Review of Intruder in the Dust

Having read the William Faulkner novel and now seen the movie version twice, I have to admit Intruder in the Dust leaves me a little underwhelmed. Perhaps it's the lack of real tension as well as that of a music score (though it's interesting that a movie made in the late '40s would-except for the beginning and end credits-have no score at all since I always thought that started in the '70s). I personally found the novel a bit pretentious with all the run-on sentences. The most tension for me came when one of the murdered man's brothers poured gas near an old lady's rocking chair in the building that's jailing accused man Lucas Beauchamp and started lighting a match only to blow it out when that lady (Elizabeth Patterson) refused to move an inch. Other scenes, like the digging of the grave, seemed to take too long. Other than that, I did like the performances of Claude Jarman, Jr. as the teenage boy who's trying to pay back Lucas for saving him a few years ago, David Brian as the lawyer uncle of Jarman reluctantly defending Beauchamp, and Juano Hernadez as the accused man who bows to no one. This being Black History Month, I'd also like to mention other performers of color to appear here: Julia S. Marshbanks as Beauchamp's wife, John Morgan as a black convict, and Elzie Emanuel as Jarman's friend. And I recognized Will 'Grandpa Walton' Geer's voice as the sheriff. I guess what I really found a little puzzling was, when the truth came out, everyone seemed to just walk away as if nothing happened. The fact that Jarman and Brian provide some explanation at the end makes the movie somewhat satisfying. For all that, I guess I'm recommending Intruder in the Dust. P.S. I'd also like to mention that two of the performers-David Clarke and Harry Antrim-were both born in the same place I was: Chicago, Illinois.