Quick moving with nice acting from Hernandez. The early flashback sequence showing Chick's developing relationship with Lucas is great.

Entertaining characters and a solid anti-prejudice message, but the each story element is resolved so quickly that plot is never more than about two thoughts deep. Canned, explicitly stated morals have always turned me off, too.

Filmed in Oxford Mississippi, this forgotten classic is the best film adaptation of Faulkner. Juano Hernandez creates his most heroic character in Lucas Beachamp, a fiercely proud black farmer unjustly charged with the murder of a white man. and Elizabeth Patterson and Porter Hall--two actors specializing in eccentrics--are for once given roles with depth and richness and deliver superior performances. Even the basest characters are treated with dignity in this unique, satisfying film.

It's a bit of a polemic about racial prejudice in the south, which Faulkner felt strongly about. It's rather well written, at least the adaptation, but something doesn't work. Lucas ends up responding "would you believe me if I told you?" when his defense lawyer asks him why he never told him his side of the story. But Lucas was very close to paying with his life for withholding the truth that he's innocent. It just doesn't make very much sense that he wouldn't say a word to save his skin.