“Duel in the Sun” quotes

(1946)
Movie Duel in the Sun
King Vidor, David O. Selznick, Josef von Sternberg directed this movie in 1946
Title Duel in the Sun
Year 1946
Directors King Vidor, Otto Brower, William Dieterle, Sidney Franklin, William Cameron Menzies, David O. Selznick, Josef von Sternberg
Genre Drama, Romance, Western
Plot – Pearl Chevez, a girl with an impetuous temper, flees the village where she was born and tries to make a new life for herself in Texas because her father was arrested for killing his wife and her lover. In Texas, she is welcomed by Laura Bell, wife of Jackson McCanles, a senator who is in a wheelchair after getting shot. The couple has two sons: Lewton, cynical and resourceful, and Jesse, shy and courteous. The girl’s presence creates conflict within the family, because both the boys are in love with her. Pearl falls in love with Lewton but he murders two people and then flees to avoid getting arrested. The girl, left alone, tries to find a way to get to him and get revenge.
All actors – Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, Lionel Barrymore, Herbert Marshall, Lillian Gish, Walter Huston, Charles Bickford, Harry Carey, Joan Tetzel, Tilly Losch, Butterfly McQueen, Scott McKay, Otto Kruger, Sidney Blackmer, Charles Dingle, , Griff Barnett, Hank Bell, Edward Biby, Johnny Bond, Lovyss Bradley, Nora Bush, Lane Chandler, George Chung, Tex Cooper, Frank Cordell, Tom Daly, Dice, Tom Dillon, Steve Dunhill, Slim Gaut, Si Jenks, Carmencita Johnson, Jack Kenny, Victor Kilian, Ann Kunde, Kermit Maynard, Francis McDonald, Robert McKenzie, Robert Milasch, Lee Phelps, Rose Plumer, Bob Reeves, Bert Roach, Allen D. Sewall, Lucile Sewall, Lloyd Shaw, Al Taylor, Orson Welles, Dan White, Guy Wilkerson, Hank Worden
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  • “I plead no mitigating circumstances. They deserved to die, as I deserve to die. For I long since killed a person much superior to either of them - myself. I killed that person the day I gave my family's name to the woman who became my wife. And since I believe the punishment should fit the crime... I suggest you hang me by the neck until I am dead.”
    Herbert Marshall - Scott Chavez
    [Tag:killing, suicide]
  • “- Pearl Chavez: And you'll forget about... about tonight, won't you? You'll forget it?
    - Jesse McCanles: No, I don't think I'll forget. I don't think I'll ever be able to. I shouldn't have told you the way I felt. It wasn't fair. There I go again, trying to be fair.”

    Jennifer Jones - Pearl Chavez
    Joseph Cotten - Jesse McCanles
  • “Neither your father nor I found happiness in this world, and I'm afraid neither will you.”

    Lillian Gish - Laura Belle McCanles
    [Tag:happiness, living]
  • “- Lewton 'Lewt' McCanles: I'm riding back to that hitching post and then turning and starting to shoot.
    - Jesse McCanles: It's more than you did for Sam Pierce! Why all the consideration?
    - Lewton 'Lewt' McCanles: I just don't want them fancy friends of yours to say you had a brother who shot you down in cold blood.”

    Gregory Peck - Lewton 'Lewt' McCanles
    Joseph Cotten - Jesse McCanles
    [Tag:jealousy, killing]
  • “- Jesse McCanles: You mean to shoot down unarmed men?
    - Sen. Jackson McCanles: Just like rattlesnakes if they cross that line!”

    Joseph Cotten - Jesse McCanles
    Lionel Barrymore - Sen. Jackson McCanles
    [Tag:jealousy, killing]
  • “I once fought for that flag; I'll not fire on it.”
    Lionel Barrymore - Sen. Jackson McCanles
    [Tag:patriotism]
  • “- Sen. Jackson McCanles: So that's where you stand!
    - Jesse McCanles: I think I'd rather be on the side of the victims than of the murderers.”

    Lionel Barrymore - Sen. Jackson McCanles
    Joseph Cotten - Jesse McCanles
  • “- Pearl Chavez: Oh Vashti, why are you so slow?
    - Vashti: I don't rightly know, Miss Pearl, except I always have so much to remember.”

    Jennifer Jones - Pearl Chavez
    Butterfly McQueen - Vashti
  • “If I'm not good enough to marry, I'm not good enough to kiss.”
    Jennifer Jones - Pearl Chavez
    [Tag:kiss, marriage]
  • “And this is what the legend says - a flower, known nowhere else, grows from out of the desperate crags where Pearl vanished. Pearl - who was herself a wild flower sprung from the hard clay, quick to blossom and early to die.”
    Orson Welles - Narrator
    [Tag:beauty, death, women]
  • “ I don't really know much about Sam Pierce, oh Lord, but from what I hear, he'd be needing no introduction to you. Seeing how Sam was snatched from his loved ones' arms before they even had time to get a good grip on him, I'm counting on you to give him a better break up yonder.”
    Walter Huston - The Sinkiller
    [Tag:god, punishment, sin]
  • “Under that heathen blanket, there's a full-blossomed woman built by the devil to drive men crazy.”

    Walter Huston - The Sinkiller
    [Tag:sex, women]
  • “Pearl, you're curved in the flesh of temptation. Resistance is going to be a darn sight harder for you than females protected by the shape of sows.”
    Walter Huston - The Sinkiller
Highlights