Intruder in the Dust (1949) Southern Gothic Noir

Directed by Clarence Brown (Flesh and the Devil). Written by Ben Maddow and based on the novel by William Faulkner. 

The excellent Cinematography was by Robert Surtees (Act Of Violence, The Strip, The Graduate, The Last Picture Show) Music was by Adolph Deutsch. 

The film stars Noir Vets Juano Hernandez (Young Man with a Horn, The Breaking Point, Kiss Me Deadly, Ransom!, Johnny Staccato, Naked City, The Pawnbroker) as Lucas Beauchamp, and David Brian (Flamingo Road, The Damned Don't Cry, Beyond the Forest, Accused of Murder), as John Gavin Stevens, Claude Jarman Jr. (The Yearling, The Great Locomotive Chase) as Charles "Chick" Mallison, Porter Hall (Double Indemnity, Ace In The Hole) as Nub Gowrie, Elizabeth Patterson (Dinner at Eight and a couple of Bulldog Drummond films) as Miss Eunice Habersham, Will Geer (Johnny Allegro, Lust for Gold, The Tall Target, In Cold Blood) as Sheriff Hampton, Charles Kemper as Crawford Gowrie, David Clarke as Vinson Gowrie, Elzie Emanuel as Aleck, Lela Bliss as Mrs. Mallison, Harry Hayden as Mr. Mallison, Harry Antrim as Mr. Tubbs, prison warder, and Dan White as Will Legate, jailhouse guard. 

Juano Hernandez as Lucas Beauchamp

Claude Jarman Jr. as Charles "Chick" Mallison

David Brian as John Gavin Stevens

Will Geer as Sheriff Hampton

                                                     Porter Hall as Nub Gowrie

I've never read any of William Faulkner's works, I've only read a synopsis of Intruder In the Dust so I can't do a full comparison like I do occasionally but the synopsis follows the film quite closely. There are a few minor changes. 

I've seen fragments of Intruder in the Dust through the years. I've  never watched it all the way through until now. Films that examine racism in the South are sorta like Prison Films they are all very similar in plots and visuals that become cliché. The convicts, the prison yard, the cells, the conflicts, the escape plans, the screws, etc., etc. Racism films have the goobers, the county lawyers, the trials, the liars, the lynch mobs, etc., etc. The only thing that will make them exceptional will be the Visuals and the Acting. Great characters and great visual compositions.

Story

Oxford, Lafayette County, Mississippi. Sunday morning.

Lucas Beauchamp was found, after a shot was heard, on Saturday, standing over the dead body of Vinson Gowrie. The Gowrie's are sort of notorious hillbillies in the Mississippi county where all this takes place.  Lucas is also a notorious character.  A proud descendent of slaves who inherits a ten acre parcel of land in the middle of the plantation that originally owned them. He's apparently related by blood to the plantation original owners through some family member playing hide the sausage with a slave girl back in the day.    

Word that Lucas apparently killed one of the Gowries has spread by the grapevine through the town, and the town folk have gathered to wait for the sheriff to return with the suspected murderer. We get some great sequences that reinforce the good ol' boy and racist character of the town. A church bell peals and we get a Sunday meeting juxtaposed with barbershop bull session. One customer wonders where the shine boy is, and is informed that all the "darkies" are staying the hell outa Dodge. A town square of is full of loafers waiting for the excitement to come. 

The wailing of a distant siren approaching disrupts all the gatherings. A crowd gathers around the jailhouse. The siren becomes louder accompanied by a "wub-wub-wub-wub" sound. The police car comes into view and pulls up to the curb with a flat tire, the crowd gathers at the jailhouse.

Lucas Beauchamp is brought from the car and into the jailhouse he pauses on the steps and searches the crowd signaling out young Chick Mallison. Lucas tells him that he wants to speak with his uncle John  Stevens an attorney. 

Chick runs home, late for the mid-day Sunday dinner. His father reprimands him for being in the crowd of gawkers.

 Later up in his room Chick tells his Uncle that Lucas Beauchamp wants to speak to him. Here we go into a flashback of Chick's first meeting with Lucas.

Chick reveals that he first met Lucas while hunting rabbits on his land with their hired man Aleck. Chick falls off a log and through the ice while crossing a frozen creek, and with the help of Aleck pulls himself out only to be met by Lucas. 

Lucas orders Chick and Aleck to his house. There Lucas makes Chick remove his wet clothes, warm up by the fire, and orders him to eat his own dinner. 

Chick does so but feels obligated to pay Lucas. Lucas ignores the offer. Acts like he doesn't even see it. He did it to be neighborly not for any reward. This makes Chick angry and he throws his money on the floor and demands Lucas pick it up. Lucas tell Aleck to pick up the money and give it back to Chick. 

For the next four years the prideful Chick tries to do things to repay Lucas' kindness, even going to the expense of buying a dress for Lucas' wife as a Christmas present only to find out later that his wife had died. Now though, after Lucas' arrest, Chick feel obligated to help him. John Stevens agrees to speak with Lucas.

At the jail Stevens assumes that Lucas is guilty and tells him that he can try and get his sentence reduced to imprisonment if he pleads guilty. Once Stevens leaves Chick goes back to speak with Lucas. Lucas tells him he's got to dig up the body of Vinson Gowrie to prove that he didn't shoot him. It won't be a .41 Long Colt bullet that killed him.  

When Chick gets back to the house he finds His uncle visiting with an old spinster Miss Habersham who grew up with Lucas' wife. Chick tells tells John Stevens what Lucas asked him to do. 

John Stevens dismisses it as lies, saying that every guilty man grasps at straws, always trying to do, or say anything to postpone or escape justice. 

Chick is determined to do what Lucas requested and goes to the stable for his horse, saddle, and tools. Aleck who was eavesdropping on the proceedings decides to go with Chick and help. Miss Habersham gives assistance also and offers the use her jalopy pickup to haul the picks and shovels.

It's here at this point where the film short cuts some of William Faulkner's original narrative but still retains the gist of it.

Noirsville

Some reviews that I've read give the false impression that the "lynch' mob was itching to lynch Lucas, but there's no mistaking it in the film that apparently lynching was "too good" for Lucas. More than once it is apparent that they aimed to drag him out of jail douse him in gasoline and burn him alive. Nice people.  

The direction is flawless, the cinematography excellent, the acting exceptional. Juano Hernandez, and David Brian were recognized and nominated at 7th Golden Globe Awards. The New York Times listed the film as one of the years ten best. William Faulkner was quoted as saying "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."

10/10

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."[Bogle, Donald (2001). Toms, coons, mulattoes, mammies, and bucks: an interpretive history of Blacks in American films] 

The film has been praised by Ralph Ellison and the New York Times.[Dargis, Manohla; Scott, A. O. (February 1, 2018). "28 Days, 28 Films for Black History Month"]

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. (Wiki)