Two Movies Seen on TCM: Duel in the Sun (1946) and State Fair (1945)

I've been hooked on TCM for years now. I just always remember being a fan of Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Errol Flynn, Audrey Hepburn, Katharine Hepburn, James (Jimmy) Steward, John Wayne, and many many more. Around a decade ago, I used to do some reviews of movies I saw on TCM. I figured I'd start it up again. If you're interested, click on through.

Duel in the Sun (1946). TCM mentioned that this movie was produced by David O. Selznick and initially directed by King Vidor. At the time of this movie, Selznick was dating the lead actress Jennifer Jones. In 1939, he produced Gone with the Wind and wanted to make Duel in the Sun a box office smash hit like Gone with the Wind. He so interfered with the movie process, that Vidor quit as director. There are a couple scenes in the movie that seem like rip offs from Gone with the Wind, which has to be due to the meddling from Selznick. 

The movie was not exactly Gone with the Wind when it came to the box office grosses, but it still would have ranked as one of the top movies if released today. Per Wikipedia, the movie was made for $6.5M and had a box office of $20.4M. Not bad considering this was 1946. Boxoffice Mojo has an inflation adjusted number (2022 indexed) of $478M and ranks as the 107th all time domestic box office movie. Gone with the Wind is at $1.895 billion. 

The movie is about a biracial woman (Jennifer Jones). There is a messy situation where the father kills the mother and lover (catching them in infidelity) and then is hanged for that murder. The woman is sent off to distant relatives where she comes across two brothers. One brother is a solid citizen while the other is not. She falls for the one who is rather abusive towards her. 

To me, the movie falls apart at the end. The abusive brother kills off one individual that wishes to marry the woman. He then attempts to murder the solid citizen brother. Then runs off to hide. He reaches out to the woman who then decides to take matters into her own hands. Off she goes to hunt down the evil brother with a horse and rifle. She eventually finds the brother and shoots him. He shoots back. This is where I think the movie just falls apart. She makes her way to the brother not to finish him off, but so that the two of them can die in each others arms after a passionate kiss. To me, the movie should have ended with her killing the evil brother and getting back on her horse and heading back home.

State Fair (1945). TCM mentioned that this is the only musical where Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the songs specifically for the movie and not for an initial Broadway version. I wouldn't say the movie is a classic, but it is watchable. The movie is about a family of four who spend a few days at the Iowa Fair. The parents are trying to win awards in cooking and husbandry. The young adult children are off trying to find love. 

I'm not sure what year the movie was actually set in. The movie does have people driving around in cars so perhaps the setting is also 1945. I don't recall any discussions about war so perhaps the setting is sometime in the 1930s. 

The reason I mention this movie is because of the setting. What first caught my eye was when the daughter went on a roller coaster ride. There was no safety bar on the ride. Was there really that little regard for safety back in those days? Or was that just for dramatic effect. If that was the reality of the times, I wonder how many people died every year on roller coasters. (The roller coaster was definitely not a modern day roller coaster, but still it was speeding along that tracks.) The second thing that caught my eye? I actually had the thought that maybe someday I'd like to go to the Iowa State Fair. Obviously, it is famous for presidential hopefuls heading out there to campaign. Maybe that is less important these days as the Democratic party appears to have shifting away from the caucus, but it would still be interesting to head out to this famous fair.