The Liberation of L.B. Jones
Encyclopedia
The Liberation of L.B. Jones is a 1970
American
drama film
directed by William Wyler
, his final project in a career that spanned 45 years.
The screenplay
by Jesse Hill Ford
and Stirling Silliphant
is based on Ford's 1965 novel The Liberation of Lord Byron Jones. The novel, in turn, was based on events that happened in a Southern town where writer Ford lived. After he wrote the book, he was verbally attacked for writing about the events that had occurred in his town. The motion picture's release added to the controversy, especially in Humboldt, Tennessee
, where Ford lived.
The film stars Roscoe Lee Browne
, Lee J. Cobb
, Lola Falana
and Lee Majors
.
funeral director
in fiction
al Somerset, Tennessee
, seeks legal representation from the local law firm run by Oman Hedgepath and his newlywed nephew Steve Mundine. Jones is seeking a divorce
from his considerably younger wife Emma, alleging she had an affair with white police officer Willie Joe Worth, whom he suspects is the biological father of her unborn child.
In an effort to avoid a public scandal, Worth begs Emma not to contest the divorce, but she hopes to collect enough alimony
to allow her to maintain the lavish lifestyle to which she has become accustomed. When she refuses to cooperate, Worth severely beats her, then - with the aid of fellow officer Stanley Bumpas - arrests Jones on false charges after he refuses to withdraw the divorce suit.
Jones escapes and eventually cornered, he confronts the officers and is handcuffed. He quietly and respectfully refuses to cooperate even at gunpoint and Worth initially cool, murders him with Bumpas casually watching. Worth is suddenly horrified by what he has done and then even more so at Bumpas's subsequent but cold bloodily practical actions in treating Jones's body like it was a side of beef and hanging it from a wrecker hook.
Bumpas slashes the body and removes Jones's shoelaces to make it look like it was done by other black persons in a revenge-type killing. Initially another black man and Emma are forced to confess to the murder, but Hedgepath quickly discovers that the man was in jail at the time of the murder and also the confessions were obtained with a cattle prod which appears to be commonplace at the jail.
The charges are immediately dropped and Worth, who has been shocked by his own actions, turns himself in and confesses to Hedgepath and the Mayor, in part suggesting that Hedgepath may have accidentally (but with no intent by Hedgepath) influenced him to take action.
Worth is willing to take all responsibility. However, he and Bumpas are not held accountable by City Attorney Hedgepath, who in typical Southern fashion (the film later points out), puts the problem under the rug, and makes himself a true accessory after the fact by disposing of the murder weapon and the murder is covered up quietly. The Mayor wants nothing to do with any of this and is happy that Hedgepath handles it so as not to disrupt the reputation of the community.
Hedgepath props up Worth enough with thoughts of his family so that Worth accepts the burden of guilt without the need to confess and although he gives Worth a choice it is clear that Hedgepath has significant influence over Worth. The two officers are not held accountable for their actions. However, almost immediately, Bumpas, off duty, is murdered very deliberately and coolly by Sonny Boy Mosby in partial retaliation for a vicious beating he once inflicted on the man.
Sonny had recently decided not to retaliate against Bumpas for the beating, but the murder and cutting up of Jones was apparently the final straw for Mosby. The murder is gruesome, but done in a manner by Sonny so that it appeared to be an agricultural accident rather than a revenge killing although Sonny confronted the unarmed Bumpas with a handgun and the machinery involved was merely an opportunity to kill Bumpas more inhumanely.
Worth keeps his job, Emma is under the presumption she will be getting Jones's money, although there is a suggestion that she might have a little guilt and will be ostracized by the black community. Hedgepath is apparently abandoned by the remnants of his family with the Mundines moving out. Mosby, unsuspected, leaves town on a bus, apparently with a clear conscience but a look of maturity.
This film forces the audience to read between the lines as the scenes transition very abruptly. Considering the time period this film was produced, 1970, it apparently presumed the audience's sophistication with racial tensions of the 60's South was such that there was no need for significant character development. The characters just act, and consequences occur, and there is little individual introspection. The story may in part be an attempt to reflect how some people act and either cannot or will not consider consequences.
In some ways the story may be a more honest appraisal of how things really worked in the old South.
The film may not have been intended as a social commentary on race relations, but used the disappearing old South as a backdrop to illustrate human behavior.
In his review in the New York Times, Vincent Canby
said, "I'm sure that Wyler and his screenwriters . . . were out to make a suspense movie that would also work as contemporary social commentary. In the interests of melodrama
, they have simplified the characters from Hill's novel to such a degree that they seem more stereotype
d than may have been absolutely necessary . . . Wyler's direction is notable only for the coldness and for an impatience to get on with the story at the expense of any feeling of real involvement . . . I must say I wasn't bored by it, just depressed."
Variety
called it "not much more than an interracial sexploitation film."
TV Guide
rates it two out of a possible four stars and comments, "Though the cast gives some strong performances, ultimately the film is an empty affair. The questions of racism and southern prejudice had been well handled by other films long before this. Had it been made 10 years earlier it would have been a landmark, but in 1970 it was no longer fresh material. The script is pockmarked with cliches and stereotypes, though the technical aspects are fine. This last film of director Wyler was nothing special."
but lost to Carrie Snodgress
in Diary of a Mad Housewife
.
1970 in film
The year 1970 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 9 - Larry Fine, the second member of The Three Stooges, suffers a massive stroke, therefore ending his career....
American
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by William Wyler
William Wyler
William Wyler was a leading American motion picture director, producer, and screenwriter.Notable works included Ben-Hur , The Best Years of Our Lives , and Mrs. Miniver , all of which won Wyler Academy Awards for Best Director, and also won Best Picture...
, his final project in a career that spanned 45 years.
The screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
by Jesse Hill Ford
Jesse Hill Ford
Jesse Hill Ford was an American writer of Southern literature, best known for his critical and commercial success in short fiction as well as the novels Mountains of Gilead and The Liberation of Lord Byron Jones.Born in Troy, Alabama, Ford was raised in Nashville, Tennessee...
and Stirling Silliphant
Stirling Silliphant
Stirling Dale Silliphant was an American screenwriter and producer. He was born in Detroit, Michigan, moved to Glendale, California as a child, graduated from Hoover High School, and was educated at the University of Southern California...
is based on Ford's 1965 novel The Liberation of Lord Byron Jones. The novel, in turn, was based on events that happened in a Southern town where writer Ford lived. After he wrote the book, he was verbally attacked for writing about the events that had occurred in his town. The motion picture's release added to the controversy, especially in Humboldt, Tennessee
Humboldt, Tennessee
Humboldt is a city in Gibson and Madison counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. The population was 8,452 at the 2010 census, a decline of 1,015 in 2000. It is the principal city of and is included in the Humboldt, Tennessee Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Jackson,...
, where Ford lived.
The film stars Roscoe Lee Browne
Roscoe Lee Browne
Roscoe Lee Browne was an American actor and director, known for his rich voice and dignified bearing.-Biography:Browne was the fourth son of a Baptist minister, Sylvanus S. Browne, and his wife Lovie...
, Lee J. Cobb
Lee J. Cobb
Lee J. Cobb was an American actor. He is best known for his performance in 12 Angry Men his Academy Award-nominated performance in On the Waterfront and one of his last films, The Exorcist...
, Lola Falana
Lola Falana
Lola Falana is an American singer, dancer, and actress of Cuban and African American descent. Falana's father left Cuba to become a welder in the United States, where he met his wife...
and Lee Majors
Lee Majors
Lee Majors is an American television, film and voice actor, best known for his starring role as Colonel Steve Austin in The Six Million Dollar Man and as Colt Seavers in The Fall Guy ....
.
Plot synopsis
The title character, a wealthy African AmericanAfrican American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
funeral director
Funeral director
A funeral director , also known as a mortician or undertaker, is a professional involved in the business of funeral rites. These tasks often entail the embalming and burial or cremation of the dead, as well as the planning and arrangement of the actual funeral ceremony...
in fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
al Somerset, Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
, seeks legal representation from the local law firm run by Oman Hedgepath and his newlywed nephew Steve Mundine. Jones is seeking a divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
from his considerably younger wife Emma, alleging she had an affair with white police officer Willie Joe Worth, whom he suspects is the biological father of her unborn child.
In an effort to avoid a public scandal, Worth begs Emma not to contest the divorce, but she hopes to collect enough alimony
Alimony
Alimony is a U.S. term denoting a legal obligation to provide financial support to one's spouse from the other spouse after marital separation or from the ex-spouse upon divorce...
to allow her to maintain the lavish lifestyle to which she has become accustomed. When she refuses to cooperate, Worth severely beats her, then - with the aid of fellow officer Stanley Bumpas - arrests Jones on false charges after he refuses to withdraw the divorce suit.
Jones escapes and eventually cornered, he confronts the officers and is handcuffed. He quietly and respectfully refuses to cooperate even at gunpoint and Worth initially cool, murders him with Bumpas casually watching. Worth is suddenly horrified by what he has done and then even more so at Bumpas's subsequent but cold bloodily practical actions in treating Jones's body like it was a side of beef and hanging it from a wrecker hook.
Bumpas slashes the body and removes Jones's shoelaces to make it look like it was done by other black persons in a revenge-type killing. Initially another black man and Emma are forced to confess to the murder, but Hedgepath quickly discovers that the man was in jail at the time of the murder and also the confessions were obtained with a cattle prod which appears to be commonplace at the jail.
The charges are immediately dropped and Worth, who has been shocked by his own actions, turns himself in and confesses to Hedgepath and the Mayor, in part suggesting that Hedgepath may have accidentally (but with no intent by Hedgepath) influenced him to take action.
Worth is willing to take all responsibility. However, he and Bumpas are not held accountable by City Attorney Hedgepath, who in typical Southern fashion (the film later points out), puts the problem under the rug, and makes himself a true accessory after the fact by disposing of the murder weapon and the murder is covered up quietly. The Mayor wants nothing to do with any of this and is happy that Hedgepath handles it so as not to disrupt the reputation of the community.
Hedgepath props up Worth enough with thoughts of his family so that Worth accepts the burden of guilt without the need to confess and although he gives Worth a choice it is clear that Hedgepath has significant influence over Worth. The two officers are not held accountable for their actions. However, almost immediately, Bumpas, off duty, is murdered very deliberately and coolly by Sonny Boy Mosby in partial retaliation for a vicious beating he once inflicted on the man.
Sonny had recently decided not to retaliate against Bumpas for the beating, but the murder and cutting up of Jones was apparently the final straw for Mosby. The murder is gruesome, but done in a manner by Sonny so that it appeared to be an agricultural accident rather than a revenge killing although Sonny confronted the unarmed Bumpas with a handgun and the machinery involved was merely an opportunity to kill Bumpas more inhumanely.
Worth keeps his job, Emma is under the presumption she will be getting Jones's money, although there is a suggestion that she might have a little guilt and will be ostracized by the black community. Hedgepath is apparently abandoned by the remnants of his family with the Mundines moving out. Mosby, unsuspected, leaves town on a bus, apparently with a clear conscience but a look of maturity.
This film forces the audience to read between the lines as the scenes transition very abruptly. Considering the time period this film was produced, 1970, it apparently presumed the audience's sophistication with racial tensions of the 60's South was such that there was no need for significant character development. The characters just act, and consequences occur, and there is little individual introspection. The story may in part be an attempt to reflect how some people act and either cannot or will not consider consequences.
In some ways the story may be a more honest appraisal of how things really worked in the old South.
The film may not have been intended as a social commentary on race relations, but used the disappearing old South as a backdrop to illustrate human behavior.
Cast
- Roscoe Lee BrowneRoscoe Lee BrowneRoscoe Lee Browne was an American actor and director, known for his rich voice and dignified bearing.-Biography:Browne was the fourth son of a Baptist minister, Sylvanus S. Browne, and his wife Lovie...
..... L.B. Jones - Lee J. CobbLee J. CobbLee J. Cobb was an American actor. He is best known for his performance in 12 Angry Men his Academy Award-nominated performance in On the Waterfront and one of his last films, The Exorcist...
..... Oman Hedgepath - Lee MajorsLee MajorsLee Majors is an American television, film and voice actor, best known for his starring role as Colonel Steve Austin in The Six Million Dollar Man and as Colt Seavers in The Fall Guy ....
..... Steve Mundine - Anthony ZerbeAnthony ZerbeAnthony Jared Zerbe is an American stage, film and Emmy-winning television actor. Notable film roles include the post-apocalyptic cult leader Matthias in The Omega Man, a 1971 film adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel, I Am Legend; Milton Krest in the 1989 James Bond film Licence to Kill;...
..... Willie Joe Worth - Lola FalanaLola FalanaLola Falana is an American singer, dancer, and actress of Cuban and African American descent. Falana's father left Cuba to become a welder in the United States, where he met his wife...
..... Emma Jones - Arch Johnson ..... Stanley Bumpas
- Barbara HersheyBarbara HersheyBarbara Hershey , also known as Barbara Seagull, is an American actress. In a career spanning nearly 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema, in several genres including westerns and comedies...
..... Nella Mundine - Yaphet KottoYaphet KottoYaphet Frederick Kotto is an African-American actor, known for numerous film roles , and his starring role in the NBC television series Homicide: Life on the Street .-Early life:Kotto was born in New York City, the son of Gladys Marie, a...
..... Sonny Boy Mosby - Chill WillsChill WillsChill Theodore Wills was an American film actor, and a singer in the Avalon Boys Quartet.-Biography:Wills was born in Seagoville, Texas in 1902. He was a performer from early childhood, forming and leading the Avalon Boys singing group in the 1930s...
..... Mr. Ike - Dub TaylorDub TaylorWalter Clarence Taylor, Jr. , better known as Dub Taylor, was an American actor who worked extensively in Westerns, but also in comedy from the 1940s into the 1990s.-Early life:...
..... Mayor
Critical reception
Wyler's last screen film received mixed reviews; some appreciating his effort felt it was not powerful enough. In the end, the movie failed financially with no receipts brought in.In his review in the New York Times, Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
said, "I'm sure that Wyler and his screenwriters . . . were out to make a suspense movie that would also work as contemporary social commentary. In the interests of melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
, they have simplified the characters from Hill's novel to such a degree that they seem more stereotype
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
d than may have been absolutely necessary . . . Wyler's direction is notable only for the coldness and for an impatience to get on with the story at the expense of any feeling of real involvement . . . I must say I wasn't bored by it, just depressed."
Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
called it "not much more than an interracial sexploitation film."
TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
rates it two out of a possible four stars and comments, "Though the cast gives some strong performances, ultimately the film is an empty affair. The questions of racism and southern prejudice had been well handled by other films long before this. Had it been made 10 years earlier it would have been a landmark, but in 1970 it was no longer fresh material. The script is pockmarked with cliches and stereotypes, though the technical aspects are fine. This last film of director Wyler was nothing special."
Awards and nominations
Lola Falana was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - ActressGolden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actress
The Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress originated in 1948. Between 1954 and 1965, multiple winners were announced. The category was discontinued following the 1983 ceremonies.-Winners:*1948: Lois Maxwell*1950: Mercedes McCambridge...
but lost to Carrie Snodgress
Carrie Snodgress
Caroline "Carrie" Snodgress was an American actress.-Biography:Snodgress was born in Park Ridge, Illinois. She attended Maine Township High School East in Park Ridge then Northern Illinois University before leaving to pursue acting. Snodgress trained for the stage at the Goodman Theatre, in Chicago...
in Diary of a Mad Housewife
Diary of a Mad Housewife
Diary of a Mad Housewife is a 1967 novel that was adapted into 1970 drama film about a frustrated wife, portrayed by Carrie Snodgress, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won a Golden Globe award in the same category. The film was adapted by Eleanor Perry from the 1967...
.