Duel In The Sun: Roadshow Version
Anchor Bay Entertainment
Cast: Joseph Cotton, Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones
Extras: Teasers and Trailers
Rating:
From the producer of ’Gone With The Wind, ’ ’Duel In The Sun’ is a movie just as epic and picturesque. Telling the story of the half-breed Indian girl, Pearl, the film follows the conflict and events surrounding her living with a rich white land baron, where to brothers fall for her leading to heated escalations and betrayal.
When you insert ’Duel In The Sun’ on this DVD you won’t believe that you are watching a movie from 1946. The film’s transfer is staggeringly clean and clear. Without notable defects in the source print, the transfer is virtually free of grain or noise and creates a mesmerizingly stable and sharply defined image. Presented in its original 1.37:1 fullframe aspect ratio, the presentation is strikingly rich in color with superbly delineated shadows. Blacks are deep and solid and highlights never appear overexposed. No visible edge-enhancement is evident, creating a picture with good and unexaggerated edges. The compression is also flawless without any signs of pixelation in the presentation anywhere.
The disc actually contains the movie’s original 10-minute Prelude, the 90-second Ouverture and a 3-minute Exit after the feature presentation, all of which make up the film’s original theatrical presentation. It is evident once again that Anchor Bay went to great lengths to make sure to capture the movie’s entire presentation on this disc, including these often-overlooked elements, rather than a version that has these atmospheric leads removed.
The audio is presented as a monaural Dolby Digital mix. The frequency response and dynamics of the track are noticeably limited due to the films age, but to my surprise I found the noise floor extremely low and the sonic spectrum’s high end clear and without notable sibilance or distortion.
The DVD also contains an array of teasers and trailers, as well as short advertising tags. One of them form the 1954 theatrical re-release of the film, during which it had actually been matted to a widescreen format.
’Duel In The Sun’ is a beloved movie with which many of us have grown up. Its epic narrative and beautiful images have captured young boys and adults alike over the years and the presentation of the movie on this DVD will bring back the fondest memories. As I mentioned before, this presentation is staggeringly clean and you won’t believe that this film is indeed some 54 years old.
