''Intruder in the Dust'' is a 1949

crime drama film In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...

produced and directed by

Clarence Brown Clarence Leon Brown (May 10, 1890 – August 17, 1987) was an American film director. Early life Born in Clinton, Massachusetts, to Larkin Harry Brown, a cotton manufacturer, and Katherine Ann Brown (née Gaw), Brown moved to Tennessee when he ...

and starring

David Brian Brian James Davis (August 5, 1914 – July 15, 1993), better known as David Brian, was an American actor. He is best known for his role in ''Intruder in the Dust'' (1949), for which he received critical acclaim and a Golden Globe nomination. ...

Claude Jarman Jr. Claude Jarman Jr. (born September 27, 1934) is an American former child actor, entrepreneur, former executive director of the San Francisco International Film Festival and former director of Cultural Affairs for the City of San Francisco. ...

and

Juano Hernandez Juano G. "Juano" Hernández (July 19, 1896 – July 17, 1970) was a Puerto Rican stage and film actor who was a pioneer in the African American film industry. He made his silent picture debut in ''The Life of General Villa'', and talking pi ...

. The film is based on the 1948 novel ''

Intruder in the Dust ''Intruder in the Dust '' is a 1948 crime novel written by American author William Faulkner. Taking place in Mississippi, it revolves around an African American farmer accused of murdering a Caucasian man. Overview The novel focuses on Lucas B ...

'' by

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most of ...

Plot

The film closely follows the plot line of the Faulkner novel. It tells the story of Lucas Beauchamp, (pronounced 'Bee-cham'), a respectable and independent black man, who is unjustly accused of the murder of white man Vinson Gowrie. Through the help of two teenage boys, the town lawyer and an elderly lady, he is able to prove his innocence.

Cast

as Lucas Beauchamp *

as John Gavin Stevens *

as Chick Mallison *

Porter Hall Clifford Porter Hall (September 19, 1888 – October 6, 1953) was an American character actor known for appearing in a number of films in the 1930s and 1940s. Hall typically played villains or comedic incompetent characters. Early years Hall wa ...

as Nub Gowrie * Elizabeth Patterson as Miss Eunice Habersham *

Will Geer Will Geer (born William Aughe Ghere; March 9, 1902 – April 22, 1978) was an American actor, musician, and social activist, who was active in labor organizing and other movements in New York and Southern California in the 1930s and 1940s. In Ca ...

as Sheriff Hampton *

Charles Kemper Charles Kemper (September 6, 1900 – May 12, 1950) was an American character actor born in Oklahoma. The heavy-set actor was for decades a successful stage actor. Movie career Like many actors in New York, Kemper worked in short comedies fil ...

as Crawford Gowrie * David Clarke as Vinson Gowrie * Elzie Emanuel as Aleck *

Lela Bliss Lela Bliss (May 11, 1896 – May 15, 1980) was an American actress. She made her first silent film, '' Pretty Mrs. Smith'', in 1915 and appeared in at least over 40 movies until the 1960s. Career Bliss appeared in supporting roles and bit par ...

as Mrs. Mallison *

Harry Hayden Harry may refer to: TV shows * ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...

as Mr. Mallison *

Harry Antrim Harry Antrim (August 27, 1884 – January 18, 1967) was an American stage, film and television actor. Biography Antrim was born on August 27, 1884, in Chicago, Illinois. By 1906, he was working in vaudeville. During the early 1930s, he moved to ...

as Mr. Tubbs, prison warder *

Dan White Daniel James White (September 2, 1946 – October 21, 1985) was an American politician who assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, on Monday, November 27, 1978, at City Hall. White was convicted of manslaugh ...

as Will Legate, gunman * Gene Roper as son of country store owner

Reception

According to

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

records the film earned $643,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $194,000 elsewhere, for a worldwide box office of $837,000. In 1950,

and

were respectively nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Most Promising Newcomer – Male at the

7th Golden Globe Awards The 7th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film for 1949 films, were held on February 23, 1950. Winners and Nominees Best Picture ''All the King's Men directed by Robert Rossen'' *''Come to the Stable directed by Henry Koster'' Best A ...

."Early Black Cinema", ''True West Magazine'', August 2005, p. 22 The film was listed as one of the ten best of the year by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. Faulkner said of the film: "I'm not much of a moviegoer, but I did see that one. I thought it was a fine job. That Juano Hernandez is a fine actor--and man, too." More than 50 years later, in 2001, film historian

Donald Bogle Donald Bogle is an American film historian and author of six books concerning black history in film and on television. He is an instructor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and at the University of Pennsylvania. Early years Bogle g ...

wrote that ''Intruder in the Dust'' broke new ground in the cinematic portrayal of blacks, and Hernandez's "performance and extraordinary presence still rank above that of almost any other black actor to appear in an American movie." The film has been praised by

Ralph Ellison Ralph Waldo Ellison (March 1, 1913 – April 16, 1994) was an American writer, literary critic, and scholar best known for his novel ''Invisible Man'', which won the National Book Award in 1953. He also wrote ''Shadow and Act'' (1964), a collecti ...

and the ''New York Times''. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds a rating of 93% from 41 reviews.

References

External links

* * * * 1949 films 1949 crime drama films American black-and-white films American crime drama films Films about miscarriage of justice Films about race and ethnicity Films based on American novels Films based on works by William Faulkner Films directed by Clarence Brown Films scored by Adolph Deutsch Films set in Mississippi Films shot in Mississippi Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films {{1940s-crime-drama-film-stub

Plot

Cast

Reception

See also

References

External links