Beautiful half-breed Pearl Chavez becomes the ward of her dead father's first love and finds herself torn between her sons, one good and the other bad.
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Reviews
CinemaSerf
6
By CinemaSerf
The story here - a sort of Cain and Abel style topic that causes no end of pain for Jennifer Jones ("Pearl") is gorgeous to look at, gritty and very well put together. It is also, however, far too long and for the most part devoid of much pace. Joseph Cotton ("Jesse") and Gregory Peck ("Lewt") are both the sons of ruthless senator "McCanles" (Lionel Barrymore) the former a decent, if rather weak sort of character, the latter much more of a lethal loose cannon - but both vie for the love of the beautiful, sultry "Pearl". When the railroad arrives, wanting to cross the old man's land, "Jesse" sides with them alienating his father and his brother, and so is soon isolated as the young woman vacillates between him and his much more visceral and enticing brother - now the story really begins to smoulder. There are also an engaging series of appearances from Lilian Gish as the boys' mother - a lady who lays the blame for her sons errancy squarely at the door of their father. A fine supporting cast offer richness to an already complicated human story - Herbert Marshall, Charles Bickford amongst them. At it's best the film is effective - challenging views on race, loyalty, sexism, it looks at the pioneering spirit of those who want to take their country forward and the reticence of those who are scared of anything new, or of altering the status quo - and the last ten minutes are pretty unique amongst the films of this genre. There is too much padding, which does allow us to inhale the grand cinematography, but does deflate the potency of the narrative just a bit too much, a bit too often. Still - a fine piece of cinema well worthy a big screen with a sound system that can immerse you in Dimitri Tiomkin's rousing score.
