Shameless Self Expression

White, social reformer Adam Cramer (William Shatner) waltzes into a small town in the American South that is about to follow the recently introduced law of racially integrated schooling. It’s not long before the opportunistic, manipulative Cramer is feeding on the ignorance of the predominantly white townsfolk, whipping them into a racist, hate-filled frenzy. A local newsman (Frank Maxwell) however comes to oppose Cramer and the hateful sentiment he is espousing. Leo Gordon plays another townie who starts to catch on to Cramer’s true nature when finding out that Cramer’s been spending alone time with Gordon’s spouse (Jeanne Cooper).   One of the best films director/producer Roger Corman ( “A Bucket of Blood” , “Tomb of Ligeia” ) was ever involved with, this 1962 racial drama is shockingly unknown in the mainstream. If you don’t think William Shatner can act, this is a must-see experience. A mixture of “Night of the Hunter” and “To Kill a Mockingbird” this is a very ...

  Local young mechanic Don Sullivan and sheriff Fred Graham look into the mysterious disappearance of locals and other weird happenings. The culprit is the title beast. Shug Fisher plays the town drunk.   The furthest thing from a good movie, and not quite bad enough to occupy the other end of the scale, this cheap 1959 creature feature from director Ray Kellogg ( “The Killer Shrews” , co-director of the infamous “The Green Berets” ) is in the frustratingly ‘meh’ category. Scripted by Jay Simms ( “The Killer Shrews” ), what we’ve got here isn’t a B-grade or Z-grade film, but a forgettable C-grade one. FX wise what they’ve done is take a normal bearded lizard and blown it up large. The funny thing is that while the Gila Monster and the Mexican bearded lizard (the latter is what we actually have here and larger than the former) are venomous creatures, it’s not remotely threatening or terrifying on screen here. Yet I could name several other similar creatures that would at...