list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around The Intruder on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/The_Intruder/81093/default.aspx Title: The Intruder
Year: 1961
Director: Roger Corman
Plot: The Intruder was not only Roger Corman's most daring and unusual film, but a unique movie in the history of cinema, as one of the few theatrical feature films to deal with school desegregation in the South. William Shatner gives the performance of a lifetime as Adam Cramer, a sly, rabble-rousing racist who travels the South in the wake of the Supreme Court's Brown vs. Board of Education decision, fomenting protests and riots and organizing white citizens groups with himself at their head. By turns quietly soft-spoken and boldly charismatic, Cramer arrives in a small town where the local white high school is about to get its first black students and manipulates the men, women, and students around him, quietly taking control of the debate and the agenda, and turning a tense situation into a riot. He's opposed by Frank Maxwell, playing a local newspaper editor who pays a terrible price for his thoughtful and reasonable nature, Jeanne Cooper as a woman whom he tried to seduce, and Leo V. Gordon (in a rare benevolent role) as her husband, a working man without a lot of patience for rabble-rousers. In the end, after maiming one man and nearly killing another, Cramer is stopped when he is exposed for what he is -- weak and pathetic when confronted directly. The film was shot on-location in the South despite the active opposition of local authorities and threats from members of the Ku Klux Klan, and once finished, Corman discovered that there was hardly a theater anywhere in America that was willing to play it, because the movie's subject was so incendiary. Thus, The Intruder became just about the only movie Corman ever made that lost money, and was much more widely seen in Europe, where it was greeted simply as a bold, unusual, and well-made film. For reasons not entirely clear, The Intruder turned up on various "public domain" lists in the early '80s and showed up on different cable channels specializing in such fare, but it was never actually out-of-copyright, and finally surfaced in an authorized DVD edition in April of 2001. In addition to future television star Shatner, the cast includes the future soap opera star Jeanne Cooper. Charles Beaumont, a regular contributor to The Twilight Zone, among other anthology series, and whose novel was the source for the film, portrays the school principal. William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, best-known as the authors of the novel Logan's Run, also play small roles. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 12
Number of Lists: 3
Number of blog posts: 4
SpoutRating: 4
]]>Tue, 12 May 2009 02:40:06 GMTThe Intruder1961Roger CormanThe Intruder was not only <a href="/players/P____85920/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Roger Corman</a>'s most daring and unusual film, but a unique movie in the history of cinema, as one of the few theatrical feature films to deal with school desegregation in the South. <a href="/players/P___111030/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>William Shatner</a> gives the performance of a lifetime as Adam Cramer, a sly, rabble-rousing racist who travels the South in the wake of the Supreme Court's Brown vs. Board of Education decision, fomenting protests and riots and organizing white citizens groups with himself at their head. By turns quietly soft-spoken and boldly charismatic, Cramer arrives in a small town where the local white high school is about to get its first black students and manipulates the men, women, and students around him, quietly taking control of the debate and the agenda, and turning a tense situation into a riot. He's opposed by <a href="/players/P____46639/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Frank Maxwell</a>, playing a local newspaper editor who pays a terrible price for his thoughtful and reasonable nature, <a href="/players/P____14825/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Jeanne Cooper</a> as a woman whom he tried to seduce, and Leo V. Gordon (in a rare benevolent role) as her husband, a working man without a lot of patience for rabble-rousers. In the end, after maiming one man and nearly killing another, Cramer is stopped when he is exposed for what he is -- weak and pathetic when confronted directly. The film was shot on-location in the South despite the active opposition of local authorities and threats from members of the Ku Klux Klan, and once finished, Corman discovered that there was hardly a theater anywhere in America that was willing to play it, because the movie's subject was so incendiary. Thus, The Intruder became just about the only movie Corman ever made that lost money, and was much more widely seen in Europe, where it was greeted simply as a bold, unusual, and well-made film. For reasons not entirely clear, The Intruder turned up on various "public domain" lists in the early '80s and showed up on different cable channels specializing in such fare, but it was never actually out-of-copyright, and finally surfaced in an authorized DVD edition in April of 2001. In addition to future television star Shatner, the cast includes the future soap opera star <a href="/players/P____14825/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Jeanne Cooper</a>. <a href="/players/P____81119/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Charles Beaumont</a>, a regular contributor to <a href=/films/151509/default.aspx style='text-decoration:underline'>The Twilight Zone</a>, among other anthology series, and whose novel was the source for the film, portrays the school principal. William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, best-known as the authors of the novel Logan's Run, also play small roles. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide12Tag Target (>10)344http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/u44028dsa1o.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/The_Intruder/81093/default.aspxFilm http://www.spout.com/blogs/risselada/archive/2009/4/28/41834.aspx Post By: Risselada
Post To: Risselada Blog
Post Date: 4/28/2009 12:40:45 PM
Body: This blog entry is part of my "movie year countdown round #2". Read more about that here. The Intruder So I asked my girlfriend, do you want to watch an old movie where William Shatner plays a racist? Apparently it was her favorite quote out of me for the day. That's right, Netflix finally sent me The Intruder. Many people say this is both Roger Corman's greatest directing effort and also William Shatner's greatest lead acting picture. Now I would necessarily assume either of those qualifications would really make a great movie, but putting them together is at least a movie I certainly wanted to see! If you are amused by Shatner's oratory, the is certainly a film to see. I can imagine this film gives a good impression of some of the atmosphere of the parts of the South in the early sixties. It's hard to say if some of the characters were a bit exaggerated, but there is a surprising amount of complexity to many of the main characters as well. I don't know if this is Corman's greatest directing work. I haven't seen too many movies he has actually directed. He has a very low budget approach, and I feel like the material in this film could have benefited from a slightly more skilled production. But I think recognition should be giving to Corman for even attempting to put this material up on a screen at the time that he did. Rating: 7/10
]]>Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:40:45 GMTRisseladaRisselada Blog4/28/2009 12:40:45 PMThis blog entry is part of my "movie year countdown round #2". Read more about that here. The Intruder So I asked my girlfriend, do you want to watch an old movie where William Shatner plays a racist? Apparently it was her favorite quote out of me for the day. That's right, Netflix finally sent me The Intruder. Many people say this is both Roger Corman's greatest directing effort and also William Shatner's greatest lead acting picture. Now I would necessarily assume either of those qualifications would really make a great movie, but putting them together is at least a movie I certainly wanted to see! If you are amused by Shatner's oratory, the is certainly a film to see. I can imagine this film gives a good impression of some of the atmosphere of the parts of the South in the early sixties. It's hard to say if some of the characters were a bit exaggerated, but there is a surprising amount of complexity to many of the main characters as well. I don't know if this is Corman's greatest directing work. I haven't seen too many movies he has actually directed. He has a very low budget approach, and I feel like the material in this film could have benefited from a slightly more skilled production. But I think recognition should be giving to Corman for even attempting to put this material up on a screen at the time that he did. Rating: 7/10 http://www.spout.com/blogs/risselada/archive/2009/3/11/40975.aspx Post By: Risselada
Post To: Risselada Blog
Post Date: 3/11/2009 5:53:07 PM
Body: This blog entry is part of my "movie year countdown round #2". Read more about that here. Jungfrukällan (The Virgin Spring) (I'm skipping #23, The Intruder right now since it took a long time for Netflix to send it to me, but I'll get to that soon (as if anyone cared what order I post these things)) Bergman's The Seventh Seal is one of my all time favorite films. Knowing that The Virgin Spring was another Bergman picture set within the later Medieval period and featuring a couple of the same actors were many things that made me interested in seeing it. It also had religious themes (but which of Bergman's films don't?). The film mixes brutality with forgiveness. Anger with God and with total dependence and worship of Him. Contrasts and themes that appear in many of Bergman's works, but the kind of simplicity of story and complexity of themes here is one of the most extreme contrasts. Although from what I've read Bergman went from thinking this one of his greatest films to one of his worst films later in life, immediately after watching it I would rate it amongst his best. Maybe like him I will dislike it more in my older years after I have seen many more of his films, but it's hard to imagine such a think happening right now. Rating: 9/10
]]>Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:53:07 GMTRisseladaRisselada Blog3/11/2009 5:53:07 PMThis blog entry is part of my "movie year countdown round #2". Read more about that here. Jungfruk&auml;llan (The Virgin Spring) (I'm skipping #23, The Intruder right now since it took a long time for Netflix to send it to me, but I'll get to that soon (as if anyone cared what order I post these things)) Bergman's The Seventh Seal is one of my all time favorite films. Knowing that The Virgin Spring was another Bergman picture set within the later Medieval period and featuring a couple of the same actors were many things that made me interested in seeing it. It also had religious themes (but which of Bergman's films don't?). The film mixes brutality with forgiveness. Anger with God and with total dependence and worship of Him. Contrasts and themes that appear in many of Bergman's works, but the kind of simplicity of story and complexity of themes here is one of the most extreme contrasts. Although from what I've read Bergman went from thinking this one of his greatest films to one of his worst films later in life, immediately after watching it I would rate it amongst his best. Maybe like him I will dislike it more in my older years after I have seen many more of his films, but it's hard to imagine such a think happening right now. Rating: 9/10 http://www.spout.com/blogs/cinemarian/archive/2008/5/12/28491.aspx Post By: CinemaRian
Post To: CinemaRian Blog
Post Date: 5/12/2008 9:48:18 AM
Body: The Intruder is the best Hollywood film about race relations of its era. It is the only film of its time that I have seen that shows what it might have actually been like in the South during the civil rights movement. There is a sense of honesty and reality to this film that is still jarring. Even at their best intentioned, Hollywood movies like To Kill a Mockingbird and In the Heat of the Night seem to have a sense of equivocation and calculation. They are consistently trying to figure out how far they can go without offending Southern or conservative white audiences. I have no doubt that Robert Mulligan and Norman Jewison and the makers of the films like the one listed above sincerely wanted to speak out against bigotry with their respective films, but the message ended up being too watered down, to sugar coated. You never got the sense that you saw what was actually happing. Independently produced and shot on a very low budget in a small town in Missouri, The Intruder reminded me in some ways of the neo-realist cinema of De Sica. The intruder of the title is a Northern racist and anti-Semite named Adam Cramer, and he comes to an unnamed town that is due to begin integrating their high school for the first time. Almost none of the white townspeople are in favor of this (and the few that are keep their mouths shut), but most are resigned to letting the black students attend. After all, as the editor of the local newspaper observes "It's the law!" Cramer's goal is to stir up the townspeople into illegally intimating the blacks from not attending, and he assembles a really, soon followed by cross burning. Things get out of hand, however, when the most vicious bigots of the town firebomb the black church and kill their minister. Cramer is smart enough to know that violence will not help his cause and will only illicit Northern sympathies, but he is powerless to stop the people he set off, and things begin to spiral out of control. I have waited until this point to mention that Cramer is played by William Shatner. Shatner is a performer like Charlton Heston- neither were bad actors, but both had such distinctive mannerisms and iconic characters that it was easy to make fun of them, and hard to take them seriously outside of the roles they became famous for. However, despite his distinctive delivery on much of his dialogue, this is a truly great performance from Shatner. He finds the complex elements of Cramer's character that takes him far outside a generic villain and turns him into a real, although understandably unlikable, human being. Corman, who was best known for his grade Z-programmers and (much better) Freudian Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, completely alters his usual style. The DVD documentary that Corman actually decided to spend money to make the movie look better (a rare occurrence in the director's canon) and made the great choice of filming it the Missorri small town, where he and his crew received death threats from racists. This is also an unusually smart movie, as it tries to understand how the good white people in the town can still have moral beliefs about race that abhorrent. I will not reveal the ending of the film, but I will say that it does not end a character making a speech about how we all must get along, it does not end with the implication that everything will be okay from this point on, and, in fact, barely resolves much of anything. It is however, true to what must have gone on down at the time, and after I thought about the actions of a few brave black teenagers and their effect on society, I realized it in its own small way, offered a small amount of real hope.The Intruder (1961)
]]>Mon, 12 May 2008 13:48:18 GMTCinemaRianCinemaRian Blog5/12/2008 9:48:18 AMThe Intruder is the best Hollywood film about race relations of its era. It is the only film of its time that I have seen that shows what it might have actually been like in the South during the civil rights movement. There is a sense of honesty and reality to this film that is still jarring. Even at their best intentioned, Hollywood movies like To Kill a Mockingbird and In the Heat of the Night seem to have a sense of equivocation and calculation. They are consistently trying to figure out how far they can go without offending Southern or conservative white audiences. I have no doubt that Robert Mulligan and Norman Jewison and the makers of the films like the one listed above sincerely wanted to speak out against bigotry with their respective films, but the message ended up being too watered down, to sugar coated. You never got the sense that you saw what was actually happing. Independently produced and shot on a very low budget in a small town in Missouri, The Intruder reminded me in some ways of the neo-realist cinema of De Sica. The intruder of the title is a Northern racist and anti-Semite named Adam Cramer, and he comes to an unnamed town that is due to begin integrating their high school for the first time. Almost none of the white townspeople are in favor of this (and the few that are keep their mouths shut), but most are resigned to letting the black students attend. After all, as the editor of the local newspaper observes "It's the law!" Cramer's goal is to stir up the townspeople into illegally intimating the blacks from not attending, and he assembles a really, soon followed by cross burning. Things get out of hand, however, when the most vicious bigots of the town firebomb the black church and kill their minister. Cramer is smart enough to know that violence will not help his cause and will only illicit Northern sympathies, but he is powerless to stop the people he set off, and things begin to spiral out of control. I have waited until this point to mention that Cramer is played by William Shatner. Shatner is a performer like Charlton Heston- neither were bad actors, but both had such distinctive mannerisms and iconic characters that it was easy to make fun of them, and hard to take them seriously outside of the roles they became famous for. However, despite his distinctive delivery on much of his dialogue, this is a truly great performance from Shatner. He finds the complex elements of Cramer's character that takes him far outside a generic villain and turns him into a real, although understandably unlikable, human being. Corman, who was best known for his grade Z-programmers and (much better) Freudian Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, completely alters his usual style. The DVD documentary that Corman actually decided to spend money to make the movie look better (a rare occurrence in the director's canon) and made the great choice of filming it the Missorri small town, where he and his crew received death threats from racists. This is also an unusually smart movie, as it tries to understand how the good white people in the town can still have moral beliefs about race that abhorrent. I will not reveal the ending of the film, but I will say that it does not end a character making a speech about how we all must get along, it does not end with the implication that everything will be okay from this point on, and, in fact, barely resolves much of anything. It is however, true to what must have gone on down at the time, and after I thought about the actions of a few brave black teenagers and their effect on society, I realized it in its own small way, offered a small amount of real hope.The Intruder (1961) http://www.spout.com/blogs/risselada/archive/2007/11/19/21772.aspx Post By: Risselada
Post To: Risselada Blog
Post Date: 11/19/2007 11:10:22 AM
Body: This is a list for Round 2 of my movie year countdown viewing project as first described here. If by any strange chance whoever is reading this is actually following along you may notice that I'm still less than two thirds of the way through my original one. Well I'm starting this new one because as much as I love old movies it can get a little tedious watching just older movies. So I'm going to be blending my watching of the two lists together. Still focusing on the original one, but every once in a while sliding in the next entry from this new list.Again these new movies are limited to full length movies that are available on Netflix. And for this new round instead of picking a movie from every year, I will be picking a movie from every two years. For example the first movie must have come out during 2006 or 2007. The second movie must have come out in 2004 or 2005. The next in 2002 or 2003. You see.The list is not finished yet, but here is what I have decided so far. I will update this post later with the new flicks.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Children of Men (2006)2. The New World (2005)3. Mou gaan dou (Infernal Affairs) (2002)4. Riri Shushu no subete (All About Lily Chou-Chou) (2001)5. Party Monster (1998)6. Hard Eight (1996)7. Smoke (1995)8. Jennifer Eight (1992)9. The Fisher King (1991)10. Tetsuo (Tetsuo, the Iron Man) (1989)11. Angel Heart (1987)12. Runaway Train (1985)13. Burden of Dreams (1982)14. The Big Red One (1980)15. Stalker (1979)16. Network (1976)17. Angst essen Seele auf (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul) (1974)18. The Wicker Man (1973)19. Land des Schweigens und der Dunkelheit (Land of Silence and Darkness) (1971)20. Z (1969)21. In Cold Blood (1967)22. Suna no onna (Woman in the Dunes) (1964)23. The Intruder (1962)24. Jungfrukällan (The Virgin Spring) (1960)25. Pickpocket (1959)26. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)27. Kiss Me Deadly (1955)28. Shane (1953)29. Winchester '73 (1950)30. The Big Clock (1948)31. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)32. The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France (1944)33. Hi Diddle Diddle (1943)34. The Philadelphia Story (1940)35. Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)36. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)37. Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935)38. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)39. Zemlya (Earth) (1930)40. Die Büchse der Pandora (Pandora's Box) (1929)41. The Unknown (1927)42. Seven Chances (1925)43. Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler - Ein Bild der Zeit (Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler) (1922)44. The Kid (1921)45. Male and Female (1919)46. Umirayushchii Lebed (The Dying Swan) (1917)47. The Birth of a Nation (1915)
]]>Mon, 19 Nov 2007 16:10:22 GMTRisseladaRisselada Blog11/19/2007 11:10:22 AMThis is a list for Round 2 of my movie year countdown viewing project as first described here. If by any strange chance whoever is reading this is actually following along you may notice that I&#39;m still less than two thirds of the way through my original one. Well I&#39;m starting this new one because as much as I love old movies it can get a little tedious watching just older movies. So I&#39;m going to be blending my watching of the two lists together. Still focusing on the original one, but every once in a while sliding in the next entry from this new list.Again these new movies are limited to full length movies that are available on Netflix. And for this new round instead of picking a movie from every year, I will be picking a movie from every two years. For example the first movie must have come out during 2006 or 2007. The second movie must have come out in 2004 or 2005. The next in 2002 or 2003. You see.The list is not finished yet, but here is what I have decided so far. I will update this post later with the new flicks.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Children of Men (2006)2. The New World (2005)3. Mou gaan dou (Infernal Affairs) (2002)4. Riri Shushu no subete (All About Lily Chou-Chou) (2001)5. Party Monster (1998)6. Hard Eight (1996)7. Smoke (1995)8. Jennifer Eight (1992)9. The Fisher King (1991)10. Tetsuo (Tetsuo, the Iron Man) (1989)11. Angel Heart (1987)12. Runaway Train (1985)13. Burden of Dreams (1982)14. The Big Red One (1980)15. Stalker (1979)16. Network (1976)17. Angst essen Seele auf (Ali: Fear Eats the Soul) (1974)18. The Wicker Man (1973)19. Land des Schweigens und der Dunkelheit (Land of Silence and Darkness) (1971)20. Z (1969)21. In Cold Blood (1967)22. Suna no onna (Woman in the Dunes) (1964)23. The Intruder (1962)24. Jungfruk&auml;llan (The Virgin Spring) (1960)25. Pickpocket (1959)26. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)27. Kiss Me Deadly (1955)28. Shane (1953)29. Winchester &#39;73 (1950)30. The Big Clock (1948)31. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)32. The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France (1944)33. Hi Diddle Diddle (1943)34. The Philadelphia Story (1940)35. Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)36. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)37. Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935)38. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)39. Zemlya (Earth) (1930)40. Die B&uuml;chse der Pandora (Pandora&#39;s Box) (1929)41. The Unknown (1927)42. Seven Chances (1925)43. Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler - Ein Bild der Zeit (Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler) (1922)44. The Kid (1921)45. Male and Female (1919)46. Umirayushchii Lebed (The Dying Swan) (1917)47. The Birth of a Nation (1915) http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/drama/MemberTagFilms.aspxdrama
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