I just finished watching this Roger Corman directed film called the Intruder. It was made in the middle of the civil rights movement about a man who comes to a small southern town to try to stop the integration of the local high school. The man is played by William Shatner. I have never been a Shatner fan but this was one of his earliest rolls and it has to be one of his best. Considering Corman is best known for making “questionable” B films you have to imagine it is one of his best films too. The whole film was shot on location in the south using locals as actors. None of them had copies of the script and Corman changed their lines every day so know one knew it was a pro-integration film. Once the locals found out what they were doing they kicked Corman out. The local sheriff said he would arrest him if he came back to town but Corman needed one more shot. He didn’t want to get any of his crew in trouble so he went out by himself with a camera and shot the last scene and flew out of town before getting stopped. The most powerful part of the movie is when Shatner gives a rousing speech to the people of the town convincing them to basically start a race riot. Shatner was so brilliant in it that the actual actors got completely riled up and they had to add some extra lines of dialog that never made the film in order to settle the people down. They almost thought it was real. Luckily someone has put the entire scene online. I suggest you rent the movie before watching this scene, but if you don’t think you can dedicate 90 minutes to watching Shatner scream about Jews and blacks then by all means hit play below and watch this amazing scene.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXdgElbKe_w[/youtube]

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