Thundering Thompson (1929) User Reviews

A decent silent western that has two strikes against it.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 2 October 2010]

This is a very short B-western starring a Canadian actor named 'Cheyenne Bill'. I couldn't learn a lot about the guy other than he appeared in eight movies. Here, he plays the typical B-movie hero. He is a Deputy who has been sent by the Sheriff to arrest a young woman. However, he quickly (too quickly) realizes that the woman is innocent and the charges are being orchestrated by a baddie who wants her land and herd of sheep. Naturally, since Cheyenne is a hero, he cannot arrest the woman and he chooses to resign rather than serve this unjust arrest warrant. The remainder of the film consists of him fighting the baddies and thus saving the young lady and her father.

All in all, it's a rather typical theme for a B and I really liked the final fight between Cheyenne and the boss--it was long and I appreciated how during much of it, the hero was getting his butt whipped good! It was well-choreographed and exciting. However, the film cannot get a score higher score for two reasons. First, at only about 46 minutes, it's just too short and shallow. Second, I hated seeing one of the characters being played by a guy in black-face! This is one of the latest films in which they had black men played by whites in makeup--a bad idea that fortunately faded when talking pictures arrived (with only one or two exceptions, such as "Check and Double Check").

Good

[jewelch · 8/10 · 5 August 2022]

Wow way better than I thought it would be. For a silent movie it was very good. Even the acting was not so bad for 1929. Yes I will recommend this one. James Welch 8/4/2022.

A dandy little silent western

[dottyh · 7/10 · 29 May 2007]

I picked up this little movie off ebay from "Memory Lane" out of curiosity, and am glad I did. "Thundering Thompson" is a deputy sheriff brought from the county seat by nefarious Bill Edwards (Al Ferguson) to arrest a young woman, Marie Valerian (Neva Gerber) and her father, who are running sheep on land that Edwards covets. "Cheyenne Bill" is a fine-looking young man who fits the part of the stalwart deputy well. He goes to visit the sheepherder, and of course is smitten by the lovely daughter, but also learns that the motives of the cattlemen are not quite what they seem to be. Edwards had the warrant sworn out against Marie to pressure the old man to sell his sheep to him.

Returning to town, Thompson tears up the warrant, then is goaded into a fight when one of Edwards' men deliberately tosses in an insult about Marie. He is ganged up on and beaten unconscious by the cowboys, but only after giving a splendid account of himself against great odds. A "colored man" (unfortunately, a white man in black-face) helps Thompson by later informing him that the ranchers are going to raid the sheepherders to drive them off the prize land.

Thompson tracks down the raiders, by ones and twos, and dissuades them from carrying out the foray. He finally runs down Edwards, and the two engage in a great fight, another pursuit, and another fight, ending in a shallow river. As often was the case in these early movies, the actors do the fighting, not stuntmen. They do a super job, though perhaps less well choreographed than fights in later films. I don't think I've ever seen a scissors-lock applied during a cowboy fight! The deputy gets his man, and gets his girl.

This is a nice little movie, with many of the standard plot lines, yet filled with excellent action scenes. Cheyenne Bill was an athletic actor with a fine presence. Obviously not much is known about him, and he made relatively few movies. Too bad more of them aren't available now.