MovieChat Forums > Duel in the Sun (1947) Discussion > Half-Breed?

Half-Breed?

posted 14 years ago by historyinink
10 replies | jump to latest

I didn't see the entire movie. But I saw a part when she is called a half-breed? Half what? What else is her character supposed to be besides White?

[–] mjgordon 14 years ago

She is either half Mexican or half Native American....

I know...the actress is very very very white....thats classical hollywood for ya.....

[–] historyinink 14 years ago

Very classical hollywood, you are right. I love how she's treated and talked about like some outcast. As if she's not like everyone else when the only difference is a slight tan. "She's tan! She's too different! Whaa!" LOL

[–] rod-311 14 years ago

Further irony in that her "mother", Mrs Chavez, who looks Apache in the film, was played by Tilly Losch in brownface. Tilly was an Austrian who at one point was married to an English earl.

[–] zuzupetal_99 14 years ago

I know that's typical of old Hollywood, but I still wish they would've used somebody else besides Jones. She made so many weird faces & I thought her acting wasn't very good, even though I think Robert Osbourne said she had already won an Oscar when she made this.

It was weird seeing Chavez' mother in that awful brown make-up, and Jones' blinding white teeth looked really odd & out of place. Plus, although she was half Native American, I didn't understand why she dressed so Spanish?! Especially when she first goes to look for the family she's to stay w/, she's wearing a sombrero!

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[–] Adam_P_L 13 years ago

What's wrong with Jones's blinding white teeth? Plenty of people with dark skin have very white teeth. Tooth color isn't related to melanin content.

And this movie never would've starred anyone but Jones. Producer David O. Selznick was in love with her and made this film as a showcase for her "talents."

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[–] Jason_Radley 12 years ago

What's wrong with Jones's blinding white teeth? Plenty of people with dark skin have very white teeth.

But not in the dark. They should have won their own lighting award.

[–] vicky_lc2001-1 9 years ago

There are Native Americans in South and Central America. Mexicans for example are a mixture of Native Americans and white Spaniards and called mestizos. So there are plenty of Native Americans and mestizos who would dress similar to how Pearl dressed.

And Pearl's dress is more Hispanic from the Americas than how Spaniards dressed.

[–] movies789 9 years ago

"...her "mother", Mrs Chavez, who looks Apache in the film..."

You're certainly not from Arizona, are you! Mrs. Chavez doesn't look Apache in the slightest! She looks like a white woman in dark make-up - not even remotely like an Apache woman.

[–] jesserafe 14 years ago

See, "Unforgiven, The"... for more of the same...

oddly enough the Sinkiller's son directed it.

[–] rmm413-1 10 years ago

Her mother is supposed to be an Indian/Native American woman. The mother is wearing a beaded "Indian" headband while she's dancing. Later, Lionel Barrymore's character says Pearl should have been called Pocahontas, rather than Pearl.

Her father, Scott Chavez, was said to be a Creole by someone in the movie. Although often referring to mixed-raced people now, from what I understand, the term in this context used to primarily mean ethnic Spaniards born in the Americas. So, I would assume her father is supposed to be a descendant of Spaniards who immigrated to an area of Mexico that later became part of Texas.

Pearl is what some call a "mestiza," part Spanish and Indian, like so many in Latin America.