Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel Page #4

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that Roger could actually make

a statement

about his personal feelings

as opposed to doing

the poe films

or the films that were just

exploitation, drive-in films.

Corman:
Playing the lead

was the new young actor

making his first film--

bill shatner.

All I knew was that it was

a wonderful part

and it was a wonderful

opportunity for me

at an early point in my career.

The character I played

was based on a real person.

He was a white supremacist

from New York City

and went down into the south

to rabble-rouse

and tries to stop

the integration of a school.

I mean, they've got 10 n*ggers

enrolled already in the school.

And they're starting Monday.

Yes, I know.

Do you think it's right?

No, I sure don't.

Neither does nobody.

But it's the law.

Whose law?

Shatner:
What is difficult

for people to understand now--

"separate but equal"

was the law of the land.

That meant water fountains,

that meant restaurants,

it meant schools

that were totally segregated.

It was the height

of the integration wars.

It became very apparent

once we were down there

that people held

polar opposite views

of what was right

and what was wrong.

Man:
Take it easy, n*gger.

You're not going anywhere.

- Driver:
What's the trouble?

- Are you looking for trouble?

No, sir. We're on our way

to the house.

"Just on our way to the house."

I didn't tell people

what the subject matter is,

but the title-- "lntruder," you know.

And with the track record

of Roger, all the films,

I mean, they naturally thought

it was a horror film

or something in that genre.

It was only as everything

started to unfold

and they saw exactly

what was happening--

I mean, people were

driving us out of locations.

We had to change motels.

I mean, it got to be

very heavy down there.

Hey, are you really gonna make him

go to the white school tomorrow?

Why, I'm not making him go.

Am I, Joey?

- No, ma.

- Well, it's too bad I ain't old enough.

I wouldn't be scared,

that's all.

Who's scared?

We were having

our lives threatened

to make a film about integration.

Roger displayed

such courage under fire.

And gene corman,

his brother--

such courage to make the film.

There was such animosity

and the experience of hatred

that I think we realized

we had a bigger problem.

I think we were more naive

than we should have been

at that point in time.

You were alone with a white girl

in the basement of the school,

but you didn't try to do anything?

Is that what you expect us

to believe, n*gger?

Well, speak up!

Gene:
We felt we should

definitely expose our audience

to this kind of material,

because this is what

was going on in America

and somebody

had to say, "stop.

This is not the American way."

It was a lie-- everything,

everything I said

about Joey, all of it.

You were gonna kill this boy.

You know it and I know it.

Shatner:
Making films

is a dedication.

You have to be possessed.

At some point there,

i realized

that they had mortgaged

their home for that film.

That, perhaps, was the most

admirable thing of all,

because it's one thing

to be cavalier

about spending money

that isn't yours,

but to be so adamant

as to put your house

on the line,

that's-- that's extraordinary.

We aren't gonna give up now,

not now.

No, sir, not ever.

Gene:
I'd set up the sneak preview

with pacific theaters.

It was almost a riot

in the theater.

People were screaming,

"communist!"

And one of the ushers

or one of the people

who worked at the theater

came up to me,

pinned me against the wall,

said, "you're a communist.

You don't belong in this country."

The picture was

a wonderful commercial

failure.

I started to say

"a wonderful critical success,"

but I got confused.

But I'll leave the confusion there

because it's all wound up in my mind.

It sort of gets me in the stomach

when I talk about it.

Gene:

This is the only film

that I don't think

we ever made money on.

And yet it was our best film.

We were ahead of the time.

It made me rethink

my method of making pictures.

And I felt the public

really is the ultimate arbiter

of your film.

If there's something

you really want to do--

in Roger's case

it's making movies--

then you keep on doing it.

Every time you fail,

you just keep on.

Corman:
I thought,

"i should go back

to a more commercial

type of film."

I was starting to learn

method acting technique.

There was what was known

as the text and the subtext.

The text is the written script,

what you were saying.

The subtext

is what you mean,

what you really feel,

that causes you

to say these words.

And I felt

I should make

my subject matter the text,

which will be

a commercial text,

but my theme,

my message,

what is important to me,

should be the subtext,

so the audience will get

what they paid their money to see.

I think he consciously

was looking

to contemporary events, news,

for inspiration for material

to make a movie.

Corman:
Aip said, "all right,

what do you want to make?"

I said, "there's a phenomenon

in the country right now--

the hells angels,

the outlaw motorcycle gangs.

I want to make a picture

about the hells angels."

And they agreed instantly.

Peter bogdanovich:

Roger offered me $125 a week

to work as his assistant

on the picture.

And he said I could take

Polly with me.

His reputation was,

you know, complicated,

because I kept hearing

that he was a millionaire.

And I thought he was

pretty eccentric, you know,

'cause he didn't live

like a millionaire.

But I had little interest

in his movies, to be honest,

because I was a big snob

and I only liked Fritz lang

and Howard hawks

and John Ford.

The star of the picture

was George chakiris

who'd won an Oscar

for "westside story."

The phone rang

in my house here

in Los Angeles, in Beverly hills,

and it was Roger.

He said,

"we have a problem."

I said, "George can't ride."

He said, "how do you know?"

I said, "because I know George.

He can dance, but he can't ride.

You need a biker."

"Do you ride?"

I said, "oh, yeah, Roger, I ride.

I'll do it."

I said, "who's gonna

play my part?"

He said, "Bruce dern."

I said, "great. I know dernsy."

Bruce dern:

We just had, like, eight actors,

and the rest were all extras.

But the extras made the movie,

because they had the machines

and they were

what the movie was about.

And they were real

hells angels guys.

They were terrible.

They were frightening.

Dern:

We all rode our bikes

down the 2, in the desert.

And he filmed it along the way.

But he didn't get a police escort

or anything like that.

He got no permits.

We just did it.

It was the beginning

of what you know now

as real guerilla filmmaking.

You know, Roger's a guy

who's not gonna miss an opportunity

to take advantage

of every single thing he can shoot.

At one point, there was supposed

to be a kind of a fight

between the hells angels

and the townies.

We didn't have enough townies,

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