Movie had great potential...MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

With major script & plot changes, this movie could have been awesome.
The beginning was great. I hoped the rest of the movie would be as good. Alas, NOT. I eventually gave up caring much about any of them, and even got bored.
Jennifer Jones is Marilyn-Monroe beautiful. But the Pearl character is required to change her mind about things so often it's TOTALLY unbelievable. When Joseph Cotten meets her for the 1st time in town, she's all super prim and proper. Then on the ride to Spanish Bit, she starts to take off her blouse in front of Cotten?? She hates Lewt, she loves Lewt, she hates Lewt, she loves Lewt, she hates Lewt...etc. She's positively schizophrenic! I think Jennifer did the absolute best she could acting with such a wacky plot.
Gregory Peck was pretty good as evil Lewt, but they should have made him a more sympathetic character - at least part of the time. He was such an all-out bullying narcissistic creep you couldn't see why in the world Pearl would EVER fall for him, unless she was psycho!!!
Joseph Cotten's character is kind of an Ashley-Wilkes milquetoast, he didn't fight for Pearl or help her when she needed it. Cotton seemed to have no passion at all and said his lines in a sleep-walking monotone. When he was forced to leave Spanish Bit he should have taken Pearl with him. He was a one-dimensional judgmental goody-goody.
I thought the father was a great character and Barrymore did a great acting job.
Lillian Gish's death scene was so touching and her conversation with her husband was so moving. At least until she suddenly died & slid onto the floor in a comical manner like a Carol Burnett sketch! I couldn't help bursting out laughing!!!
The whole movie was like this, sublime moments and scenes juxtaposed with unbelievable & ludicrous ones.