Duel in the sun

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Movie
German title Duel in the sun
Original title Duel in the Sun
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1946
length 129 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director King Vidor
script Niven Busch
Oliver HP Garrett
David O. Selznick
Ben Hecht
production David O. Selznick
music Dimitri Tiomkin
camera Lee Garmes
Ray Rennahan
Harold Rosson
cut Hal C. Kern
occupation

Duel in der Sonne (Original title: Duel in the Sun ) is an American western from 1946, which is based on the novel of the same name by Niven Busch . It was produced by Selznick International Pictures and filmed in Technicolor .

action

Scott Chavez murders his Indian wife and her lover. Daughter Pearl witnesses this murder. When Chavez is sentenced to death, he gives the girl into the care of his childhood sweetheart and second cousin Laura Belle McCanles, who is in a hapless marriage to wealthy Senator Jackson McCanles. Pearl experienced great prosperity when she arrived at the Texan ranch, but Senator McCanles in particular was prejudiced against her because of Pearl's Indian origins and her father. The McCanles have two different sons: Lewt, who never went to school and was mainly brought up by his father, is rebellious and impulsive, rules are ignored by him; the studied lawyer Jesse - who, in contrast to his brother, was a mother child - adapted and sociable. When Pearl comes to the ranch, Lewt and Jesse fight over her favor. Jesse is in love with Pearl and she feels love for him too. But the reckless Lewt finally wins her as his lover, because he ruthlessly pursues her until she gives in to his advances.

In a conflict with a railroad company that wants to lay its rails over the McCanles' property, the senator falls out with his son Jesse: Since the railroad company has law and justice on its side and the senator wants to fight it with armed force, the graduate surrenders Lawyer Jesse against his father and is expelled from the ranch for this. When he leaves the ranch, Jesse also wants to say goodbye to Pearl and confess his love to her, but he catches her in the same room with Lewt. Jesse confesses to Pearl that he can never forget the sight, and Pearl has to give up her hopes for a future together with Jesse. She then hopes to marry Lewt, but Lewt, under the influence of his father, refuses to make a half-Indian wife his wife.

Thereupon Pearl wants to enter into a marriage of convenience with the neighboring rancher Sam Pierce. Pierce is not rich and middle-aged, but friendly and defends Pearl against hostility over her affair with Lewt. He feels that his man's honor is offended by the approaching wedding of his lover and shoots Pierce in a saloon argument. With the support of his father, Lewt flees the police. In return, he helps his father fight the railroad by sabotaging trains. Meanwhile, Jesse has married Helen, the daughter of the railroad company's owner, and is headed for a successful political career in Austin, his new home .

Meanwhile, Laura Belle McCandles dies without the presence of her two sons, but can reconcile with the senator before her death, who confesses his love for her. Jesse has heard of his mother's illness and returns after a long time, only finding his mother dead and his father still unforgiving. When Jesse offers the unfortunate Pearl to move to Austin with his support so that she can start a new life there, Lewt feels provoked and challenges his brother to a duel. Jesse appears unarmed, which is why Lewt throws him a gun, but his brother does not pick it up. Lewt shoots him anyway, seriously but not fatally injuring Jesse. Only now does the lonely McCandles realize that he made serious mistakes in bringing up Lewt and wants to reconcile with Jesse.

Pearl is happy that Jesse survived, and Jesse's wife Helen renews the offer that she can move to Austin with the couple. However, Pearl learns from one of Lewt's friends that he is planning another revenge and does not want to leave Jesse alone. Then she looks for Lewt in his hiding place in the mountains. In their gun battle, the two lovers Pearl and Lewt wound each other to put an end to their love-hate relationship. Dying, the two lie in each other's arms for the last time.

background

Since his production of Gone with the Wind , film producer David O. Selznick has tried again and again to build on his greatest success and failed mainly because he measured himself against this film. The perfectionist Selznick needed three cameramen for this film. As with Gone With the Wind , he was dissatisfied with the directing work and wore out five well-known directors: Otto Brower , William Dieterle , Sidney Franklin , William Cameron Menzies and Josef von Sternberg . He himself also directed some scenes. Ultimately, King Vidor was allowed to finish the film.

The film was shot with longer interruptions from March 4, 1945 to May 1946 in the Selznick International Studios in Culver City. The exterior shots were made in Tucson and the San Fernando Valley . Although about a quarter of the finished film was directed by William Dieterle, after an arbitration decision by the Screen Directors Guild King Vidor was awarded sole naming as director.

The producer spent more on the film than on his southern drama Gone With the Wind : A huge ranch was built and lavishly “equipped with animals and props”, rails were laid for a historic steam locomotive and almost 6,000 extras took part.

In the original English version, Orson Welles is the narrator. Because of some nude and love scenes that were perceived as very revealing when it was made, the film already made a name for itself during the shooting as “Duel in the Sin” - an effective advertising strategy as it was typical for producer David O. Selznick.

It premiered on December 30, 1946 in Grauman's Egyptian Theater , Los Angeles. The German premiere was on October 17, 1952 at the Urania-Filmbühne Hamburg.

Reviews

The lexicon of the international film said that the plot contains “almost everything” such as “adultery, racial mixing, execution, seduction, deceit, fraud and murder” and also features “visually splendid scenes”, “like the exploding of a dynamite-laden train, the breathtaking view of huge herds of cattle or the equally grandiose sight of large riders. "Selznick's vision is" admirably staged by King Vidor and the glamorous cast ". The CD-ROM edition of the lexicon also states: "The narrative style of the broad, well-cast, bloody western drama suffers from the large number of directors [...] who 'stood by' King Vidor during the filming."

The Catholic film review describes the film as "[a] elaborate and filmed with a good cast, but the content is extremely unpleasant". The film is for "adults, with considerable reservations". Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz found Duel in the Sun to be "a film of great emotions in large landscapes and a western with a female hero", which, however, is bombastic as a "colossal melodrama by co-producer David O. Selznick" slide. They gave the rating 2½ stars (= above average).

Phil Hardy noted that the film "powerfully articulates the theme of irreconcilable passions." Joe Hembus saw "heated relationships of hate and love between everyone involved". The “explosive confrontations in the sun that outshines everything” already pointed to the spaghetti westerns .

Susanne Marschall emphasizes the “operatic” quality of the “grandiose final sequence” and praises the handling of “the costly but high quality three-strip color process”: “The clear and dramatic colors are superbly preserved and testify to a sophisticated color dramaturgy , lighting, costumes and the staging of landscapes. Sky scenarios comment on the course of the action, complicated incursions of light that penetrate through cloud formations create relief-like structures on the surfaces of the hills and valleys. "

Reclam's film guide attested the film to "larger than life feelings" that were "staged with real pathos". Vidor made sure that the film was not only “elaborate, but also remarkable”, as requested by the producer Selznick.

At the time , Norbert Grob said that if the viewer accepted clichés like shootings, fights and whiskey in dirty saloons as well as bombast and emotional melodrama, then the film would be “a great, rich and also a beautiful Western”.

Awards

Jennifer Jones was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and Lillian Gish for Best Supporting Actress . However, they couldn't hold their own against the competition.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wilhelm (William) Dieterle - actor, director . In: CineGraph - Lexikon zum Deutschsprachigen Film , Lg. 22, F 33
  2. ↑ Susanne Marschall: Duel in the sun. In: Bernd Kiefer , Norbert Grob (ed.), Marcus Stiglegger (collaboration): Filmgenres. Western (= RUB . No. 18402). Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-018402-9 , pp. 116-120, here 118.
  3. ↑ Duel in the sun. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. ^ Lexicon of International Films . (CD-ROM edition), Systhema, Munich 1997.
  5. ↑ 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945 to 1958 . Handbook V of the Catholic film criticism, 3rd edition, Verlag Haus Altenberg, Düsseldorf 1963, p. 86.
  6. ^ Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz : Lexicon "Films on TV" (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 177.
  7. ^ Phil Hardy: The Encyclopedia of Western Movies . Woodbury Press Minneapolis 1984, ISBN 0-8300-0405-X , p. 152
  8. ↑ Joe Hembus: Western Lexicon - 1272 films from 1894-1975 . Carl Hanser Verlag, 2nd edition, Munich / Vienna 1977. ISBN 3-446-12189-7 , p. 142.
  9. ↑ Susanne Marschall: Duel in the sun. In: Bernd Kiefer , Norbert Grob (ed.), Marcus Stiglegger (collaboration): Filmgenres. Western (= RUB . No. 18402). Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-018402-9 , pp. 116-120, here 117f.
  10. ↑ Dieter Krusche: Reclam's film guide / collaborators: Jürgen Labenski and Josef Nagel. 13th, revised edition, Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-15-010676-1 , p. 213.
  11. ↑ Norbert Grob: From the wild life. Cinema: King Vidor's "Duel in the Sun". The western as a melodrama . In: The time . No. 50/1981 , December 4, 1981, features section , p. 47 .