Rant #1,658: Matzoh and a Movie

Yes, we are now full into Passover at my house, or at least I am.

It is matzoh and tuna for me the entire week.

I have cheated--since I am supposedly on a diet--and I have had some chocolate matzoh, too, but I am trying to stay away from the macaroons.

So yesterday, with no seder in sight, I sat down to do what I normally do on a Passover weekend, sit down and watch baseball.

The problem was--and as I illustrated last week--the Yankees have a terrible team, and yesterday's game was pretty much over after four batters.

Thus, I had to find something else to do yesterday afternoon, and I went to YouTube to find an out of the way movie that I never heard of to kill 90 minutes or so.

I found something called "The Intruder," and based on the title alone, I figured that it sounded promising, so I cast it to my TV using Chromecast, and away I went.

And what an interesting choice it was!

I soon found out that I was watching a Roger Corman film, an el cheapo from the early 1960s that had lots of value to it.

You might know that Corman was the king of the cheapo, drive-in movie, who seemingly spent pennies on his movies, only to see each and every one--or nearly each and every one, as I will get to later--turn a profit, and a sizable profit indeed.

He was able to do this because he used actors that no one had ever heard of, at least at the time the film was made, and often, his films were simply based on a title, which writers were given to craft a story from.

"The Intruder" was Corman's attempt to be socially relevant, and it is one of the few of his films--the only one I know about, at least--that is based on an outside source.

It was based on a popular novel of the time, about racial prejudice in a fictional town in the deep South.

And as a bonus, the star of the film is some young actor by the name of William Shatner, a couple of years before he went on a "Star Trek"to stardom.

Yes, he trekked to the southern part of our country in this movie, as a racist, anti-Semitic (!) hellion from California who has been sent to the deep South to rabble rouse the town's populace to fight a court order that its schools must be desegregated.

When he comes to the town, the townspeople aren't happy about the order, but they feel they have to comply because it is the law.

Due to his charismatic personality and also his good looks and charm, he ingratiates himself with the townspeople, and he quickly becomes a leader against this forced integration, stirring the populace into a frenzy that yes, they can fight this order.

I won't go into details, but Shatner's character not only is a rabble rouser for white power, but he is also one in bed, too, using his sexual proclivities to get what he wants.

But as you can already figure out, he bites off way more than he can chew, he gets way in over his head, and at the end of the film, as he has lost the confidence of the townspeople, he is basically told to skedaddle out of there on the next bus out.

The film is really a snapshot of a different time, full of every racial stereotype you can possibly think of, and Corman gets the most out of his basically no name cast, along with Shatner and a few veteran character actors.

You can also feel the dirt and the grime of the town as you watch the movie, and yes, the "N word" is used more here than on any rap album from the present time.

I enjoyed the movie, first off, because I didn't realize what I had originally chosen to watch, and secondly, because I kind of like movies from this period, made just before you could say or do or show very much, and you had to imply what was happening.

Shatner is really good in this role--he probably had to dig deep down in his own psyche, as he is Jewish in real life, and playing an anti-Semite was probably something he thought could show just how really good an actor he was--and I was quite surprised at how good this film really was, and, yes, how good the future Capt. Kirk was, too.

I looked the film up on the Internet for background, and the movie was one of the few Corman vehicles that actually got good reviews.

The problem was that the film was not widely viewed, as a lot of drive-ins would not show it due to its theme.

For decades, it was the only Roger Corman movie that did not make money. Evidently, this was rectified when snippets of the movie were used in a documentary, but it took about 40 years for it to become profitable.

I would check the film out, if for nothing else than to see Shatner in perhaps his best pure acting role, and certainly, his best acting role prior to "Star Trek."

You might be surprised, as I was, at how good he was.

Now, back to the matzoh ... .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGkLnjn8E3k