Thunderbolt (1929)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Josef von Sternberg

Writers:

Charles Furthman (story)
Jules Furthman (story)

Release Date:

20 June 1929 (USA)

Genre:

Film-Noir | Drama

Tagline:

The dynamic star of the screen

Plot:

A criminal known as Thunderbolt is imprisoned and facing execution. Into the next cell is placed Bob Morgan...

Plot Keywords:

Sing Sing | Harlem | New York | Underworld | Prison

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

George Bancroft	...	Thunderbolt Jim Lang
Fay Wray	...	Ritzy
Richard Arlen	...	Bob Morgan
Tully Marshall	...	Warden
Eugenie Besserer	...	Mrs. Morgan
James Spottswood	...	'Snapper' O'Shea
Fred Kohler	...	'Bad Al' Friedberg
Robert Elliott	...	Prison chaplain
E.H. Calvert	...	Dist. Atty. McKay
George Irving	...	Mr. Corwin
Mike Donlin	...	Kentucky Sampson
S.S. Stewart	...	Convict
William L. Thorne	...	Police inspector

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System) | Silent (one version)

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1930)

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of the earliest of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by MCA ever since.

Soundtrack:

Thinkin' About My Baby

An entertaining and revolutionary sound film

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Thunderbolt (George Bancroft) is a notorious criminal, a gang leader, and his girl is Ritzy (Fay Wray). Some day she tells him: „I'm going to quit". He knows that there must be another man and tracks his rival (Bob, a bank employee) down, but finally he gets caught.

That's the point where the film actually begins: in prison (death row). The very nervous warden (Tully Marshall is really great!) welcomes him with the words „Couldn't be more comfortable at the Ritz". He takes him to cell 3. „...and look out for pneumonia. Might give this place a bad name."

There are 10 cells and the men call themselves by the numbers (a similar film is „The Last Mile"- 1932). Some of those occupiers form a singing group; but because „they took our tenor yesterday", one asks: „Hey, Number 3! Do you sing tenor?" Thunderbolt: „Who, me?" (laughs) „I kill tenors."

The sound quality of this very entertaining and revolutionary movie (the actors are often not to see while they speak) is astonishing - considering the fact that it was made in 1929. It's true that the over-accentuated way of speaking (especially Bancroft) is today hard to tolerate, but because the sound film was very young at that time it's excusable.