Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Bele Torso It is 2018 and how much effort has been made to open the eyes and minds of what America was really like? History in print does not have the impact as history revealed through a dramatic performance. This move is more a documentary.Make America great again! OK...but there were some American ideals that were far from great, they were depraved. Human nature is sinful and this movie reveals this better than most because we see racism from the little old Christian lady that attends church on Sunday, deeply embedded values passed from generation to generation.Shatner's speech at city hall should be played on MSNBC and CNN as they way "some" parts of America was even back in 1962. There are some scary truths displayed in that speech that would make people cringe today, especially the way Shatner expresses himself, similar to a significant politician today! Eerily so...This one movie could do more to weed out those who are hiding and reveal what political correctness buried. Political correctness disguised the human heart attitudes of racism. It gave the illusion that just because one cannot express themselves in public with certain attitudes, that magically racism was gone. I think people would be shocked at how many people believe Shatner's speech given in this movie today! Shocked...

kapelusznik18 ****SPOILERS*** With the racial atmosphere of Caxton reaching a fever pitch in it's schools ordered by the Federal Government to be immediately desegregated in pops out of state social worker Adam Cramer, William Straton,claiming to have the best interest in the matter of race relations. But as it turns out the smooth talking and peace loving Cramer is really trying to undermine the process in the most sinister of ways. Cramer quickly starts to work on the whites, who are violently against segregation, in town to organize and start making trouble not only against the black population in Caxton but the town's newspaper's white editor Tom McDaniel, Frank Maxwell, who despite being against segregation goes along with it saying that it's the law and the law is the law.Cramer for his part rallies the people in a number of fiery speeches as well as a fiery cross burning incident that the once quite little town of Coxton is now about to explode as soon as the first black student, escorted by Tom McDaniel, enters the towns all white high school! Meanwhile besides inciting racial violence Cramer takes time to force himself on his good friend traveling salesman Sam Griffin's , Leo Gordon, wife Vi, Jeanne Cooper, while he's away out of town on business. This reveals what a both racist as well as despicable character that Cramer really is. It' later when a mob beats and almost kills Tom McDaniell for siding with the blacks in town that Cramer pulls out his ace in the hole by getting McDaniel's teenage daughter Ella, Beverly Lunsford, to go along with his plan. That in Ella claiming that the first black student to desegregate the school Joey Green, Charles Barns, attempted to rape her in the school's storage room while they were alone handling a new shipment of school books.****SPOILERS*** With the news of Green's attempted rape of Beverly a mob is organized by outraged town bigwig Verne "Slapsly" Shipman, Robert Emhardt, to drag Green out of the town jail and lynch him before he's tried or even indited! With everything about to blow sky high it's Big Sam Griffin who's back in town who defuses the madness by exposing Cramer, who's leading the lynch or necktie party, for the exploitive lowlife that he really is. With the truth now out in Cramer using Ella to lie about being raped by Green and what he in fact did to his wife, by forcing himself on her against her will, Griffin had the entire town including "Slapsly" Shipman see Cramer for what he really is. And as it turned out Cramer couldn't leave the town of Coxton fast enough before he himself ended up getting lynched by the very lynch mob that he organized!

Robert J. Maxwell We usually associate the name of Roger Corman with cheap exploitation movies, or maybe cheap horror movies with an Edgar Allan Poe theme, but this one isn't at all like his others -- except that it's cheap.William Shatner steps off the bus in a small Southern town whose high school begins its racial integration next Monday. He's handsome, well dressed, charming even. He's smooth, especially when speaking before groups or cozening lonely women or young girls. He even alludes at one point to Socrates, without being pretentious about it. I mean, he's a likable guy.The problem is that he's an agent of The Patrick Henry Society. Kids, Patrick Henry was a well-known orator (that means "public speaker") during the American Revolution and his most famous quote is, "Give me liberty or give me death." This is a logical fallacy known as a false dilemma, but never mind that. Anyway, Shatner considers himself an American patriot and arouses the benighted town with speeches in which he argues that blacks (he used the N word) can't go to school with our white girls -- law or no law -- because pretty soon they'll be sleeping with them. This whole business of integration is part of a communist conspiracy led by Jews.He succeeds is stirring up the town and it almost leads to the lynching of an innocent young black high school student, saved at the last minute by a beefy salesman played by Leo Gordon, who is usually a villain.It's a cheap movie but it's not entirely a thoughtless one. It was shot in a small town in Missouri and the locations are reasonably convincing. It was written by SF writer Charles Beaumont, who penned a lot of Twilight Zone episodes, and in fact this somewhat resembles The Twilight Zone except for the absence of any supernatural element. It's pretty hard hitting and carries a typical Twilight Zone moral message.I applaud the ambiguity of the central character, William Shatner. It's only gradually we realize how thoroughly rotten he is, and how gutless. At the same time, this isn't a very sophisticated movie. Corman has gathered together a group of racist townsmen who really LOOK like they're just off the ridges -- toothless, bearded, wizened, rheumy eyed stereotypes. The African-Americans are all good, polite and suffering. Nobody shows any irritation, not even in receptive company.And the movie completely collapses at the end. Leo Gorden, the traveling salesman, has issues with Shatner. (Shatner seduced his horny wife.) But Gordon has never shown any sign of social engagement. He has no reason to care one way or another about the fate of some anonymous black high schooler he's never heard of. Yet he intervenes at the end, saves the kid, and humiliates Shatner in front of the mob and the town's leaders. Shatner is reduced to the predictable, running around hysterically shouting "Wait! Wait! Listen to me! I can explain!" -- that sort of thing, which you or I could write as well as Beaumont. It's redeemed somewhat because it doesn't end with Shatner's dashing around. It ends on a downbeat, with the not-entirely-unsympathetic Leo Gorden giving the chastened Shatner enough money to leave town quietly.But -- that disillusioned mob, slouching away from Shatner, ashamed of themselves, leaving him a lone and despairing figure. I think if I see another scene like that, even in "To Kill A Mockingbird" or "A Face In The Crowd", I'll -- well, I'll just hold my breath to death.

johnc2141 I had recently seen shame(aka:the intruder,aka;i hate your guts)and must say i believe its one of Roger Cormans best movies ever,it tackles a very controversial subject,integration in the south during the sixties,well Mr.Shatner plays this racist who goes from town to town stirring up trouble,being a real jerk,i would say being a hate monger,that would make Adolf Hitler proud,i always hear stories that Roger Corman lost money on this film,it flopped.and he blamed William Shatner,which explains why he never cast shatner in any more of his films,well Shatner in a few years from this movie would go on to play Capt Kirk on Star Trek,in 1966,shame is however very well made and realistic,too much use of racial slurs but i guess that makes it what it is.the other actors in shame would go on to play in other Corman films like the haunted palace and other films.i am a big fan of Roger Corman films although he had a few bad ones like carnosaur and the sequels.but this one is one of his best films.10 out of 10