Faulkner Film Gets Hollywood-Like Premier in 1949 Oxford

The large crowd at The Lyric Theater in Oxford that awaited the arrival of William Faulkner for the world premiere of Intruder in the Dust was happy and ready to celebrate.
Times were improving in October, 1949, and viewers were excited to see the screen adaptation of this classic Faulkner novel, which explores the lives of a family of characters in the South. An aging black man who has long refused to adopt the traditionally servile attitude at that time is wrongfully accused of murdering a white woman.
The movie Intruder in the Dust is a 1949 crime drama produced and directed by Clarence Brown and starring David Brian and Claude Jarman Jr. The film is based on Faulkner’s novel by the same name.
According to MGM records the film earned $643,000 in the US and Canada and $194,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss to the studio of $614,000
John Cofield is a HottyToddy.com writer and noted Oxford folk historian.