After World War II, there was a wave of movies about the plight of Southern Blacks. Racism became a topic of conversation in polite circles because of the Holocaust, which reaffirmed that bigotry could be lethal. The best movie of this group is Clarence Brown’s 1949 film of William Faulkner’s Intruder In The Dust.

Faulkner was hot in 1949. It was the year he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Clarence Brown, who was one of MGM’S top directors, read and loved the book, which was published in 1948.

Brown was coming off The Yearling so he too was hot. He insisted that the studio buy the screen rights, and once that happened, insisted that it be filmed on location in and around Oxford, Mississippi, which was Dr. A and my base camp for our recent Magnolia State sojourn, which included a visit to Faulkner’s home, Rowan Oaks. Holy long Faulknerian sentence, Batman.

Faulkner feigned disinterest in the movies, once saying that his favorite movie star was Mickey Mouse. But he took an interest in this movie filmed in his backyard. Here he is with Clarence Brown and a cast member:

Faulkner had complex views on race and the South. He was by no means a hardcore racist but he was a man of his time and place. He struggled with racial issues during the Civil Rights movement’s heyday but he was a decent man who tried to do the right thing. Intruder In The Dust reflects that struggle.

Intruder In The Dust was groundbreaking for its day. The Black characters are treated with respect and lynching is treated like a pestilence. It accomplishes all that without being preachy. It’s also the closest thing to a crime story written by William Faulkner.

A quick note about the language used in the movie. The n-word is present in all its ignominy. That’s how Mississippi peckerwoods spoke in 1949. My focus is NOT on the racist mob but on those trying to thwart them.

Intruder In The Dust tells the story of  Lucas Beauchamp a proud Black man played by Juano Hernandez. He’s falsely accused of murdering a racist mill owner with whom he’d quarreled. A crowd gathers outside the jail with lynching on its mind. Hernandez sees a young man in the crowd played by Claude Jarman Jr. whose uncle played by David Brian is a lawyer and what passed for a liberal in 1940’s Mississippi. Brian takes on Hernandez’s case at Jarman’s urging but he’s no starry-eyed idealist. Instead, he’s Faulkner’s stand-in; figuratively, not literally.

While Hernandez is incarcerated, Jarman does some nosing around a graveyard in the company of an old lady and his teenage sidekick.

Our intrepid trio discover an empty coffin in lieu of the body of the peckerwood allegedly shot in the back by Hernandez. Justice eventually prevails. That’s all the story I’m willing to share, this feature is called pulp fiction, not pulp spoilers, after all.

Does Intruder In The Dust qualify as a “white savior” film? To some extent it is, but that’s overshadowed by Hernandez’s powerhouse performance. He dominates every scene he’s in with his innate dignity:

The rest of the cast is superb, especially Jarman, Brian, and Elizabeth Patterson as one of the spunkiest old ladies in cinematic history:

The crowd scenes outside the courthouse are eerie. The square is populated with local extras, some of whom likely participated in lynchings or became Klansmen in the Fifties.

Intruder In The Dust was an A-picture all the way. The direction by Clarence Brown, cinematography by Robert Surtees, and script by Ben Maddox are all first rate. They did Faulkner and Oxford proud. If you’d like to learn more about the filming of this fine movie, click here to see a fabulous photo essay on the making of movie at the Lafayette County Digital Museum.

You say Lafayette County; I say Yoknapatawpha County. Let’s call the whole thing off.

Grading Time: I give this fine Faulkner adaptation 4 stars and an Adrastos Grade of A-. It’s currently streaming on HBO/MAX.

Let’s goose things up by taking a gander at some posters.

We begin with side-by-side American and Swedish long sheets.

Here comes the quad:

When I was at Rowan Oaks, I saw a fifth of Jack Daniels in a display case. It was Faulkner’s liquor of choice. Let’s see if they have any in the lobby.

No luck. I should have brought a flask to the theatre. Oh well, what the hell.

We move from whiskey to lobby cards.

It’s trailer time:

The last word goes to Eddie Muller with his Noir Alley intro and outro: