Intruder in the Dust | |
---|---|
Directed by | Clarence Brown |
Screenplay by | Ben Maddow |
Based on | Intruder in the Dust 1948 novel by William Faulkner |
Produced by | Clarence Brown |
Starring | David Brian Claude Jarman Jr. Juano Hernández |
Cinematography | Robert Surtees |
Edited by | Robert Kern |
Music by | Adolph Deutsch |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
|
Running time | 87 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $988,000 [1] [2] |
Box office | $837,000 [1] |
Intruder in the Dust is a 1949 crime drama film produced and directed by Clarence Brown and starring David Brian, Claude Jarman Jr. and Juano Hernandez. The film is based on the 1948 novel Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner, and was filmed in Faulkner's hometown of Oxford, Mississippi.
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.
Clarence Brown, who had been born in Massachusetts but was raised in Tennessee, wanted to do a film version of the book when it was released in 1948. As a mainstay of MGM for over two decades, he asked studio head Louis B. Mayer about doing a film adaptation, but he had his doubts over whether it would be a profitable venture. Dore Schary, recently brought in as a vice president of production, gave support to Brown, which allowed the film to go through. Brown insisted on filming in Oxford, Mississippi, where Faulkner had lived for most of his life. [3]
According to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer records the film earned $643,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $194,000 elsewhere, for a worldwide box office of $837,000. [1] [2]
In 1950, David Brian and Juano Hernandez were respectively nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Most Promising Newcomer – Male at the 7th Golden Globe Awards. [4] The film was listed as one of the ten best of the year by The New York Times . 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." [5]
More than 50 years later, in 2001, film historian Donald Bogle 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." [6] The film has been praised by Ralph Ellison and the New York Times. [7]
Of the various race-related features released in 1949 (such as this film and Pinky , released months earlier), author Ralph Ellison cited Intruder in the Dust as “the only film that could be shown in Harlem without arousing unintended laughter, for it is the only one of the four in which Negroes can make complete identification with their screen image.” [3]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 93% from 41 reviews. [8]
Clarence Leon Brown was an American film director.
William Cuthbert Faulkner 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 his life. A Nobel laureate, Faulkner is one of the most celebrated writers of American literature and often is considered the greatest writer of Southern literature.
David Gainey Clarke was an American Broadway and motion picture actor.
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.
Michael Hugh Medwin, OBE was an English actor and film producer.
Brian James Davis, 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. Brian's other notable film roles were in The Damned Don't Cry (1950), This Woman Is Dangerous (1952), Springfield Rifle (1952), Dawn at Socorro (1954), and The High and the Mighty (1954).
Juano G. Hernández 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 picture debut in an Oscar Micheaux film, The Girl from Chicago, which was directed at black audiences. Hernández also performed in a series of dramatic roles in mainstream Hollywood movies. His participation in the film Intruder in the Dust (1949) earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination for "New Star of the Year." Later in life he returned to Puerto Rico, where he intended to make a film based on the life of Sixto Escobar.
The race film or race movie was a genre of film produced in the United States between about 1915 and the early 1950s, consisting of films produced for black audiences, and featuring black casts. Approximately five hundred race films were produced. Of these, fewer than one hundred remain. Because race films were produced outside the Hollywood studio system, they were largely forgotten by mainstream film historians until they resurfaced in the 1980s on the BET cable network. In their day, race films were very popular among African-American theatergoers. Their influence continues to be felt in cinema and television marketed to African-Americans.
Ben Maddow was an American screenwriter and documentarian from the 1930s through the 1970s. Educated at Columbia University, Maddow began his career working within the American documentary movement in the 1930s.
The 7th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film for 1949 films, were held on February 23, 1950.
The Reivers is a 1969 Technicolor film in Panavision starring Steve McQueen and directed by Mark Rydell, based on the 1962 William Faulkner novel The Reivers, a Reminiscence. The supporting cast includes Sharon Farrell, Rupert Crosse, Mitch Vogel and Burgess Meredith as the narrator.
Jaime Luis Sánchez Rodríguez is a Puerto Rican stage, film and television actor, active since the 1950s.
The Secret Garden is a 1949 American drama film. It is the second screen adaptation of the classic 1911 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The first was a silent version released in 1919. The screenplay by Robert Ardrey was directed by Fred M. Wilcox. It centers on a young orphan who is thrust into the dark and mysterious lives of her widowed uncle and his disabled son when she comes to live with them in their isolated country house in Yorkshire, England.
The Notorious Elinor Lee is a 1940 race film directed, written, and co-produced by the African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux.
Shadow and Act is a 1964 collection of essays by Ralph Ellison.
William Faulkner (1897—1962) was an American writer who won the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is best known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, a stand-in for his hometown of Oxford in Lafayette County, Mississippi.
John Boxer was a British film and television actor. His television appearances included Emergency – Ward 10, Dixon of Dock Green, The Saint, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Onedin Line and The Life and Times of David Lloyd George.
Gavin Stevens is a lawyer and the county attorney in Jefferson in Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. He was educated at Harvard and Heidelberg universities.
The Lyric is a historical theater located in Oxford, Mississippi at 1006 Van Buren Avenue. It is one of North Mississippi's premier live music venues, hosting a wide variety of acts.
Son of the South is a 2020 American biographical historical drama film, written and directed by Barry Alexander Brown. Based on Bob Zellner's autobiography, The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement, it stars Lucas Till, Lex Scott Davis, Lucy Hale, Jake Abel, Shamier Anderson, Julia Ormond, Cedric the Entertainer and Brian Dennehy in his final film role. Spike Lee serves as an executive producer.