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.

Cast

David Brian

John Gavin Stevens

Claude Jarman Jr.

Chick Mallison

Juano Hernández

Lucas Beauchamp

Porter Hall

Nub Gowrie

Elizabeth Patterson

Miss Eunice Habersham

Charles Kemper

Crawford Gowrie

Will Geer

Sheriff Hampton

David Clarke

Vinson Gowrie

Elzie Emanuel

Aleck

Lela Bliss

Mrs. Mallison