notoriety
I vaguely remember some scandal or at least notoriety about this film when it was released. Can anyone help? Did it involve Jennifer Jones somehow?
shareThe movie was risque for the time for a few reasons. The idea of a white guy and a half Native American woman being together was something that was a bit shocking to people back then. There are some steamy scenes between the two characters for the time. There's also a scene where Jennifer Jones is wrapped in a blanket and you can see part of her breasts. I think the movie was condemned by the Legion of Decency at the time. I remember Martin Scorsese talking about it in A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies.
shareit was ban by the Catholic Chuch, Gone with the WInd was fined for the "Damn" word
shareI'm sure there still was talk about the Robert Walker~~Jennifer Jones~~David O. Selznick tragic triangle. I think that followed her long after. I remember when I was riding on the schoolbus (1967~I verified it) and hearing on the radio that she had been hospitalized, with the report making it sound like a suicide attempt. I know she was a very troubled woman, and I wonder if what happened to her first husband haunted her. It did seem that she traded her first marriage for the opportunity to become a star. Maybe that's judging too harshly, but I've read a number of accounts covering their stories.
As for the mixed race and biracial romance in the film: I don't think that would have caused furor unless the actors actually had been of different races. Anyone remember Hedy "I am Tondelayo" Lamarr in "White Cargo" (1942)? Then, there was Leilani (Mona Maris) in "White Heat" (1934). There were so many "forbidden" romances long before and long after "Duel in the Sun".
This film was a few years before my time, and I haven't seen copies of movie magazines or newspapers from that period. So, maybe I'll do more research on the Net, to which I'm rather a newcomer, just to see if any of the stories have changed.
~~MystMoonstruck~~