Peck took his first "against type" role, as a cruel, amoral cowboy in the western soap opera "Duel in the Sun" (1946) with top-billed Jennifer Jones as the provocative, temptress object of Peck's love, anger and desire. Their chemistry is described by film historian David Thomson as "a constant knife fight of sensuality." Also starring Joseph Cotten as Peck's righteous half brother and competitor for the affections of the "steamy, sexpot" character of Jones, the movie was resoundingly criticized, and even banned in some cities, due to its lurid nature, The publicity around the eroticism of "Duel in the Sun", one of the biggest movie advertising campaigns in history, used a new tactic of opening in hundreds of theaters across the U.S. at once, saturating the theaters in cities where it opened, resulting in the film being the second highest-grossing movie of both 1947 and the 1940s. Nicknamed "Lust in the Dust", the film received mostly negative reviews upon release, such as Bosley Crowther writing that "performances are strangely uneven", although Jones received a nomination for [[Academy Award for Best Actress. The opinions of Peck's performance have been polarized.