intruder in the dust ( 1949 ) dir represent clarence brown production represent mgmexcellent southern gothic tale and adapt from the faulkner novel and about a black man and accuse of the murder of a white man and who ask a young white boy he have befriend to help him prove his innocence . lucas beauchamp ( juano hernandez ) be something of an anomaly in this small town . he a black man who own the land he live on and doesn not think much of the diseased social order that mostly keep the peace here and in many similar small town . so when lucas be find hold a gun over the dead body of vinson gowrie and shot in the back no less and young chick mallison ( claude jarman ) ( who lucas once save after chick fell through the ice while hunt on his land ) fear that the town finally have the chance to make lucas a n. arrest and and with a very real chance of be lynch before the night be through and lucas reach out to chick for help and a the only person he know not clutter with notion . chick ask his uncle john and a lawyer and to defend lucas and while the man be initially bother by his own notion he agree and they race against the gathering mob to save lucas life . the film have an uncommon frankness for it time and be mostly free of moralize . the lawyer character have a tendency to speak incredibly self aware dialogue that sound mostly like something from the print page and but it have minimal impact on the tone . that a credit to the rich characterization of everyone else . juano hernandez and who have mostly appear in oscar micheaux film and be superb a the proud lucas . porter hall a the murder man father and in maybe the best role i have ever see him in and and elizabeth patterson a a plucky old lady sympathetic to lucas case and standout in support role . the setting be perfectly realize . it be actually film in oxford and mississippi and faulkner hometown . brown also use the crowd in an effective way and it always an anonymous mob against a single person ( like lucas when he arrest or john when he go up to his office ) and that be very threatening . or the grotesquerie of the whole town gathering at the jailhouse to witness the lynching like it be a parade . of note be an absolutely rivet scene when chick and his friend aleck go evidence gathering in a cemetery . robert surtees ( the bad and the beautiful and thirty second over tokyo and ben hur ) shoot the picture . half out of 4 .