Cinema: Southern Reconstruction

The Reivers is a raucous, good-natured ode to the end of innocence —a kind of motorized Huckleberry Finn. William Faulkner's original novel spun a mellow tale about an eleven-year-old lad named Lucius McCaslin and his wild-eyed adventures on a trip to Memphis in 1905. Screenwriters Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr., having done previous Faulkner adaptations in The Long Hot Summer and The Sound and the Fury, by this time know the Yoknapatawpha territory more than passing well. Their sharp and reverent screenplay, featuring a felicitous narration by Burgess Meredith, helps make The...

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