Duel in the Sun

Duel in the Sun (1946) is a sprawling Technicolor western you can watch online on iFILM, directed by King Vidor and produced by David O. Selznick with a budget that shocked Hollywood at the time. Jennifer Jones plays Pearl Chavez, a half-Native American girl sent to a vast Texas ranch after her father is hanged for murder. The McCanles family takes her in — but nothing stays civil for long.

Two brothers want her. Jesse (Joseph Cotten) is steady, decent, the kind of man who actually means what he says. Lewt (Gregory Peck, playing well against type) is reckless, magnetic and honest about being neither. Pearl knows exactly what Lewt is. She goes back to him anyway. Lionel Barrymore anchors the ranch as the imperious Senator McCanles; Lillian Gish quietly dismantles you in her brief scenes as his worn-out wife.

Critics at the time nicknamed it "Lust in the Dust," which only sold more tickets. The film became one of the highest-grossing releases of its era, proof that a western built around desire rather than gunfights could fill cinemas just as well. Stream Duel in the Sun (1946) online on iFILM.