Great movie

William Wyler himself was puzzled that this film did not find an audience.

My guess is that as it did not have a big star, the movie relied on word of mouth for favourable publicity. Because the film did not have a character the audience could root for - the only really honourable character was L. B. Jones and he was too much of a saint to be true - and because the film did not pull its punches, I imagine a lot of people who saw the movie found it a bit grim and discouraged their friends from seeing it.

I think it is a brilliant movie and deserves to better known