Intruder

Twelve years before my favorite book, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, was published in 1960 and the subsequent 1962 unforgettable film starring my favorite actor, Gregory Peck, was released in theaters everywhere, a book by William Faulkner was published, dealing with a similar theme. Intruder In The Dust was published in 1948. A 1949 MGM movie was subsequently filmed based on this book as well. Like Mockingbird, Intruder was about a Mississippi black man, in this case a farmer, who was accused of a crime he did not commit. In Faulkner's book and movie, two teenage boys, one white and one black, a small town spinster, and a white country lawyer were shown assisting the quiet and compassionate Lucas Beauchamp in this thought-provoking crime drama wherein he was thought by most white folks as having a killed a white man. Faulkner was paid $50,000 for the film rights. The movie was shot in Faulkner's home town of Oxford, Mississippi.

The book opens with the white boy, Chick Mallison. later played by Claude Jarman, Jr. in the film, racing across the winter landscape, rabbit hunting. Misfortune follows Chick as he trips and falls into a partially frozen creek where he nearly freezes to death. His black friend helps him stumble to the closest shelter possible which happens to be the modest home of Lucas and Molly Beauchamp. Hoping to warm the thoroughly drenched boy before he succumbs to the bitter cold, Chick is saved by being undressed down to his union suit and sat before a warm fire while his clothes dry. Eventually, Molly coaxes Chick out of his wet woolen long underwear too, wraps him in a blanket and hangs up the long johns with his other clothes. Thus begins the saga of working to save the proud, kindhearted Lucas from a conviction of something he did not do.

Like much of William Faulkner's works, I found his book version hard to follow but certainly worth reading. The movie was very well filmed (in black and white), well acted and easier to follow. While not receiving the acclaim of the Harper Lee book and film, Intruder In The Dust made a significant impact on society, the plight of blacks in America before the civil rights movement, and for raising the consciousness of the African American dire straits and white attitudes of the 1940's and 50's.