Intruder in the Dust (1949)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Clarence Brown

Writers:

William Faulkner (novel)
Ben Maddow (writer)

Release Date:

22 November 1950 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Rural Mississippi in the 1940s: Lucas Beauchamp, a local black man with a reputation of not kowtowing to whites...

Plot Keywords:

Boy | Mississippi | 1940s | Jail | Lawyer

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

David Brian	...	John Gavin Stevens
Claude Jarman Jr.	...	Chick Mallison
Juano Hernandez	...	Lucas Beauchamp
Porter Hall	...	Nub Gowrie
Elizabeth Patterson	...	Miss Eunice Habersham
Charles Kemper	...	Crawford Gowrie
Will Geer	...	Sheriff Hampton
David Clarke	...	Vinson Gowrie
Elzie Emanuel	...	Aleck
Lela Bliss	...	Mrs. Mallison
Harry Hayden	...	Mr. Mallison
Harry Antrim	...	Mr. Tubbs

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #13920)

Filming Locations:

Oxford, Mississippi, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Quotes:

John Gavin Stevens: Mr. Hampton is right Miss Eunice, and so are you. They'd pass even Will Legate sooner or later when there's enough of them.
John Gavin Stevens: [pause] But there's one thing that would stop them. Long enough anyhow.
John Gavin Stevens: [pause] And that's somebody without a gun.
John Gavin Stevens: [pause] A Lady. A White Lady.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Some of the Best (1949)

A neglected classic

An unjustly neglected classic, "Intruder in the Dust" is one of the great films of the 1940's which has unfortunately slipped into obscurity. Based on a story by William Faulker, and shot in his hometown of Oxford, Mississippi, "Intruder" tells the story of Lucas Beauchamp (played with great dignity by Juano Hernandez), a black man unjustly accused of the murder of a local white man, and a white boy (Claude Jarman, Jr.) who uses this situation as an opportunity to pay a previous debt to Beauchamp. Terrific acting, especially by two great character actors, Porter Hall (as the dead man's father) and Elizabeth Patterson (best known as Mrs. Trumbull on "I Love Lucy") as an old woman willing to stand against the townspeople to see that right is done. This straightforward, tense and sincere study of racial bigotry deserves to be seen more.