Intruder in the Dust

Rural Mississippi in the 1940s: Lucas Beauchamp, a local black man with a reputation of not kowtowing to whites, is found standing over the body of a dead white man, holding a pistol that has recently been fired. Quickly arrested for murder and jailed, Beauchamp insists he's innocent and asks the town's most prominent lawyer, Gavin Stevens, to defend him, but Stevens refuses. When a local boy whom Beauchamp has helped in the past and who believes him to be innocent hears talk of a mob taking Beauchamp out of jail and lynching him, he pleads with Stevens to defend Beauchamp at trial and prove his innocence.

Director: Clarence Brown

Cast: David Brian, Claude Jarman Jr., Juano Hernández, Porter Hall, Elizabeth Patterson, Charles Kemper, Will Geer, David Clarke

Audience-only score — full critic data not yet in the ReelXO vault.