Duel in the Sun (1946)

Duel in the Sun (1946)

Director: King Vidor Writers: David O. Selznick (screenplay) Niven Busch (a novel by) Nominated for 2 Oscars. David O. Selznick reportedly spent $2,000,000.00, an unheard of sum in 1946, on the promotion of this film. Adjusted for inflation in 2013, the film's US box office gross of $20,408,163 would be $410,714,300. Martin Scorsese has said that the movie that influenced him most was this one. Duel in the Sun was directed by King Vidor, a much more talented and personal director than Victor Fleming was on Gone With the Wind. Vidor scored in the silent era with films like The Jack Knife Man (1920), Tol'able David (1921), The Big Parade (1925), and his masterpiece, The Crowd (1928). Though he continued working steadily, he never regained the personal vision he imbued on those films. Along with Duel in the Sun, he was resigned to making camp films like The Fountainhead (1949), War and Peace (1956), and Solomon and Sheba (1959). However, as much as he was pestered and manipulated by Selznick, Vidor ultimately gives Duel in the Sun more immediacy than Gone With the Wind ever had.















































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