It’s another week here at BCB After Dark: the hippest hangout for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in out of the heat and cool off with us. There’s no cover charge. Let us know if we can do anything for you. There are still a few tables available. Bring your own beverage.
BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged
to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon
Tonight the Cubs lost to the Royals 12-4 and I’m so upset about it that I Don’t want to talk about it. The Brewers also beat the Mariners for their 11th-straight win. That would put the Cubs into second place. Seriously, I don’t want to talk about it.
Last week I asked you the big question that I’ve been ignoring: how likely is Kyle Tucker to return to the Cubs next season in your opinion? With the caveat that none of us actually have any idea what either the Cubs or Tucker is thinking, 33 percent of you think Tucker is only a “2” to re-sign on a scale of 1 to 5. Another 33 percent of you gave it a “3.” which is thinking its a 50-50 chance.
Here’s the part where I play music and talk movies. You can skip that if you want.
Tonight we go back a little over 30 years to the Joshua Redman Quartet. Back to 1994 when these four men were the “Young Turks” shaking up the jazz world and not the establishment superstars like they are today. This is Joshua Redman on tenor sax, Brad Mehldau on piano, Christian McBride on bass and Brian Blade on drums.
This is their take on Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia.”
This week I’m looking at Intruder in the Dust, the 1949 noir-ish film based on the William Faulkner novel of the same name. Tonight I’m going to look at the history that brought this film into existence and on Wednesday I’ll write about the film itself.
But in case you just want a one-word answer as to whether or not you should watch the film: yes. Intruder in the Dust is a terrific crime movie and “message” picture that features some great acting performances, especially from 15-year-old Claude Jarman Jr. and the Hollywood film debut of Puerto Rican actor Juano Hernandez, although Hernandez had been acting in what were called “race films” since the silent era.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, or MGM, was the biggest and most successful studio during the Golden Age of Hollywood. MGM was run with an iron fist by studio mogul Louis B. Mayer, who had been born somewhere and some time in the Russian Empire. Even Mayer didn’t know for sure where or when, but he always made sure to celebrate his birthday on the Fourth of July. His family moved to the US sometime in his toddler years. He grew up in poverty in the US until he hit upon the new business of motion pictures as a young man. There he climbed up the ladder from starting a small movie theater in Haverhill, MA to becoming the most powerful man in Hollywood.
Mayer’s formula for success at MGM was escapist family entertainment. Big budget musicals and Andy Hardy movies with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland were just what America wanted to see during the Great Depression. More than one biographer has speculated that Mayer tried to create the idyllic American family life on screen that this immigrant never had in his own life.
But then came World War II and war changes things—both people and societies. Audiences were no longer in the mood for escapist fare after having witnessed the horrors of global war and the Holocaust. Films became darker. Film noir was invented before the war, but it took off in popularity right afterwards. “Message” pictures had always been around, but grew up with the wartime propaganda movies. These films gave audiences something to think about as well as entertainment.
There was nothing that Louis B. Mayer hated more than a “message” picture. While you can argue that MGM films depicting happy nuclear families and a contented America were a message that reinforced Mayer’s own arch-conservative politics, he didn’t see it that way. Messages and the movies didn’t mix in his mind.
The problem was that for all of Mayer’s power at MGM in California, he still had to report to the moneymen in New York who owned MGM and ran the Loew’s Theatre chain. With the changing American tastes, MGM, for the first time, started losing money after the war.
So New York installed Dore Schary as the new head of production under Mayer at MGM against Mayer’s wishes. Schary was a hotshot fairly young producer who had been the head of production at RKO. Schary very much wanted to make “message” pictures. The two were constantly at war with each other until 1951 when Mayer gave New York an ultimatum—either Mayer or Schary had to go. Loew’s head Nick Schenck picked Schary and Mayer was fired from the company he had turned into a behemoth.
Intruder in the Dust is one of these films that Schary wanted to make over Mayer’s objections. The actual genesis of the film came from director Clarence Brown, who had read the early galleys of Faulkner’s 1948 novel and insisted upon MGM buying the film rights. Mayer refused, hating the book’s anti-racism and anti-lynching message, fearing it would alienate Southern moviegoers and theater owners. But Brown, with Schary’s backing, insisted that Mayer owed him one for directing National Velvet and The Yearling, two postwar wholesome “family” movies that actually did make money for MGM.
Intruder in the Dust opened to rave reviews in 1949, which was also the same year that Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Ralph Ellison, of Invisible Man fame, would later say Intruder in the Dust was “the only film that could be shown in Harlem without arousing unintended laughter, for it is the only one of the four [referring to other race-related message films of the late-40s] in which Negroes can make complete identification with their screen image.” Its portrait of Lucas, Hernandez’s character, is much more nuanced and real than most portrayals of Black characters in film at this time.
But unfortunately, Mayer would get the final say. Mayer refused to give the film any promotion, explaining that he didn’t like the use of the “n-word” in in the movie. (Mayer didn’t say “n-word” of course.) Of course, Mayer’s real reason was that beyond hating message pictures in general and Dore Schary in particular, the film was going to offend large parts of the American South. So Intruder in the Dust was mostly overlooked and forgotten.
Next time I’ll write about the film itself, which is very good. But you can see Intruder in the Dust on Criterion and if you have Turner Classic Movies, the film was this week’s Noir Alley selection and can be seen on demand through this upcoming Sunday.
Here’s a scene from Intruder in the Dust. I love the way that Clarence Brown shoots Hernandez leaving ths store. It’s not quite what John Ford would do later in The Searchers. but there’s a similar framing.
Warning: there is the “n-word” in this clip, so maybe don’t play it at work.
Welcome back to everyone who skips the music and movies.
Something happened today that made me think about Owen Caissie. In my “Outside the Confines” column this morning, I took CBS Sports’ Mike Axisa to task for suggesting that the Cubs would trade outfielder Owen Caissie and left-hander Jordan Wicks to the Royals for Seth Lugo.
I called that deal a “massive overpay” for the Cubs and one reader took me to task for that, saying that Lugo was a “legitimate ace.” Now admittedly, that reader misunderstood Lugo’s contract option for next year, thinking it was a team option and not a player option, which Lugo will most likely decline. So the whole thing was a bit of a misunderstanding and not a big deal. I still think Caissie and Wicks is too much for a year and two months of Lugo, but I will admit this is a seller’s market. Such a deal would be too much for me but it would not be outlandish, had Lugo had a team option for next year and not a player option.
But it got me thinking. What would you give up Owen Caissie for? Caissie is listed in pretty much every list of prospects likely to be moved at the deadline. He would be playing in the majors right now, were it not for the fact that the Cubs have Ian Happ in left, Pete Crow-Armstrong in center and Kyle Tucker in right, along with Seiya Suzuki as the DH. As things stand right now, Caissie is blocked.
So it would make sense to trade Caissie. Except, as we noted last time, Kyle Tucker is no guarantee to be back next season. That would open up a spot for Caissie in right field.
On the other hand, were the Cubs to trade Caissie and Tucker not return, the Cubs would have other options. There’s Kevin Alcántara, who is coming on this summer after a poor start to the year. There’s also the possibility of moving Seiya Suzuki back to right field and letting Moisés Ballesteros serve as the DH and part-time catcher.
So what would you give up Owen Caissie for at the deadline? I certainly wouldn’t trade him for just a rental, like Seth Lugo. I would need the Cubs to get back someone with multiple years of control. Or at least next season.
It sounds like the Cubs agree with me, at least according to Jon Morosi.
To clarify, I don’t expect Owen Caissie to be traded in a 1 for 1 deal for a rental starting pitcher.
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) July 21, 2025
For Caissie to be moved, return likely would need to include multiple players or a controllable starter (e.g., Keller, Joe Ryan). @MLBNetwork https://t.co/8KIyZ2B61N
But what about you? Flag fly forever, and the Cubs could certainly use help now if they want to win the pennant or the World Series this year. Would you give up Owen Caissie for an elite bat like the Diamondbacks’ Eugenio Suárez, even though he’s just a rental? What if it were two rentals, like Suárez and right-hander Merrill Kelly? Would you hold on to Caissie for anything short of a strong starter with multiple years of control like the Twins’ Joe Ryan or maybe the Pirates’ Mitch Keller?
Or maybe you just don’t want to trade Owen Caissie at all?
And tell us what kind of a trade that would tempt you to give up Caissie in the comments.
Thanks for stopping by tonight. Stay cool out there. Get home safely. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again tomorrow night for more BCB After Dark.
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