From the start, Preminger and his cast and crew encountered strong resistance from the locals, who resented having a film featuring a biracial friendship made in their midst and were prejudiced against the film's Black crew members and cast. Tires were slashed, some actors received telephoned death threats, and a burning cross appeared on one of the sets at 3:00 am. The manager of the hotel where everyone was housed, the Bellemont Motor Hotel, advised Preminger mixed bathing would not be permitted in the swimming pools, but grudgingly agreed to designate one "interracial" when the director threatened to vacate the premises and not pay the bill. At one point a "crude bomb" was thrown into the desegregated pool, but no one was injured as it happened late at night. Eventually armed state troopers were called in to guard the hotel wing where everyone was staying, making them feel as if they were under house arrest. Problems were encountered even in New Orleans, when Michael Caine and Bobby Hooks were refused admission to Brennan's restaurant. Matters came to a head when a convoy of cars and trucks returning to the hotel through a heavily wooded area one evening became the target of a volley of sniper gunfire. Robert Hooks later recalled, "All of us were convinced that we were surrounded by some of the dumbest and meanest people on the face of the earth, to say nothing of being the most cowardly."