Intruder in the Dust (film)
| Intruder in the Dust | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Clarence Brown |
| Produced by | Clarence Brown |
| Written by | Ben Maddow |
| Starring |
David Brian Claude Jarman, Jr. Juano Hernández |
| Cinematography | Robert Surtees |
| Edited by | Robert Kern |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release dates |
|
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 Hernández. The film is based on the novel Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner.
Synopsis
The film closely follows the plot line of the Faulkner novel. It tells the story of Lucas Beauchamp, a respectable and rich black man, who is unjustly accused of the murder of a white man.
Cast
- David Brian as John Gavin Stevens
- Claude Jarman, Jr. as Chick Mallison
- Juano Hernández as Lucas Beauchamp
- Porter Hall as Nub Gowrie
- Elizabeth Patterson as Miss Eunice Habersham
- Charles Kemper as Crawford Gowrie
- Will Geer as Sheriff Hampton
- David Clarke as Vinson Gowrie
- Elzie Emanuel as Aleck
- Lela Bliss as Mrs. Mallison
- Harry Hayden as Mr. Mallison
- Harry Antrim as Mr. Tubbs
Reception
According to MGM 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]
The film earned Juano Hernández a Golden Globe nomination for "New Star of the Year".[3] 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 Hernández is a fine actor--and man, too."[4]
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 Hernández's "performance and extraordinary presence still rank above that of almost any other black actor to appear in an American movie."[5]
References
- 1 2 3 The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
- 1 2 Scott Eyman, Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer, Robson, 2005 p 431
- ↑ "Early Black Cinema", True West Magazine, August 2005, p. 22
- ↑ "Faulkner's Home, Family and Heritage Were Genesis of Yoknapatawpha County". The New York Times. 7 July 1962. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
- ↑ Bogle, Donald (2001). Toms, coons, mulattoes, mammies, and bucks: an interpretive history of Blacks in American films (Fourth ed.). London: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-1267-X.