I picked this gem up at a car boot sale, i had never heard of it but i have heard of corman, and william shatner, so i took a chance.I didn't really expect anything but a cheap and probably cheesy melodrama, what i got was an excellent well told thought provoking film with top quality acting all through but especially from shatner who showed a range and versatility i had not realised he possessed, after seeing this film i have to wonder if star trek stopped shatner achieving more in his career by forever holding him in the black hole that sci fi found for him, this film has much in common with the taught racial tension found in missisipi burning, and the heat of the night, it really does compare favourably with these two films, if anything it is probably too close to the truth for the 1960s audience that would have seen it, the events it portrayed had happened in reality in only the very recent past, the n word and other derogatory terms for black people are used frequently and with a casual normality that is there not for gratuitous reasons but to underline that that is how it REALLY was, this film is not just beating you over the head with its message it is also an excellent story, i cringed at the bigotry and racism portrayed by the more affluent white community towards the "undesirable" black members who lived on the wrong side of town, stirred up by shatner who has come to the town to fight for "justice" against the black trouble makers, just a really really good drama here, worthy of far greater note and commercial success than it achieved.
Review of The Intruder
