Jul 17
Remembering Juano Hernández (July 19, 1896 – July 17, 1970)
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Japan
seen from United States
seen from Singapore
seen from Uzbekistan
seen from Türkiye
seen from Türkiye
seen from Italy
seen from Russia
seen from Japan
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Canada
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from Netherlands
seen from United States
seen from France
seen from Russia
Remembering Juano Hernández (July 19, 1896 – July 17, 1970)
Intruder in the Dust (Clarence Brown, 1949)
Intruder in the Dust (Clarence Brown, 1949)
Juano Hernandez and David Brian in Intruder in the Dust
Cast: David Brian, Claude Jarman Jr., Juano Hernandez, Porter Hall, Elizabeth Patterson, Charles Kemper, Will Geer, David Clarke, Elzie Emanuel. Screenplay: Ben Maddow, based on a novel by William Faulkner. Cinematography: Robert Surtees. Art direction: Randall Duell. Film editing: Robert Kern. Music: Adolph Deutsch.
Clarence Brown’s Intruder in the Dust, shot on location in Oxford, Mississippi, Williiam Faulkner’s home town, is better than the Faulkner novel on which it’s based. Critics have complained about the prolix self-righteousness of the speeches by Gavin Stevens (David Brian), but they’re mercifully kept to a minimum in the film whereas they go on for pages in the book. The chief flaw of both film and book may be that neither Faulkner nor screenwriter Ben Maddow could decide whether they wanted a whodunit wrapped in a fable about racism, or a story about racism that incidentally contains a murder mystery. I think the film is partly rescued from this problem by Robert Surtees’s mastery of black-and-white cinematography, which brings a film noir quality to the movie, especially in the scenes shot in the old Lafayette County Jail, where a single bare light bulb often apparently lights the shabby surroundings. And while the midnight digging up of Vinson Gowrie’s grave by two teenagers and an elderly woman is one of the more improbable twists of the plot, Surtees’s camera and lighting give at least an illusion of plausibility while also evoking horror movie chills. Aleck, the Black teenager played by Elzie Emanuel, isn’t put through the usual degrading movie jokes about Blacks afraid of graveyards. He goes along with the plan gamely, but also gets a good laugh line later when the sheriff asks Chick (Claude Jarman Jr.) and Aleck what they would have done if there had been a body in the grave. “I hadn’t thought about it,” Chick says, probably lying to brave it out. “Uh, I did,” Aleck says, quite sensibly. The film works, too, because it’s a movie without stars, therefore without the baggage of familiar personae that established movie actors bring to roles. David Brian is the nominal lead, but this was his first year in movies, so his relative unfamiliarity prevents him from overshadowing the film’s real star, Juano Hernandez as the stubborn, proud Lucas Beauchamp, a brilliant performance that deserved one of the several Oscar nominations that the film failed to get. Jarman had made his debut at the age of 12 as Jody in Brown’s The Yearling (1946), for which he won the special Oscar once designated for juvenile actors, but like Brian, he never became a big star. The film is really carried by two stellar character players, Porter Hall as Nub Gowrie and Elizabeth Patterson as Miss Habersham, and, I think, by the citizens of Oxford and Lafayette County rounded up for the crowd scenes and a few incidental small roles. It’s a film of control and texture that deserves to be better known than it seems to be.
THE BREAKING POINT (1950)
While Michael Curtiz would go on to make more films (22 more) in the decade following 1950, it is with good reason that I have chosen THE BREAKING POINT as the film to finish out our Curtiz journey. “Noir Czar” Eddie Muller while being interviewed on TCM by Robert Osborn once described this film as” brilliant,” and his favorite Michael Curtiz film; and yes, he included CASABLANCA on that list. If…
To jazz up your day... YOUNG MAN with a HORN (1950)
As we cruise farther along our Michael Curtiz journey, today we’re pulling over to a little jazz club to discuss, YOUNG MAN with a HORN (1950). At this point, we have explored a variety of film genres that Curtiz not only explored but excelled in directing. Now let’s look at a film that is not only a biopic, but a musical biopic. Doris Day, Kirk Douglas, Lauren Bacall create a toxic…
Birthday remembrance - Juano Hernandez #botd pictured in Jacques Tourneur’s STARS IN MY CROWN (1950) with Joel McCrea and Dean Stockwell.
Juano Hernandez and Claude Jarman, Jr. on set of INTRUDER IN THE DUST (Clarence Brown, 1949)
Remembering Juano Hernández (July 19, 1896 – July 17, 1970)