The phrase over the top catches this film in its shadow. As a soap opera it would be still on the air there are Actors instead of pretty people posing, but the whole big stew of this film is all spice and no substance. The gunshots in the opening credits makes you think at first this is going to be one of the super westerns Warner Brothers had been putting out escalating in scale gunfights to a final massive gun battle between the opposing hordes, larger than life Hero an almost sympathetic Boss Gunman,and a spunky Heroine. San Antonio with Erroll Flynn and Alexis Smith as example. What do we sagebrush action junkies get, the destruction of a railroad bridge and a train (representing the Evil Eastern Interests and Progress) and then the gathering of the cowboy hordes in a potentially great set piece, to swoop down and ride over the railroad camp, and what happens,stunt men getting a workout, horses falling riders tumbling,railroad workers ran down,gunned down,throwing down with, rifles, pistols and mallets,the intervention of a regiment of US cavalry? NO. IT is the main fault of this film, it builds you up then pop it's over and your saying like Peggy Lee "Is that all there is?" I lump this western with The Outlaw as biggest to do's about nothing oaters. Selnick and Jennifer Jones struck out on this one,Gregory Peck enjoyed playing a coyote in heat,Lionel Barrymore looks like a butch Truman Capote in the Ride Sequence, Joseph Cotton was bored in his thankless bland part, Ms. Gish and Ms. McQueen were sharing some kind of frontier hallucinogen. Instead of Duel in the Sun it should be called Big Fuss in the Dust.
Review of Duel in the Sun
