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Thunder Road (1958 film)

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Thunder Road
Theatrical poster
Directed byArthur Ripley
Screenplay byJames Atlee Phillips
Walter Wise
Story byRobert Mitchum
StarringRobert Mitchum
Gene Barry
Keely Smith
James Mitchum
CinematographyDavid Ettenson
Alan Stensvold
Edited byHarry Marker
Music byJack Marshall
Production
company		DRM Productions
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release date
  • May 10, 1958 (1958-05-10) (US)
Running time93 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1 million

Thunder Road is a black-and-white 1958 drama–crime film directed by Arthur Ripley and starring Robert Mitchum, who also wrote the story. The supporting cast features Gene Barry, Jacques Aubuchon, Keely Smith, James Mitchum, Sandra Knight, and Peter Breck. The film's plot concerns running bootleg moonshine in the mountains of Kentucky, North Carolina, and Tennessee in the late 1950s. Thunder Road became a cult film and continued to play at drive-in movie theaters in some southeastern states through the 1970s and 1980s.

Plot

Korean War veteran Lucas Doolin (Robert Mitchum) works in the family moonshine business, running moonshine his father distills to clandestine distribution points throughout the South in his souped-up hot rod. However, Lucas has more problems than evading the U.S. Treasury agents ("revenuers"), led by determined newcomer Troy Barrett (Gene Barry).

Lucas is concerned that his younger brother Robin (James Mitchum), who is also his mechanic, will be tempted into following in his footsteps. An aggressive, urban outside gangster, Carl Kogan (Jacques Aubuchon), tries to gain control of the independent local moonshine producers and their distribution points, and is willing to kill anyone who stands in his way. The stakes rise when an attempt by Kogan to kill Lucas results in the death of another moonshine driver (Mitchell Ryan) mistaken for him and a government agent.

In a romantic subplot, Lucas is involved with nightclub singer Francie Wymore (Keely Smith). He steadfastly resists the attentions of one of the neighbor girls, Roxanna Ledbetter (Sandra Knight), who has a crush on him and fears for his life.

When a series of government raids destroys their hidden stills, Lucas's father and the other local moonshiners shut down production "for a spell" to let the government deal with Kogan in its own time, but Lucas is forced by circumstances and his own code of honor to make one final run of his dad's shine.

Kogan's men successfully to trick Robin into driving for them, but Lucas stops them before he can and sends Robin home on the bus. After Lucas meets with Francie and gives her a large sum of money to hold for him, he calls Kogan to let him know he is coming for him for trying to set up his brother. Meanwhile, Francie spills all she knows about Lucas' intended final run - for now, anyway, till things sort out - to agent Barrett's wife when she can't contact him directly. He deploys a sweeping dragnet of BATF men and state police in an attempt to intercept Lucas before he gets caught, or killed, in Kogan's trap.

Kogan sends his top driver after Lucas just before Barrett and his officers arrive and arrest Kogan for murder. Lucas turns the tables on Kogan's driver and runs him off the road. Kogen's men then set spike strips to blow out Lucas's tires, which cause him to crash, flipping his car into an electrical transformer, killing him.

A snake of headlights winds up the lonely mountain road back home. Are they Treasury agents coming to break the news, or a cortege of mourners as when local boy was taken out by Kogan's men early in the conflict? We never know. As they do, Robin and Roxanne approach one-another slowly, alone together in the dark. The clasp hands and walk away together.

Cast

Production

The film was a production of Mitchum's own company, DRM, but no producer was credited.

The film was based loosely on an incident in which a driver transporting moonshine was said to have crashed to his death on Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Tennessee, between Bearden Hill and Morrell Road. Per Metro Pulse writer Jack Renfro, the incident occurred in 1952 and may have been witnessed by James Agee, who passed the story on to Mitchum.

Casting

The part of Lucas's younger brother, Robin, was originally written for Elvis Presley per Mitchum's request. Mitchum personally submitted the script to Elvis in Los Angeles. The singer was eager to play the role, but his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, demanded Elvis be paid a ridiculous sum of money, more than the entire budget for the movie, which ended negotiations. Mitchum's elder son, James, who strongly resembled his father, got the part instead. It was his first credited film role.

Filming

In the film, Mitchum drove a souped-up black 1950 Ford two-door sedan (which was later repainted gray) with a custom tank in the back for moonshine liquor and a newer OHV Ford V8 with three two-barrel carburetors, but after it was blown up by Kogan's men, it was replaced with a 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 two-door sedan. The 1950 Ford ended up getting blown up by Kogan, whose henchmen had planted a bomb that activated when a federal agent put the key in the ignition to start the car. In the film, a closeup of the key being inserted in the ignition used a 1951 Ford for that and earlier interior shots.

Most of the scenes were filmed in Woodfin, North Carolina, along U.S. Route 19 and others at Lake Lure. Some scenes were filmed in Beech, east of Weaverville. Scenes include Reems Creek Road, Sugar Creek Road, and the Beech Community Center. Some scenes were actual local moonshine drivers shot with a camera mounted on a pickup tailgate. Many city scenes were filmed in Asheville, North Carolina, including the explosion of Doolin's car.

The stunt coordinator was Carey Loftin, with a stunt team of Hollywood's most accomplished stunt drivers, Ray Austin , Neil Castes Sr., Robert Hoy, and Dale Van Sickel.

Music

The film's theme song, "The Whippoorwill", was sung by Keely Smith in her role as a nightclub singer, and a different studio rendition by her was released as a 45 rpm single on Capitol Records. Mitchum wrote the music with lyrics by Don Raye. The film's opening song, also co-written by Mitchum, is "The Ballad of Thunder Road", sung by Randy Sparks, a different arrangement of which was recorded by Mitchum and released as a popular 45 rpm single, also on Capitol.

Reception

Whit. of Variety said it was "Burdened with an overage of dialog and an abundance of uneventful footage", but it had "plenty of fast auto action".

In popular culture

Bruce Springsteen said at a 1978 concert that the name of his song "Thunder Road" had been inspired by seeing a poster of the movie, but he had not seen the movie.

In the episode of Cheers titled "And Coachie Makes Three", Sam and Coach watch the movie as part of a long-running tradition they have with viewing Robert Mitchum movies.

See also

References

  1. "Top Grossers of 1958". Variety. 7 January 1959. p. 48. Please note figures are for US and Canada only and are domestic rentals accruing to dsitributors as opposed to theatre gross
  2. ^ Whit. (April 23, 1958). "Film Reviews: Thunder Road". Variety. p. 7. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  3. Clavin, Tom. That Old Black Magic: Louis Prima, Keely Smith, and the Golden Age of Las Vegas. Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press, Inc., 2010. p. 143.
  4. Elliott, Joe (2016-05-04). "Thunder Road: Remembering the making of a cult classic in Asheville | Mountain Xpress". Mountainx.com. Retrieved 2022-08-15.
  5. "Thunder Road performance from Capitol Theatre, Passaic, N.J., Sept. 19, 1978". Video posted on YouTube.com. bruchee. Archived from the original on 2011-06-28. Retrieved 2011-06-23.

External links

Films directed by Arthur Ripley
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