Selznick Surprise

The Film Society of Lincoln Center, in collaboration with the George Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y., has added an extremely rare archival find to their felicitously conjoined tributes to Jennifer Jones and Charles Boyer. The series has been imaginatively programmed by Joanna Ney, staff programmer for the society. On May 21, a screening of King Vidor’s Duel in the Sun (1946) at 3:30 will be preceded by a nine-minute series of screen tests of Gregory Peck and Jennifer Jones ordered by David Selznick, and conducted by Josef von Sternberg. The illustrious Sternberg was solemnly instructed by Selznick to produce the same intense passion with Peck and Jones that Sternberg had previously achieved with Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich in Morocco in 1930. Daniel Selznick will be on hand to tell the full story of the nine-minute screen test. The screening will be held at the Walter Reade Theatre on Amsterdam Avenue and 65th Street.