THE INTRUDER

US, 1962, 91 minutes, Black and white
William Shatner, Leo Gordon, Frank Maxwell.
Directed by Roger Corman.

The Intruder is a very striking film, probably the most serious ever made by Roger Corman. Corman began to produce and direct small-budget films in the mid-1950s beginning with Swamp Woman and Five Guns West. With the minutest of budgets, he made over fifty-five genre films in thirty-five years. This was an exception. It was made during a high point in Corman’s career, when he made a number of Edgar Allen Poe adaptations including The Tomb of Lygeia, The Haunted Palace, The Fall of the House of Usher.

The film was written by Charles Beaumont who also wrote many of the screenplays for the Poe adaptations and who appears as the school principal in this film.

Integration had occurred in the south in 1956, bus and school issues as dramatised in such films as The Long Walk Home about Rosa Parks, played by Whoopi Goldberg. It was released before the murders in Mississippi recapitulated in the telefilm Murder in Mississippi as well as Ghosts of Mississippi and The Murder of Medgar Evers.

Cinema had started to treat black and white issues with The Defiant Ones by Stanley Kramer with Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier in 1958.

This film is very direct in its screenplay, using politically incorrect language which is startling but makes the point about bigotry and prejudice. The focus of the film, set in Missouri and filmed there with some of the locals, is the beginning of integration of the school and the hostility of the townspeople. William Shatner portrays a young man from the Patrick Henry Society who comes in to stir up opposition to the integration. He almost succeeds in rousing them to a lynching. However, in his own life he is cowardly, seduces a woman in the hotel where he stays, incites a young woman to lie about being raped. William Shatner is quite striking in this central role. Frank Maxwell is very good as the editor of the local paper who comes to understand integration. Leo Gordon is very good as the salesman who is instrumental in bringing the issue to a focus.

The Intruder still makes a strong impact.

1.A film of 1962? The issues, the tone? Not a commercial success in its time? Yet critically accepted in later years?

2.Roger Corman, his film career, small budgets, quick making of films, quality, passion? Charles Beaumont and his writing, his Poe adaptations, his performance?

3.The history of cinema on race issues, The Defiant Ones, The Cardinal? Martin Luther King and the march in 1963?

4.Black and white photography, Missouri, the town, atmosphere? Adam Cader arriving on the train, going to the hotel, the bar, the meetings, the church, the streets? The reality of the locations? The actors and the extras from Missouri? The musical score?

5.The title, Adam Cader, his coming to the town, his stirring up racial hatred, the tone of the title?

6.William Shatner as Adam Cader: genial, on the train, a nice young man, courtesy on arrival, at reception, the beginnings of discussion about integration in the school, his anti stances, the room and his wanting privacy, hearing Sam and his girlfriend, meeting them, the discussions?

7.Settling in, meeting the rich man in the town, talking with him, the other leaders? The ordinary people, the talk in the bar, sharing his ideas? Tom’s daughter, flirting, going out with her? Tom, his interjecting at the speech? The paper?

8.The school issue, the law and people’s respect for the law whether they liked it or not, the black youngsters walking through the town, the hostility, the placards, the abuse? Being received by the principal?

9.Tom and his paper, his wife against integration, his own ideas being unclear, his stances, his interjecting during Adam’s speech, asking questions? His changing his position, going to the home, marching with the students, the viciousness of the attack, losing his eye, in the hospital? The owner of the paper and his pressure to put in Adam’s advertisement?

10.Adam, his talk, the insinuations, stirring, his public speech, his bigotry, the Patrick Henry Society, people’s response, stirred up, the louts, the planting of the bomb at the church, the death of the minister?

11.Adam, his private life, going out with Tom’s daughter, Sam’s girlfriend, his seducing her, her resistance, Sam’s explanation of her illness, nymphomania, Sam and his character, being away, in the room, with the gun, taunting Adam about his cowardice, Adam holding the gun, Sam counting from one to five, Adam dropping the gun? Sam’s crucial role later?

12.The family, ideas about integration, going to the hospital, Tom’s wife and her loyalty despite her not understanding?

13.Adam, his further insinuations, talking with people, seeing Tom’s daughter, setting her up?

14.The daughter, her love for her father, her trust, at school, going to Joe, taking him downstairs, her screaming, the story of the attempted rape, the word getting around quickly, the principal and staff and their reactions, the mob, Joe in the principal’s office, his own character, his decision to go out, confronting the people, his being slapped? Telling the truth? Adam and his inciting people? The lynch mentality?

15.Sam’s arrival with the girl, her admitting the truth, her being ashamed and apologising, the owner of the paper and his reaction, slapping Adam, the people going away? Issues of conscience?

16.Adam, his being shamed?

17.These stories and attitudes portrayed in a film of the early 1960s? Subsequent history of civil rights?