by M.G. Wood

Director: Roger Corman, Writer: Charles Beaumont, Rated PG-13, Original Release:1962

What would surprise you more? A top-drawer drama directed by Roger Corman or a stirring and brilliant piece of acting by William Shatner. Well, guess what? With THE INTRUDER you get egg-roll. And with a twinge of poignancy for two careers that met in 1962 and then diverged into dramatically different paths. Shatner having given the best performance he will ever put on screen, will soon become the laughing stock of summer stock, by being pigeon-holed as an over-acting hack. Corman known for making b-grade schlock that turns a decent profit, will go forth from his experience with a quality product like THE INTRUDER having learned that art is a losing proposition, but shit sells (we learn from Corman himself in the "Special Features", that only in recent years has THE INTRUDER turned a marginal profit, after multiple home video releases, I HATE YOUR GUTS! being the best, most Cormanesque title).

Filmed on location in a small town in Missouri a couple of years before the likes of Gene Hackman (MISSISSIPPI BURNING) came to town to kick a little bigot ass. THE INTRUDER harbors no grand designs on candy-coating the ugly rotten apple that was/is "the south". Released the same year as TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD with the idealized super-southern-hero Atticus Finch played by Gregory Peck, THE INTRUDER is raw, dirty and brutal; as opposed to the somewhat fantastic happenings in Harper Lee's imagination (TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is a great film and an even greater novel, and in it's defense, it must be said that the events surrounding the racial tensions in the small Alabama town are told from the naive perspective of Scout, a six-year-old child).

In THE INTRUDER, we get an unvarnished reality by way of Adam Cramer (Shatner), a rabble-rouser who seems to be on a mission to start a nation-wide race war. And as the events in MOCKINGBIRD begin and end through the eyes of Scout, THE INTRUDER forces the viewer into the unlikely point-of-view of Cramer as he wanders into town yucking it up with the townsfolk and seeming like just another good ol' boy. And then as Cramer's true colors begin to show, the perspective shifts.

There are no heroes here, no Atticus Finch, not even an Andy of Mayberry to come in and save the day. Which to anyone who has grown up in the south will tell you, is much more the ugly truth. In a small town like the one in this film, one's moral character is not based on if you are a racist, but to what degree.

!SPOILER!

But, alas no film is perfect, THE INTRUDER ends with a rather silly comeuppance for Cramer, and an even sillier white hat lawman who shows up at just the right time. In the end Adam Cramer is reduced to a sniveling bag of Martha White flour, which is oddly reminiscent of Denzel's undoing at the end of TRAINING DAY (2001).

THE INTRUDER deserves the highest recommendation as a film to be seen. But, the DVD is not recommended for the home-theater-aesthete that demands the highest quality picture and sound, you will receive neither with this very poor digital transfer.

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