Viva Hollywood by Luis I. Reyes

Author:Luis I. Reyes [I. REYES, LUIS]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Running Press
Published: 2022-09-13T00:00:00+00:00

Alfonso Bedoya as Gold Hat and Humphrey Bogart as Fred C. Dobbs.

INTRUDER IN THE DUST

MGM, 1949 / DIRECTOR: CLARENCE BROWN

Audiences thought Juano Hernandez was African American, but he was also Puerto Rican. With his tall carriage, soulful eyes, stirring voice, and proud walk, Hernandez’s towering central portrayal of Lucas Beauchamp, a southern Black farmer

unjustly accused of the murder of a white man in 1940s Mississippi left an impression on postwar audiences. Audiences never considered his Spanish name or Latin origins. Because he spoke perfect, unaccented English, Hernandez quickly assimilated into the narrow typecasting afforded Black actors in Hollywood cinema at that time. His powerful screen presence projected dignity and strength that could not be dismissed.

While filming on location in Oxford, Mississippi, Hernandez could not stay in the “white only” lodging where the cast and crew stayed because of Jim Crow segregation. Instead, a local Black family housed him. Critics praised Hernandez’s performance, and he was nominated for a Golden Globe in the category of Most Promising Newcomer of 1950. The fifty-five-year-old veteran actor graciously accepted the well-intentioned nomination that overlooked his long career. He would have been better served with a Best Actor or Best Supporting nomination, but racial politics affected the recognition of an Afro-Latino performer.

Intruder in the Dust was a box-office failure but a critical success. The film focuses on the quest for justice by a few individuals. A lawyer, two young boys (one white, one Black), and an old woman believe in Lucas’s innocence and their efforts to clear him have dramatic value, but today, the film’s resolution seems contrived with a Hollywood happy ending. This does not diminish Hernandez’s performance, but in the end, Lucas walks alone. Even among the other African Americans in the town, there is no interaction or solidarity expressed. Lucas relies on his own pride and financial resources to get him out of a dead-end situation, but it takes three somewhat ineffective individuals and an ineffectual lawyer to save him from a lynching. The possibility of solidarity or a movement with other African Americans is never realized on screen, and the town’s Black community can only stand by and watch the events unfold, powerless to effect any change and left to the consciences and goodwill of the white townsfolk to do the right thing.

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