Best Years of Our Lives).
At the time, Selznick was stung by the poor reviews, jokes about "Lust in the Dust," as the film was dubbed, and even complaints in Congress about the picture's unbridled sexuality. He even instructed his publicity department to find a way to salvage his image. He didn't have to worry. MGM's re-issue of Gone With the Wind later in 1947 reminded critics and audiences of just how great a producer he was. In recent years, Duel in the Sun has been re-evaluated by critics, most notably director Martin Scorsese, who consider the work ahead of its time. In an era in which filmmakers are expected to put their personal visions and obsessions on screen, Duel in the Sun stands as a testament to Selznick and Vidor's ability to use the western as a vehicle for artistic expression.
Producer: David O. Selznick
Director: King Vidor
Screenplay: Oliver H.P. Garrett
Based on the novel by Niven Busch Cinematography: Lee Garmes, Harold Rosson, Ray Rennahan
Art Direction: J. McMillan Johnson
Music: Dimitri Tiomkin
Cast: Jennifer Jones (Pearl Chavez), Joseph Cotten (Jesse McCanles), Gergory Peck (Lewt McCanles), Lionel Barrymore (Sen. McCanles), Lillian Gish (Laura Belle McCanles), Herbert Marshall (Scott Chavez), Charles Bickford (Sam Pierce), Harry Carey (Len Smoot), Tilly Losch (Mrs. Chavez), Butterfly McQueen (Vashti).
C-145m. Closed captioning.
by Frank Miller
