MovieChat Forums > Duel in the Sun (1947) Discussion > Orson's narration

Orson's narration

posted 18 years ago by Narrator_Jack_dot_com
6 replies | jump to latest

Orson's only contribution to this (he wrote it too), he says this against the film's opening sequence:

"Deep among the lonely sun-baked hills of Texas, the great and weatherbeaten stone still stands. The Comanches call it 'Squaw's Head Rock.' Time cannot change its impassive face nor dim the legend of the wild young lovers who found heaven, and hell, in the shadows of the rock. For when the sun is low and the cold wind blows across the desert, there are those who still speak of Pearl Chavez, the half-breed girl from down along the border, and of the laughing outlaw with whom she had kept a final rendezvous, never to be seen again. 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."

[–] nosnojsirhc 16 years ago

i couldn't stop laughing throughout the beginning. first, we have a 10-minute orchestral feature that would normally be called either a suite or overture. and tiomkin, who was no small composer, could write scores - but here, we've got the old lazy-horse cowboy motif. dum-da-dum-da-dum-da-dum-dah. makes me want to dive back into the liquor bottle. THEN we get a 3-4 minute OVERTURE with Welles' narration. then finally the film begins. the pre-introduction - is it Welles? the one that tries to justify the content of the film against the mores of the time. at any rate, hilarious, and i immediately saw where Edward Wood got his inspiration for films like Glen or Glenda. such crashing egos! Selznick looking to redo the cash cow of Gone with the Wind. Vidor trying to play Ford. Welles grandstanding over his waistline. If you tried this stuff today, after the waves of irony that have washed over us, you would be hooted down - it works only as camp parody.

this embattled my views of the film as 'half-breed' Jones took up the charge. only when the more nuanced Peck and the excellent Cotten finally got into the act was i able to settle back into a slightly less ridiculous feature - but then the sinkiller showed up!

i think i'll write a book about how fun watching this movie NOW is.

[–] befred8 16 years ago

I note Welles did his bit here three years before his short but film-stealing role in The Third Man. It's said that role's success was the beginning of his career as King of the Cameos. But as we see here, it didn't begin with TTM. Of course Welles was not credited and his narration was overshadowed by all the other over-the-top performances in DITS. And maybe Welles, with his reputation, didn't have much choice if he wanted to stay in the public eye.

[–] 398 15 years ago

The pre-introduction during the overture sounded to me like Reed Hadley, not Welles. In fact, I would be certain of it. Hadley did a great deal of narration work in those days.

*I should add, and make clear, that Welles was the narrator during the actual movie. Hadley was the narrator during the overture.

**If I remember from a bit I read about this years back from William K Everson, Hadley was brought in to deliver a narration to tamp down controversy about the "sinkiller" preacher which had arisen. Welles was apparently not available.

[–] zuzupetal_99 14 years ago

I thought it was cool how we see the flower in the beginning w/ the narration, and how it all ties together at the end under Squaw Rock. But at the same time, it gave away the ending! I figured the "duel in the sun" would be brother against brother, but as we see Pearl going to Lewt, I realized quickly what was going to happen. It was awesome, b/c it wasn't the same cliche'd type of story, and I loved the love/hate relationship they had; but it would've been more surprising to me, if I didn't already know she was going to die there too. But in any case, I really enjoyed the whole thing.

The introduction of the movie on TCM, Osbourne said it was Orson Welles who narrated for this movie.

"Are you going to your grave with unlived lives in your veins?" ~ The Good Girl

[–] nutsberryfarm 9 years ago

fantastic!

🎄Season's Greetings!🎁🎅🎄

[–] 9 years ago

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