Stranger
in the Kingdom is a thriller in the Perry Mason genre
but based on a true story. In 1957, as the film unfolds, Walter
Andrews (played by Ernie Hudson), a Protestant minister, is
recruited to the pulpit by a congregation in Irasberg, Vermont,
located in Kingdom County. The townspeople doubtless expected
that he would be white, but he instead he turns out to be
black, and he brings along his teenage son Nat (played by
Sean Nelson) but no wife after being discharged as an army
chaplain in Korea for being hotheaded, though the dark side
of his military record is evidently unknown in the town as
well. Upon arriving in town, Reverend Andrews encounters a
lot of prejudice and a lot of hicks who consider themselves
to be above the law, which is rarely enforced. Suddenly, a
murder takes place, and the police arrest "the stranger" without
considering any other suspect. A trial takes place, and Reverend
Andrews is nearly convicted when a clue turns up. Charlie
Kinneson, the defendant’s lawyer (played by David Lansbury),
then interrogates the previous minister Elijah Kinneson (played
by Tom Aldredge), whose sanity is questionable, and the latter
confesses when his emotions are aroused in the witness box.
The local defense attorney has the satisfaction of winning
a case against Sigurd Moulton (played by Martin Sheen), legal
reinforcements supplied by the state to ensure the conviction
of the black minister, thus underscoring the depth of racial
prejudice in New England, the home of abolitionism. We are
reminded not only of The Stranger, a 1946 film
noir in which Orson Welles plays a Nazi war criminal in a
small New England town, possibly Vermont as well, and of Intruder
in the Dust (1949), one of several films about the
lack of justice for blacks in the South. The film, which premiered
in Vermont in 1998, then went to Sundance, and was released
to the general public in May 1999, was directed by Jay Craven
and is based on the award-winning book by Howard Frank Mosher.
MH
I
want to comment on this film
