There are moments in your life when you come across art from the past that punches you in the face. You are not prepared for it, which makes the impact that more palpable. I recently came across a buried and forgotten film from 1962, produced and directed by low-budget B-movie Maverick Roger Corman, yet this film is extremely controversial as it is compelling, topical and it will send chills down your spine if you have a soul. The parallels to today in America of this film are so obvious, I dare not say the names of today that this film correlates to; unless you live in a cave (with no wi-fi), you will understand immediately what and who I mean.
The biggest surprise for me with this film, besides it’s impassioned effort by creator Corman is the lead performance by a relatively unknown actor at the time of it’s release. William Shatner, went on to universal stardom as Admiral James T Kirk on the iconic television series “Star Trek”, a show which I feel encouraged many people like myself who saw it to believe in a future that was inclusive and diverse for all Americans. Racial and gender integration was promoted on “Star Trek” as was a belief in philosophy and intellectualism that involved the contributions of the collective, regardless of where they came from or what they looked like. The show also seemed to have a balance between conservative and liberal ideals. Shatner’s acting work, though lampooned on celebrity roasts, is actually quite commendable, to me most notably his performances in Robert Wise’s “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and Nicholas Myers’ crackerjack “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”. I also enjoyed Shatner in pulp 70’s trash, like “Big Bad Mama” with Angie Dickinson and “The Babysitter” with Stephanie Zimbalist. In 1962, however, Shatner gave a searing performance as a provocateur in Corman’s explosive “The Intruder”. When you see this film, you will understand why it is long lost, it is a scatological powder keg, sitting on top of dynamite.
The script for “The Intruder” was based on a book of the same name, both penned by writer Charles Beaumont (who also stars in the film). The movie begins and takes place in a hot, steamy mythical Southern town called Caxton, Beaumont’s novel was written in 1959. We don’t know what time of year it is when the film starts, we can guess it’s either the beginning or the end of the school year, typically it’s hot at both of those times. By order of State and Federal law (just as had happened in the famous 1957 Little Rock, Arkansas school integration ruling), the town’s schools must integrate, to the disdain and disgust of what seems like an overwhelming majority of the town’s White citizens. Conjoined with this revolutionary progressive step for this tiny town of predominate ignorance is the arrival of a mysterious well-dressed stranger, played by Shatner. His name is Adam Cramer. Allegorically he is the manifestation of the ideas of confirmation bias that are already in the minds of the town’s most virulent racists and misogynists, he will embolden them to be their worst selves, under the umbrella of the imagined blessings of Jesus.
Cramer arrives in Caxton by Bus, the opening music by composer Herman Stein encapsulates the mood of the film perfectly, the viewer is on edge immediately, the camera view rolls past poor African-Americans working in the fields outside of the town as Cramer rides in on a fast-moving transit Bus. Cramer is clean-shaven, with a short haircut, wearing a light colored suit. He exits the Bus and behaves fake nice to a little girl and her Mother exiting the Bus, he means to flatter all the White people in this town as soon as he sees them. Cramer claims to be a member of some organization called The Patrick Henry Society and that this society vehemently opposes racial integration. Cramer begins to engage any townspeople that will listen into a conversation about the dangers of racial integration, that the presence of African-Americans will erode the “standards” that White Americans have come to honor and enjoy. The N-word flies out of the mouths of many characters here, the shock value is tangible, we the audience are going to be privy to a dialogue that is probing and extremely cringe, Corman’s film pulls zero fucking punches.
Cramer’s deception and treachery doesn’t stop there, however. Besides his hatred and racism, Cramer is also an incessant sexual cad, he wants to attempt to fuck all of the hottest Women in this ignorant town, including the underaged. Starting with malt shop clerk Ella McDaniel (played by Beverly Lunsford). Ella however, is the daughter of what appears to be the only Man with integrity left in this town, the City Paper’s News Editor, Tom McDaniel (played by Frank Maxwell). At first, Tom is the only White Man in the town who feels the calling to assist African-American families and their children in getting a fair deal and an education. Back in those days, most people, regardless of political beliefs, did not see being educated as an indoctrination plot, being educated was something to ascribe to.
Cramer begins his town-wide propaganda assault on civility by riling up the poor locals, who hardly need any riling, but he gives their grievances a mouthpiece, a megaphone of hate. Cramer moves on to the power brokers in town, including Verne Shipman, the local town Big-Wig (played with haughty and sinister zeal by Robert Ernhardt, he is like a repugnant and racist Sidney Greenstreet with a Southern accent). Shipman is a wealthy asshole, who at first bristles at the appearance of Cramer, assuming he is an agitator from outside the South, a carpetbagger. We never know where Cramer is really from, he tells some he is from Los Angeles, others that he is from Washington, D.C. Both places are considered foreign by Southern townsfolk. Cramer then speaks with a phony Southern accent to please the locals when he is addressing them.
The first day of school for the local African-American students is a tense one, fraught with anxiety. In a scene of operatic-type magnitude, Corman sets the stage for a confrontation which only partially transpires, but it feels like it’s only one spark away. The White citizens of the town heckle and harass the African-American teens, who are attempting to walk through the White part of town to get to school. Here, Stein’s music is passionate and resolute, the Whites spit and snarl and curse at the young African-Americans who turn both a blind eye and a peaceful cheek to the harassment. One loud Blonde White Woman swings on a playground swing while waiting for the African-American students to pass by, a metaphor for the delayed childishness of the racists’ antics. I was reminded of the scenes of solidarity among the workers in Elia Kazan’s “On The Waterfront” as Brando’s bloodied character struggles to march into work against the wishes of the corrupt gangsters that control the Unions, this film draws on those same emotions and feelings of standing up for a just cause.
Made on a budget of only $90,000 to $100,000, “The Intruder” has no special effects or big name stars (at the time), there are a couple of scenes involving explosions and there is one cross burning, the film was shot in Black-and-White by Cinematographer Taylor Byars, the impact of the movie is more pronounced in this minimalist format. The movie’s energy connects with the starkness of conveyed visual emotion with it’s Black-and-White visage. While the older African-American characters here have zero faith or trust in any of the town’s White people, the African-American youths, led by Charles Barnes as Joey Greene, appear to be more hopeful, yet it almost costs the teenage Greene his life at the hands of a virulent and misguided White Mob.
Though the nameless White Mob portrayed in the film is always ready for thuggery, it takes the provocation of a smooth-talking Northern-sounding outsider to light their fuse for action, boy does that sound familiar. The only difference here is, whenever the Mobs are introduced to truth or integrity, either by the local Newspaper Man or by a travelling salesman played by Leo Gordon (Gordon plays modern Southern salesman Sam Griffin, who comes to despise Cramer, because Cramer has seduced Griffin’s wayward Wife Vi, played by sultry Jeanne Cooper), but whereas the townsfolk steer clear of Griffin due to his size and temperament, they have no qualms in assaulting the Newspaper Man when he boldly assists the African-American students in attending school.
Although I would argue that Corman meant this film to not be about one specific geographic area, the film is not complimentary to the ways and people of the Deep South, especially the White people. The majority of the fictitious Caxton are mean-spirited, superstitious and rest their moral and value system on fake piety. When Cramer makes speeches to stir them up, the townsfolk have no issue terrorizing, beating people up and even killing them. The local Sherriff keeps the peace to an extent, doesn’t seem interested in containing racist folks’ zeal to maintain segregation.
“The Intruder” can appear to be melodramatic at times, for myself as a viewer of likable but shlocky Roger Corman films, such as “Bloody Mama” with Shelly Winters or “The Terror” with a young Jack Nicholson, plus a host of other ridiculous-themed flicks, this was surprisingly serious and intense. There is no question that Corman takes a side here, and even though the film ramps up the stakes of each subsequent confrontation, there are messages that Corman wants to sink in, the movie is not a free for all, Corman provides profound linear events, which carries a variety of consequences for the wicked and the earnest.
At times, the film creates a Southern noir atmosphere, except now racism is the main theme. The film doesn’t really go into detail about why Cramer is the way he is; for myself, I didn’t need an explanation, I didn’t need an origin story, I knew people like this from living in Virginia and Pennsylvania. Maybe I have not seen enough rated “M” films from the late 1950’s through the early 1960’s, but I thought the language in this film was extremely edgy, maybe even ugly, almost bordering on exploitation. In this regard, it might have been a big part in why this film was buried. The language brings an observable shock value to the movie, it also makes the events of the film appear more believable and accurate. It feels at times watching this that the filmmakers felt compelled to go further in their messaging, to test boundaries of a sort.
Where race-issue themes were nothing new to early 1960’s cinema, the call to outright activism is kept at arm’s length in films such as the screen adaptation of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” where White people still have a safe space they can retreat to. In “The Intruder” there is nowhere to hide, the choices for White folks are stark and uncompromising, and of course Black people don’t have a choice except to be on their guard and live cautiously in the shadows. Here, White people are either part of a seething hate-filled Mob or they are taking beatings and threats from the same said Mob, there is no in-between.
Aside from Corman and Beaumont’s passionate messaging and the film’s depiction of the potential unraveling of social fabric in the South of the 1960’s, the biggest revelation here is the performance of William Shatner. Shatner gives an electrifying performance as what has the looks of a carpetbagger, but all he seems interested in is the indoctrination of people’s souls. Where modern race-baiting conmen appear to gin up public White mistrust of anything remotely not White as an avenue to their pocket books, Shatner as Cramer is just here to spread the gospel of White Christian Nationalism. He rallies the locals against Jewish people and Communists as well, even though there are none in sight.
I would assume to some degree, that this was a different vibe for Shatner to play because his character is so vile, so sinister, not only is there nothing redeemable about the character, everything he does is in the name of oppression. He encourages Mobs to encircle the vehicles of Black motorists who are just passing through, to attack journalists, to extort teenage White girls into falsely accusing young African-American males of rape, the list goes on, this is a shameful character and Shatner embodies a persona that is part Mephistopheles and part ratchet used car salesman. In the 1960’s, Shatner’s performance was probably considered salacious, now it watches like an incredible prediction of exactly the kind of race-baiting demagogue the people of the United States are experiencing right now in real time.
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