The Intruder

Crude, vivid, anti-segregationist agitprop from Roger Corman--much more impressive in retrospect than several slick Hollywood melodramas on the same theme. William Shatner, memorably creepy in the kind of vehicle he should have had more often, plays Adam Cramer, a professional right-wing agitator who whips up racist fervor across the American South (the character is closely based on real-life segregationist John Kasper). Arriving in a formerly sleepy southern town, he instigates a hate campaign that persuades poor whites to harass black students at the newly integrated high school; only the local newspaper publisher (Frank McDaniel) stands in his way. Cramer takes ...