Luukas Von Luukas 'The Intruder' is probably the best and important film sleaze king Roger Corman have ever directed. It is heavy on subject and hard to watch enormously thanks to heavy use of racial slurs (there's no other way as the main character is racist to the bone). Although some other Corman movies, like his Edgar Allan Poe's adaptations, could be better as pure entertainment, but 'The Intruder' has high production values by Corman standards (and by any independent film standards) and (at that time) important message. William Shatner who is usually known for his charmingly hammy performances, is giving riveting performance as despicable hatemonger.'The Intruder' also stands as Roger Corman's own favorite among his movies, and he worked hard to get the film off the ground. The film deserves much more recognition that it gets today.

kapelusznik18 ****SPOILERS*** With the racial atmosphere of Caxton reaching a fever pitch in it's schools ordered by the Federal Government to be immediately desegregated in pops out of state social worker Adam Cramer, William Straton,claiming to have the best interest in the matter of race relations. But as it turns out the smooth talking and peace loving Cramer is really trying to undermine the process in the most sinister of ways. Cramer quickly starts to work on the whites, who are violently against segregation, in town to organize and start making trouble not only against the black population in Caxton but the town's newspaper's white editor Tom McDaniel, Frank Maxwell, who despite being against segregation goes along with it saying that it's the law and the law is the law.Cramer for his part rallies the people in a number of fiery speeches as well as a fiery cross burning incident that the once quite little town of Coxton is now about to explode as soon as the first black student, escorted by Tom McDaniel, enters the towns all white high school! Meanwhile besides inciting racial violence Cramer takes time to force himself on his good friend traveling salesman Sam Griffin's , Leo Gordon, wife Vi, Jeanne Cooper, while he's away out of town on business. This reveals what a both racist as well as despicable character that Cramer really is. It' later when a mob beats and almost kills Tom McDaniell for siding with the blacks in town that Cramer pulls out his ace in the hole by getting McDaniel's teenage daughter Ella, Beverly Lunsford, to go along with his plan. That in Ella claiming that the first black student to desegregate the school Joey Green, Charles Barns, attempted to rape her in the school's storage room while they were alone handling a new shipment of school books.****SPOILERS*** With the news of Green's attempted rape of Beverly a mob is organized by outraged town bigwig Verne "Slapsly" Shipman, Robert Emhardt, to drag Green out of the town jail and lynch him before he's tried or even indited! With everything about to blow sky high it's Big Sam Griffin who's back in town who defuses the madness by exposing Cramer, who's leading the lynch or necktie party, for the exploitive lowlife that he really is. With the truth now out in Cramer using Ella to lie about being raped by Green and what he in fact did to his wife, by forcing himself on her against her will, Griffin had the entire town including "Slapsly" Shipman see Cramer for what he really is. And as it turned out Cramer couldn't leave the town of Coxton fast enough before he himself ended up getting lynched by the very lynch mob that he organized!

richardrobins I was in 12th Grade on Long Island, New York, when this film was released in 1962. I discovered this today on EPIX cable. It's a remarkable portrayal of what was happening at the time during the John Kennedy Presidency (before the Civil Rights Movement). Everyone in the New York area knew it was dangerous to travel to the deep South.I was surprised to see William Schatner played Adam Cramer. I couldn't think of who this actor could be, but the performance was very strong. So, this explains what Schatner was doing before Star Trek premiered on television. I am wondering if this was Schatner's first film, and, of course, Corman was such a remarkable director.

ferbs54 Roger Corman's "The Intruder" (1962) may prove something of a revelation for those viewers who are used to thinking of William Shatner as nothing more than a self-parodying, space-trucking blowhard. Shatner is simply superb in this picture, and gives one of the finest performances I have ever seen him essay. His Adam Cramer, when we first see him, appears to be a polite, well-mannered and chivalrous gentleman. One would never know that, as a representative of the Patrick Henry Society, he has come to the small Southern town of Caxton to stir up riots against the new school integration laws. His Cramer has loads of snake-oil charm, is a mesmerizing orator and is suavely seductive with the ladies; no wonder that he soon has Caxton eating out of his slimy hands. Five years before he ever sat in the captain's chair, Shatner is truly a wonder to behold here, and his ranting speech before the Caxton courthouse may be the finest work of his career; better, even, than those final two minutes of "The City on the Edge of Forever." Trekkers may perhaps understand me when I say that his Adam Cramer is hardly an E Plebnista performance! The film's other three professional actors are also very fine, and indeed, even the large cast of nonactors seems very authentic. Though set in the Deep South, Corman (who directs extremely imaginatively here, by the way) has since revealed that the picture was actually filmed in Mississippi County, Missouri (to avoid trouble with locals, although that trouble came anyway), and that, typical for this director, the film was shot in only three weeks and for the price of only $80,000. Despite that, the film seems very well made. It is, famously, the only picture of Corman's that ever lost money, but nevertheless carries an emotional charge and important message almost five decades later. And Shatner, in his first starring role, an Oscar-worthy one, is largely responsible for that charge. This is a great film.