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Thunder Road (1958)
Released By: MGM Home Entertainment   Rating: Not Rated   In Theaters: N/A
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Studio: MGM Home Entertainment
Genre: Action-Adventure
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Director: Arthur Ripley
Language: English
Official Website: N/A
Theatrical Release: N/A
Home Video Release: N/A
Cast: Gene Barry, Jacques Aubuchon, Keely Smith, Robert Mitchum
Published ID: 351
UPC: 027616810120,
Plot: Robert Mitchum (who also wrote the story and served as executive producer) stars in Thunder Road as Lucas Doolin, a Korean War veteran who returns home and promptly rejoins the family's bootlegging business. His father, Vernon (Trevor Bardette), runs the still and heads the family, while Lucas handles the driving and transporting of the moonshine (mostly to Memphis), and his younger brother, Robin (James Mitchum), takes care of the car he uses to outrun the competition and the Treasury agents; and their mother, Sarah (Frances Koon), keeps the home. Lucas is a better driver than anyone around, and he and Robin have rigged a few tricks on the car that surprise the Treasury men -- but Robin is nearly 17 and tired of just working under the hood; he wants to drive like Lucas. Lucas doesn't want his brother to become a transporter, though, preferring that the teenager stay in school and stay straight with the law. But Lucas is pretty easy to idolize, looked up to by most of their neighbors for his driving skills, among other attributes, and the object of affections of lots of women between Harlan and Memphis, most especially teenaged neighbor Rozanna Ledbetter (Sandra Knight). He appreciates her admiring and lustful gaze, though he has all the woman he can handle and wishes that she were that interested in Robin, who's her own age and just as attracted to her in his own awkward way. Lucas and his family have always been able to outrun the revenue agents, even with a new man, Troy Barrett (Gene Barry), assigned to the territory and out to get him -- they're dedicated and tough, but they're not killers. However, now they're hearing of a new threat in the guise of a Memphis-based gangster named Carl Kogan (Jacques Aubuchon), who wants to take over the Doolins' operation and all the other moonshining activity in Harlan County. He's already offered a lot of money, but the Doolins and most of their neighbors running stills are too independent for that, and now he's sending in muscle, and that gets a young neighbor of theirs (Jerry Hardin) killed. But Lucas was pretty tough before the war, and he learned a thing or two about combat in Korea, and is not about to let either revenue agents or a bunch of strong-arm men from the city get in his way, and he has the car and the firepower to back up those sentiments. When Kogan goes too far and kills a Treasury man, Lucas also picks up an unintended ally in agent Barrett, whose highest priority becomes indicting Kogan. The problem is that indictments and prosecutions aren't what Lucas is about -- he means to meet shot-for-shot and take more personal action, especially when his family becomes involved in Kogan's machinations. One thing he always swore to any and all within hearing range was that he'd keep Robin from becoming a transporter, and kill anyone who tried to make him one. And when Kogan manipulates a situation where Robin is lured into driving, Lucas means to make good on that vow. Director Arthur Ripley (1895-1961), a music and dance student-turned-editor-turned-gagman and short-subject specialist and academic (whose preceding feature film, 12 years earlier, had been the eerie Cornell Woolrich-based thriller The Chase), working in tandem with second unit directors James Casey and Jack Lannan and second unit photographer Karl Malkames, keeps the action moving at a brisk pace. Robert Mitchum is the center of gravity to the movie, though, which contains the quintessential Mitchum performance, the actor making his work look so easy that he could almost seem lazy if he weren't so magnetic in the role. He helped make Thunder Road into a national success, but the movie always had an extra-special resonance in the South, where it was shot and set. Thunder Road continued to generate annual five- and six-figure ticket sales from drive-ins in the border and Southern states for 25 years after its original release, a factor that caused United Artists and its successor organizations to purposefully delay its release on home video until the end of the 1980s. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
IDDateTimeTitleReviewHelpfulVotesTotalVotes
Skipping along the road.
Added 8/22/2009
I bought it new, not used but it had skips
at the beginning then finally smoothed out.

Sissy
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
Thunder Road Update
Added 8/11/2009
WOW! Is all I can say about this film. I was 17 when I first saw it at the drive-in in Richmond Virginia and I was awed by it. I ended up seeing it over fifty times before I had to get a job to pay for my drive-in tickets.

Do you remember the opening chase scene where the 57 chevy is chasing Mitchum's 51 ford. When he made the 180 with the ford the car flipped over and landed on its right side and the left rear wheel rolls off in the bottom left corner of the screen. Then another ford is seen emerging from the dust (this was a later retake as the first ford was totaled).

A little known fact is the crash scene at the end of the movie was real. The actual ending was for the feds to catch him and put him in jail, showing crime doesn't pay. But what actually happened was the car really did go out of control and crashed into a real power station. It was a sharp bad curve and he was suppose to flip over (because of the flat tires) and everyone was there filming and waiting. Then the car rolled into the power station and they kept on filming.

Those cops shown in the movie were actors and they were trying to get him out of the car. Back then Mitchum did much of his own driving. The director thought the ending crash scene looked so good he had the ending rewritten to end the movie.

The song Thunder Road was written by Mitchum but wasn't sung by him in the movie. The movie version of the song was slightly different than the version Mitchum sings (it available on MP3 at Amazon). In the movie the song starts: Let me tell the story, I can tell it all about the whippoorwill who ran illegal alcohol... In the song made after the movie was out the words go: Let me tell the story, I can tell it all about the mountain boy who ran illegal alcohol... There are other slight differences but the MP3 version sung by Mitchum is still GREAT!

This had a real impact in the south back then and I was right there living it. Great movie for its day. I still watch it every now and then and it brings back old memories.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
very satisfied
Added 6/5/2009
I was real pleased to get the dvd on time and not damaged. That dvd is a classic. I grew up and could relate to it, because of my father
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
Love That 'Hillbilly Film Noir'
Added 6/2/2009
Someone once labeled this film "hillybilly film noir." I think that's a great description of this movie. This is about the good 'ole boys racing their souped-up 1950s Fords around country roads, running moonshine and trying to evade both cops and gangsters.

In fact, I wish they had more of those chase scenes because, even with primitive special-effects, they were fun to watch. The ending chase would have been longer, if I had my way.

Mitchum is fun to watch in here, too. He just looked like a rugged guy, a "man's man," as they say. His kid brother Jim made his film debut in here and wasn't bad for a beginner. He and another beginner, singer Keely Smith, are a bit wooden but passable as actors. Keely also had an interesting face.

I think this is one of those films that gets better with each viewing. Highly recommended.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
Thunder road
Added 5/24/2009
One of my alltime favorite movies,fast cars,folks just trying to survive on tradition that goes back hundreds of years. Recomend it for anybody.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
Skipping along the road.
Added 8/22/2009
I bought it new, not used but it had skips
at the beginning then finally smoothed out.

Sissy
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
Thunder Road Update
Added 8/11/2009
WOW! Is all I can say about this film. I was 17 when I first saw it at the drive-in in Richmond Virginia and I was awed by it. I ended up seeing it over fifty times before I had to get a job to pay for my drive-in tickets.

Do you remember the opening chase scene where the 57 chevy is chasing Mitchum's 51 ford. When he made the 180 with the ford the car flipped over and landed on its right side and the left rear wheel rolls off in the bottom left corner of the screen. Then another ford is seen emerging from the dust (this was a later retake as the first ford was totaled).

A little known fact is the crash scene at the end of the movie was real. The actual ending was for the feds to catch him and put him in jail, showing crime doesn't pay. But what actually happened was the car really did go out of control and crashed into a real power station. It was a sharp bad curve and he was suppose to flip over (because of the flat tires) and everyone was there filming and waiting. Then the car rolled into the power station and they kept on filming.

Those cops shown in the movie were actors and they were trying to get him out of the car. Back then Mitchum did much of his own driving. The director thought the ending crash scene looked so good he had the ending rewritten to end the movie.

The song Thunder Road was written by Mitchum but wasn't sung by him in the movie. The movie version of the song was slightly different than the version Mitchum sings (it available on MP3 at Amazon). In the movie the song starts: Let me tell the story, I can tell it all about the whippoorwill who ran illegal alcohol... In the song made after the movie was out the words go: Let me tell the story, I can tell it all about the mountain boy who ran illegal alcohol... There are other slight differences but the MP3 version sung by Mitchum is still GREAT!

This had a real impact in the south back then and I was right there living it. Great movie for its day. I still watch it every now and then and it brings back old memories.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
very satisfied
Added 6/5/2009
I was real pleased to get the dvd on time and not damaged. That dvd is a classic. I grew up and could relate to it, because of my father
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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