We usually associate the name of Roger Corman with cheap exploitation movies, or maybe cheap horror movies with an Edgar Allan Poe theme, but this one isn't at all like his others -- except that it's cheap.
William Shatner steps off the bus in a small Southern town whose high school begins its racial integration next Monday. He's handsome, well dressed, charming even. He's smooth, especially when speaking before groups or cozening lonely women or young girls. He even alludes at one point to Socrates, without being pretentious about it. I mean, he's a likable guy.
The problem is that he's an agent of The Patrick Henry Society. Kids, Patrick Henry was a well-known orator (that means "public speaker") during the American Revolution and his most famous quote is, "Give me liberty or give me death." This is a logical fallacy known as a false dilemma, but never mind that.
Anyway, Shatner considers himself an American patriot and arouses the benighted town with speeches in which he argues that blacks (he used the N word) can't go to school with our white girls -- law or no law -- because pretty soon they'll be sleeping with them. This whole business of integration is part of a communist conspiracy led by Jews.
He succeeds is stirring up the town and it almost leads to the lynching of an innocent young black high school student, saved at the last minute by a beefy salesman played by Leo Gordon, who is usually a villain.
It's a cheap movie but it's not entirely a thoughtless one. It was shot in a small town in Missouri and the locations are reasonably convincing. It was written by SF writer Charles Beaumont, who penned a lot of Twilight Zone episodes, and in fact this somewhat resembles The Twilight Zone except for the absence of any supernatural element. It's pretty hard hitting and carries a typical Twilight Zone moral message.
I applaud the ambiguity of the central character, William Shatner. It's only gradually we realize how thoroughly rotten he is, and how gutless. At the same time, this isn't a very sophisticated movie. Corman has gathered together a group of racist townsmen who really LOOK like they're just off the ridges -- toothless, bearded, wizened, rheumy eyed stereotypes. The African-Americans are all good, polite and suffering. Nobody shows any irritation, not even in receptive company.
And the movie completely collapses at the end. Leo Gorden, the traveling salesman, has issues with Shatner. (Shatner seduced his horny wife.) But Gordon has never shown any sign of social engagement. He has no reason to care one way or another about the fate of some anonymous black high schooler he's never heard of. Yet he intervenes at the end, saves the kid, and humiliates Shatner in front of the mob and the town's leaders. Shatner is reduced to the predictable, running around hysterically shouting "Wait! Wait! Listen to me! I can explain!" -- that sort of thing, which you or I could write as well as Beaumont. It's redeemed somewhat because it doesn't end with Shatner's dashing around. It ends on a downbeat, with the not-entirely-unsympathetic Leo Gorden giving the chastened Shatner enough money to leave town quietly.
But -- that disillusioned mob, slouching away from Shatner, ashamed of themselves, leaving him a lone and despairing figure. I think if I see another scene like that, even in "To Kill A Mockingbird" or "A Face In The Crowd", I'll -- well, I'll just hold my breath to death.
William Shatner steps off the bus in a small Southern town whose high school begins its racial integration next Monday. He's handsome, well dressed, charming even. He's smooth, especially when speaking before groups or cozening lonely women or young girls. He even alludes at one point to Socrates, without being pretentious about it. I mean, he's a likable guy.
The problem is that he's an agent of The Patrick Henry Society. Kids, Patrick Henry was a well-known orator (that means "public speaker") during the American Revolution and his most famous quote is, "Give me liberty or give me death." This is a logical fallacy known as a false dilemma, but never mind that.
Anyway, Shatner considers himself an American patriot and arouses the benighted town with speeches in which he argues that blacks (he used the N word) can't go to school with our white girls -- law or no law -- because pretty soon they'll be sleeping with them. This whole business of integration is part of a communist conspiracy led by Jews.
He succeeds is stirring up the town and it almost leads to the lynching of an innocent young black high school student, saved at the last minute by a beefy salesman played by Leo Gordon, who is usually a villain.
It's a cheap movie but it's not entirely a thoughtless one. It was shot in a small town in Missouri and the locations are reasonably convincing. It was written by SF writer Charles Beaumont, who penned a lot of Twilight Zone episodes, and in fact this somewhat resembles The Twilight Zone except for the absence of any supernatural element. It's pretty hard hitting and carries a typical Twilight Zone moral message.
I applaud the ambiguity of the central character, William Shatner. It's only gradually we realize how thoroughly rotten he is, and how gutless. At the same time, this isn't a very sophisticated movie. Corman has gathered together a group of racist townsmen who really LOOK like they're just off the ridges -- toothless, bearded, wizened, rheumy eyed stereotypes. The African-Americans are all good, polite and suffering. Nobody shows any irritation, not even in receptive company.
And the movie completely collapses at the end. Leo Gorden, the traveling salesman, has issues with Shatner. (Shatner seduced his horny wife.) But Gordon has never shown any sign of social engagement. He has no reason to care one way or another about the fate of some anonymous black high schooler he's never heard of. Yet he intervenes at the end, saves the kid, and humiliates Shatner in front of the mob and the town's leaders. Shatner is reduced to the predictable, running around hysterically shouting "Wait! Wait! Listen to me! I can explain!" -- that sort of thing, which you or I could write as well as Beaumont. It's redeemed somewhat because it doesn't end with Shatner's dashing around. It ends on a downbeat, with the not-entirely-unsympathetic Leo Gorden giving the chastened Shatner enough money to leave town quietly.
But -- that disillusioned mob, slouching away from Shatner, ashamed of themselves, leaving him a lone and despairing figure. I think if I see another scene like that, even in "To Kill A Mockingbird" or "A Face In The Crowd", I'll -- well, I'll just hold my breath to death.