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 Hernandez. 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 Hernandez 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
Production
After reading the galley proofs of the 1948 novel Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner, film director Clarence Brown (who was a big fan of Faulkner's books) insisted that MGM buy the rights for a film adaptation. Despite his dislike of liberal causes, Faulkner and the novel, Louis B. Mayer withheld objections to the film because of his friendship with Brown. According to the Hollywood Reporter in July 1948, MGM paid $50,000 for the film rights, to the delight of Faulkner.
Brown stated in interviews that he had witnessed the 1906 Atlanta race riots as a young teenager and never forget them, and that he wanted to make a movie about race problems in the South. Brown said in an interview that he thought that the film could be a great accomplishment towards better understanding of the true relationship between the races in the South. Although he was born in Massachusetts, and grew up in Tennessee, Brown considered himself a Southerner.
Brown thought that the seventh chapter of the novel was the most eloquent statement as to the true situation in the South and felt that gradualism should be the solution to solve the race problem of the South and the rest of America.
Casting
It was reported by the Hollywood Reporter in April 1949 that leading man Joel McCrea had turned down the role of Gavin Stevens. Since McCrea was uninterested in the role, Brown decided to cast character actor David Brian in the role. Brian had appeared earlier in Flamingo Road and Beyond the Forest in supporting roles and this was his only leading role.
For the role of Lucas Beauchamp, Puerto Rican actor Juano Hernandez was cast. Hernandez had appeared earlier in three African-American films in minor parts, which were directed by noted African-American director and producer Oscar Micheaux. Hernandez would later appear in Stars in My Crown (1950), Young Man with a Horn (also from 1950) and The Pawnbroker (1964).
Child actor Claude Jarman, Jr. who played Jody in Brown's The Yearling (1946), was cast as Chick Mallison, Gavin's nephew. His performance as Mallison was one of his favorites. Elizabeth Patterson, best known for her role as the elderly neighbor Matilda Trumbull in the television comedy series I Love Lucy, was cast as Miss Eunice Habersham.
The racist Gowrie family was played by Porter Hall, David Clarke and Charles Kemper, while Will Geer played Sheriff Hampton. Geer co-starred with Hernandez in The Reivers, another film based on a Faulkner novel.
Filming
Brown insisted filming on location to achieve authenticity. The film was shot in Faulkner's hometown of Oxford and Lafayette County, Mississippi. It was shot in the style of a documentary.
Brown was initially met with opposition to film in Oxford and Lafayette County, but was able to win local leaders through his wit and charm at presentations to Oxford's board of aldermen and chamber of commerce, and by his indirect threat to make the film in Hollywood and to depict the town as he pleased. Many of the townsfolk joined as extras.
Brown shot the picture without a sound track, and then dubbed the dialogue after the completion of camera work. Although the professional actors dubbed their own voices, Brown used radio actors' and extras' voices for those of the local Oxford people who appeared in the picture.
The University of Mississippi agreed to house and feed the white cast and crew, while Hernandez was forced to live apart from the rest of the film's cast and crew. According to an April 1949 New York Times article, Hernandez stayed with a local African-American undertaker.[3]
Faulkner discussed the script with Brown, but because he was under contract to Warner Bros., he could not contribute to it. However, according to Faulkner's biographer Joseph Blotner, he approved most of the scenes, made suggestions for changes to others, and revised the last scene "considerably in an effort to make it less sentimental." Faulkner even coached Hernandez in the local dialect, feeling that Hernandez's "clear and precise enunciation made him sound like a Shakespearean" rather than a Mississippi black man.
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".[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 Hernández 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 Hernández's "performance and extraordinary presence still rank above that of almost any other black actor to appear in an American movie."[6]
Awards
The film was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, for Best Supporting Actor (Brian) and New Star of the Year (Hernandez). Both didn't win.
Brown won the BAFTA United Nations Award, and the film was also nominated for Best Film from any Source. Brown, Hernandez and the film received nominations for the New York Film Circle Awards.
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
- ↑ Shelton Aiken, Charles (2009). "William Faulkner and the Southern Landscape". University of Georgia Press. ISBN 9780820332192.
- ↑ "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.