From the Ranch to the Drawing Room

In story and production, Duel in the Sun and The Paradine Case have little in common, but it is precisely their contrasts that show how music served both a more elaborate and experimental function in Selznick’s postwar films. For Duel, Selznick construed a genre-bending western of operatic proportions, striving for “an equivalent of [Wagner’s] Tristan.” Inspired and intimidated by the comparison, composer Dimitri Tiomkin churned out music, much of it rejected. From film to soundtrack album, Tiomkin relied upon choral director Jester Hairston and editor Audray Granville to realize the film’s musical program. As Selznick conceded, The Paradine Case sought to make amends for Duel’s lapses of taste. In this emotionally chilled mystery of a piano-playing murder suspect, Franz Waxman’s music both conceals and discloses characters’ motivations. In adapting musical scenes from the source novel for the screen, Selznick and Hitchcock cast music as the hinge upon which deception swings.