DUEL IN THE SUN (1946)

Duel in the Sun (1946) Romance/western. Directed by King Vidor. Produced and written by David O. Selznick. Who wrote the Hollywood classics "Gone With the Wind", "Since You Went Away" and "Rebecca". Cast: Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, Lillian Gish and Lionel Barrymore.

Before Scott Chavez is hanged for murdering his Indian wife and her lover, he makes arrangements for Pearl to live with his second cousin and old sweetheart, Laura Belle. He makes his his daughter Pearl promise that she will grow up to be a lady.

Laura Belle welcomes Pearl into her home on Spanish Bit, the Texas cattle ranch where she lives with her husband,"Senator" McCanles, and their two grown sons, Jesse and Lewt. McCanles, confined to a wheelchair, is not happy that Pearl has come to live with them and calls her "a half-breed". Both Jesse and Lewt are attracted to her.



 Later that night, Lewt forces his way into her bedroom and kisses her. Pearl loves the kindhearted Jesse, but physically attracted to the wild womanizing Lewt and cannot resist him.

When a railroad company wins the legal right to build tracks through McCanles ranch, McCanles and his ranch hands try to defend their land. Jesse, a lawyer, takes the side of the railroad, his father bans him from the ranch.

When Lewt returns early from El Paso, he finds none of the men home and seduces Pearl. Jesse finds them together and tells her that he will never forget what he has seen. Pearl now wants Lewt to marry her, but when he makes it clear that he has no intention of marring her, she quickly becomes engaged to Sam Pierce. Lewt goes into a jealous rage and kills Sam. Will this broken family over come their prejudice and forbidden love of Pearl and Lewt?

My favorite scene of the film is: When McCanles tells Laura Belle that he has always blamed her for his injury. When he thought she was going away to be with Chavez. He now knows it was his own jealousy that caused the accident. He admits that he has always loved her.

Ottilie Ethel Leopoldine "Tilly" Losch, Countess of Carnarvon (15 November 1903 –24 December 1975) was an Austrian-born dancer, choreographer, actress and painter who lived and worked for most of her life in the United States and United Kingdom.

She performed in several screen productions including: Limelight (1936), The Garden of Allah (1936), The Good Earth (1937) and Duel in the Sun (1946). Her choreography was seen in, Song of Scheherazade (1947).

Dissatisfied with supporting film roles, she continued working as a dancer and choreographer and acted on Broadway.

Losch guested with the New York Ballet in a work by Antony Tudor and in London she had danced to Léonide Massine's choreography.

Her best known conception was "The Hand Dance" (a collaboration with her Viennese colleague, Hedy Pfundmayr) which featured in a short dance film by Norman Bel Geddes.