Released:
1949-11-22

Overview:
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.

Director:
Clarence Brown

Runtime:
1h 27min

Genre:
Drama, Crime, Mystery

• Cast:
• 
  David Brian
  as
  John Gavin Stevens
• 
  Claude Jarman Jr.
  as
  Chick Mallison
• 
  Juano Hernández
  as
  Lucas Beauchamp
• 
  Porter Hall
  as
  Nub Gowrie
• 
  Elizabeth Patterson
  as
  Miss Eunice Habersham