Both "Intruder in the Dust" and "To Kill a Mockingbird" are films about a falsely accused black man charged with murder in the deep south. Of the two I think "Intruder" gets the nod as the superior picture. Unlike "Mockingbird" which is set in the early 30s, "Intruder" sports a contemporary date of 1949 when the film was made. It also has the advantage of being filmed on location in Oxford, Mississippi, the hometown of William Faulkner, author of the novel of the same name, on which the film is based.
In "Mockingbird," a black man named Robinson is falsely accused of rape by an unstable white woman, backed up by her racist father. But in "Intruder," the circumstances are more complicated. The accused is Lucas Beauchamp (Juano Hernanedez), a black landowner, both a bit odd and decidedly proud, who comes off much more as a multi-dimensional character than the saintly Robinson.
When Vison Gowrie, a white lumberman, is killed, it's immediately assumed that Beauchamp is the guilty party, as he is found standing next to Gowrie's body, with a smoking pistol in his hand. In both films, an attorney becomes involved in each case in an attempt to save the accused. Atticus Finch as depicted in Mockingbird is a little too liberal for the 1930s setting and comes off as a one dimensional idealist.
But in Intruder, the defense attorney, John Gavin Stevens (David Brian) is more realistic than an Atticus Finch-he's already assumed Beauchamp Is guilty and it's up to his nephew Chick (Claude Jaman Jr.) to convince him that he might be wrong. Stevens even goes so far as advising Beauchamp that he will attempt to get the venue changed, have him plead guilty and hope to avoid the death penalty by throwing himself at the mercy of the court.
Both films depend on white characters with "hearts of gold" to save the day. Finch is the likely candidate given his ultra-liberal credentials. But in Intruder Chick is the one who takes an interest in Beauchamp after the proud black man saved him from drowning in an icy creek when he was younger and shows him kindness by giving him a new pair of clothes back at his cottage.
In the flashback in which Chick relates the story of how Beauchamp saved him to his uncle, Chick offers to pay Beauchamp for his troubles but the proud man refuses. In a critical scene, Chick throws the money he offers him to the floor and later has an epiphany realizing he was guilty of hubris. So when he decides to help Beauchamp by honoring his request to bring his uncle into the case, in some measure this was the teen's act of atonement for his prior arrogant and racist behavior.
Despite its overarching verisimilitude, Intruder suffers from a major far-fetched plot point. This is when Chick decides to dig up Gowrie's body as suggested by Beauchamp, who begs him to check the bullet in the dead man's body in order to confirm that it was not fired by him. Accompanying Chick is an unlikely duo consisting of the elderly spinster Miss Habersham (Elizabeth Patterson) and Chick's black friend Aleck (Elzie Emanuel).
Despite Chick's uncle telling him that it's a crazy idea he goes and does it anyway, only to find that the body is missing from the casket. If that isn't ludicrous enough, when Sheriff Hampton (Will Geer) is informed by Chick as to what occurred, he decides to confirm Chick's story by exhuming the body without a warrant. Now do you believe something like that could ever happen?
Both Mockingbird and Intruder feature a mob that makes an attempt to lynch the falsely accused black man. But the Intruder mob seems less populated with stereotypes, maybe because real people from the town of Oxford were used as extras during filming. It just looks more realistic despite the melodrama of the scene in which the brother of the deceased, Crawford Gowrie (Charles Kemper) pours a can of gasoline at the feet of Miss Habersham, while she's knitting and guarding the jail where Beauchamp is locked up.
Intruder remains a groundbreaking film not only in its depiction of Beauchamp, magisterially played by Juano Hernandez (paving the way for such actors as Sidney Poitier) but in its refusal to sugarcoat the underlying racism especially in the area of the deep south. But Faulkner wants us to accept a more nuanced view of his hometown-that not everything was black and white.
In addition to the complex Beauchamp, the father of the deceased, Nub Gowrie (Porter Hall) who starts off seeking vengeance, ends up using his reason to discover the true identity of the man who murdered his son. On the other hand, Sheriff Hampton might be a little too much of a fanciful sympathetic character, bent on seeking justice despite the obvious conflict with those with a racist agenda.
Intruder in the Dust oddly concludes with the happy ending of the exoneration of a falsely accused black man. This happened rarely in the deep south but there is an account of a black man being acquitted by an all-white jury in Mississippi in 1919. Despite the inherent racism of the times (which is on display throughout the film with the explicit use of the n-word by multiple characters), Faulkner also goes out of his way to suggest that the relationship between blacks and whites was in some measure interdependent in his part of the world.
The interplay between these conflicting sentiments stamps the film with a heady verisimilitude despite the unconvincing central plot point.
In "Mockingbird," a black man named Robinson is falsely accused of rape by an unstable white woman, backed up by her racist father. But in "Intruder," the circumstances are more complicated. The accused is Lucas Beauchamp (Juano Hernanedez), a black landowner, both a bit odd and decidedly proud, who comes off much more as a multi-dimensional character than the saintly Robinson.
When Vison Gowrie, a white lumberman, is killed, it's immediately assumed that Beauchamp is the guilty party, as he is found standing next to Gowrie's body, with a smoking pistol in his hand. In both films, an attorney becomes involved in each case in an attempt to save the accused. Atticus Finch as depicted in Mockingbird is a little too liberal for the 1930s setting and comes off as a one dimensional idealist.
But in Intruder, the defense attorney, John Gavin Stevens (David Brian) is more realistic than an Atticus Finch-he's already assumed Beauchamp Is guilty and it's up to his nephew Chick (Claude Jaman Jr.) to convince him that he might be wrong. Stevens even goes so far as advising Beauchamp that he will attempt to get the venue changed, have him plead guilty and hope to avoid the death penalty by throwing himself at the mercy of the court.
Both films depend on white characters with "hearts of gold" to save the day. Finch is the likely candidate given his ultra-liberal credentials. But in Intruder Chick is the one who takes an interest in Beauchamp after the proud black man saved him from drowning in an icy creek when he was younger and shows him kindness by giving him a new pair of clothes back at his cottage.
In the flashback in which Chick relates the story of how Beauchamp saved him to his uncle, Chick offers to pay Beauchamp for his troubles but the proud man refuses. In a critical scene, Chick throws the money he offers him to the floor and later has an epiphany realizing he was guilty of hubris. So when he decides to help Beauchamp by honoring his request to bring his uncle into the case, in some measure this was the teen's act of atonement for his prior arrogant and racist behavior.
Despite its overarching verisimilitude, Intruder suffers from a major far-fetched plot point. This is when Chick decides to dig up Gowrie's body as suggested by Beauchamp, who begs him to check the bullet in the dead man's body in order to confirm that it was not fired by him. Accompanying Chick is an unlikely duo consisting of the elderly spinster Miss Habersham (Elizabeth Patterson) and Chick's black friend Aleck (Elzie Emanuel).
Despite Chick's uncle telling him that it's a crazy idea he goes and does it anyway, only to find that the body is missing from the casket. If that isn't ludicrous enough, when Sheriff Hampton (Will Geer) is informed by Chick as to what occurred, he decides to confirm Chick's story by exhuming the body without a warrant. Now do you believe something like that could ever happen?
Both Mockingbird and Intruder feature a mob that makes an attempt to lynch the falsely accused black man. But the Intruder mob seems less populated with stereotypes, maybe because real people from the town of Oxford were used as extras during filming. It just looks more realistic despite the melodrama of the scene in which the brother of the deceased, Crawford Gowrie (Charles Kemper) pours a can of gasoline at the feet of Miss Habersham, while she's knitting and guarding the jail where Beauchamp is locked up.
Intruder remains a groundbreaking film not only in its depiction of Beauchamp, magisterially played by Juano Hernandez (paving the way for such actors as Sidney Poitier) but in its refusal to sugarcoat the underlying racism especially in the area of the deep south. But Faulkner wants us to accept a more nuanced view of his hometown-that not everything was black and white.
In addition to the complex Beauchamp, the father of the deceased, Nub Gowrie (Porter Hall) who starts off seeking vengeance, ends up using his reason to discover the true identity of the man who murdered his son. On the other hand, Sheriff Hampton might be a little too much of a fanciful sympathetic character, bent on seeking justice despite the obvious conflict with those with a racist agenda.
Intruder in the Dust oddly concludes with the happy ending of the exoneration of a falsely accused black man. This happened rarely in the deep south but there is an account of a black man being acquitted by an all-white jury in Mississippi in 1919. Despite the inherent racism of the times (which is on display throughout the film with the explicit use of the n-word by multiple characters), Faulkner also goes out of his way to suggest that the relationship between blacks and whites was in some measure interdependent in his part of the world.
The interplay between these conflicting sentiments stamps the film with a heady verisimilitude despite the unconvincing central plot point.