Editing King Vidor (section)

====''Ruby Gentry'' (1952): Twentieth Century Fox====

With ''Ruby Gentry'', Vidor revisits the themes and scenario of ''Duel in the Sun'' (1946), in which an impoverished young woman, Jennifer Jones (Ruby née Corey, later Gentry), is taken in by a well-to-do couple.  When the foster mother dies (Josephine Hutchinson) Ruby marries the widower  (Karl Malden) for security, but he too dies under circumstances that cast suspicions on Ruby. She is harried by her evangelical preacher-sibling (James Anderson) and her love affair with the son of a local land-owing scion ([[Charlton Heston]]) leads to a deadly shootout, a climax that recalls Vidor's violent 1946 Western.<ref>Durgnat and Simmon, 1988 p. 286: See here thumbnail sketch of the story compared to ''Duel in the Sun''.</ref>

Vidor deferred his own salary to make the low-budget work, filming the "[[North Carolina]]" landscapes on his California ranch. American critics generally disparaged the movie.<ref>Durgnat and Simmon, 1988 p. 294: "Disliked by most 'serious' critics in the United States, Ruby Gentry won some respect from English critics" And "Hollywoodwise [Ruby Gentry] was something of an anomaly, with major stars in such a low-budget, violently personal film.</ref>

Film historian [[Raymond Durgnat]] champions ''Ruby Gentry'' "as a truly great American film...''film noir'' imbued with new fervor" that combines a radical social understanding with a Hollywood veneer and an intensely personal artistic statement. Vidor ranks ''Ruby Gentry'' among his most artistically gratifying works: "I had complete freedom in shooting it, and Selznick, who could have had an influence on Jennifer Jones, didn't intervene. I think I succeeded in getting something out of Jennifer, something quite profound and subtle."<ref>Durgnat and Simmon, 1988 p. 295: "...Vidor has called Ruby Gentry one of his favorite works…" And: "In its anguished lyricism, Ruby Gentry marks the end of the line for the phase that began back in Duel in the Sun. The reasons for this sudden finale...are no doubt a mix of personal and professional...[in] any case, he would never again have such control over a studio production."<br />Baxter, 1976 p. 78: "...the wild and remarkable Ruby Gentry, Vidor's last great film."</ref> The swamp sequence where Ruby and her lover Boake hunt one another is "perhaps the best sequence [Vidor] ever filmed."<ref>Baxter, 1976 p. 79</ref> ''Ruby Gentry'' showcases the essential elements of Vidor's oeuvre depicting the extremes of passion inherent in humanity and nature. Vidor commented on these elements as follows:

{{blockquote| "There's one scene I like a lot...because it corresponds to something vital. It's the scene where the girl [Jennifer Jones] has the [[Barrage (dam)|barrage]] demolished. At the moment when the earth is flooded, the man [Charlton Heston] is destroyed. All his ambitions crumble. I think there is a fine symbol there".<ref>Baxter, 1976 p. 4, p. 79-80</ref>}}