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Robert Mitchum, Gene Barry, Keely Smith, Jacques Aubuchon, James Mitchum ... see more see more... , Trevor Bardette , Sandra Knight , Betsy Holt , Frances Koon , Randy Sparks , Peter Breck , Jerry Hardin , Robert Porterfield , Mitchell Ryan

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 bu... read more read more...siness. 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, Rovi

Flixster Users

59% liked it

2,047 ratings

Critics

67% liked it

9 critics

PG, 1 hr. 32 min.

Directed by: Arthur Ripley, Gene Barry, Jacques Aubuchon, Keely Smith, Robert Mitchum

Release Date: May 10, 1958

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DVD Release Date: August 15, 2001

Stats: 108 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (108)

  • flixsterman
    February 28, 2009
    flixsterman
    I know this has become a pseudo-cult classic but there are really only three reasons you'd want to watch this film: 1)You're a fan of catchy theme songs. 2)You're a fan of Robert Mitchum. 3)You're a fan of incredibly bad acting (i.e. Robert's son James)
  • mjgildea
    November 2, 2006
    mjgildea
    Boring, droll and self-indulgent. It's funny to hear backwoods diction without the painful-sounding accents even if it's not believable. Even though I fell asleep halfway through, I could bitch about it for an hour.
  • jam233
    June 4, 2010
    jam233
    Exciting thriller, with a solid and mesmerizing performance by Robert Mitchum. The script is taut, the pace is excellent and the black and white cinematography is very effective. Good atmosphere, great screenplay.
  • Milt60
    June 4, 2009
    Milt60
    The acting is ok but the theme behind it is true. Yes I know it is a true theme take my word for it.
  • thrusz
    October 7, 2007
    thrusz
    Right into it, you can't watch this movie and say it's not dated. Whiskey Running? Seriously? That was one of the biggest problmes of 1958? Not, you know, civil rights or anything like that? It has a nice voiceover intro describing the importance of not whiskey running. O... read morekay, deal with that and it's a pretty okay movie. Mitchum is usually pretty darned cool and, for the most part, this is no exception. It's another cool car flick (one of many I've watched lately) that has Mitchum against the cops and the whiskey running syndicate. That's right. Whiskey. Running. Syndicate. Yes, it's cool, but it's no Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry or Vanishing Point. Admittedly, those movies probably wouldn't have existed without Thunder Road, but let's just ignore that little detail. Another problem, besides the dated aspect, is the very disjointed nature of the beginning of this movie. Yes, it tries to squeeze in a lot of action very quickly, but I'm just sitting there, watching a very underlit movie and not knowing the relationship between a lot of the characters. However, an hour in, all of the sudden, the movie gains a miraculous cohesion and becomes actually pretty darned interesting.

    Here's the part that surprises me. Look at the opening credits and count the amount of times you see the name Mitchum. The Mitchum family, particularly Robert, had pretty much everything to do witt this movie. It's pretty amazing how much James, Robert's son, looks like him. It's also even funnier that they are playing brothers. WHAT'S EVEN MORE BIZARRE IS ROBERT'S CREDITS! He wrote the story and the lyrics to "Whiporwill?" Wow. (Sorry about the spelling. I move a mile a second. No time to double-check.)

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Critic Reviews

Fernando F. Croce
September 25, 2009
Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion

The world of moonshine transporters is keyed to Mitchum's fatalist-hobo wryness Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
June 20, 2006
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

The ultimate road movie. Full Review

Nick Schager
May 1, 2006
Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

Southern drive-in staple Thunder Road is basically The Robert Mitchum Show. Full Review

Steve Crum
August 1, 2005
Steve Crum, Video-Reviewmaster.com

Mitchum as a booze runner is fun enough, but his singing of the title song is the plus.

Scott Von Doviak
August 17, 2001
Scott Von Doviak, culturevulture.net

Mitchum carries the movie on his massive shoulders. Full Review

Chuck O'Leary
October 9, 2005
Chuck O'Leary, Fantastica Daily

No review available.

Emanuel Levy
August 12, 2005
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

Carol Cling
August 22, 2003
Carol Cling, Las Vegas Review-Journal

No review available.

Brian Webster
June 14, 2003
Brian Webster, Apollo Guide

Click to read the article Full Review

Geoff Andrew
June 24, 2006
Geoff Andrew, Time Out

Click to read the article Full Review

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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Thunder Road Trivia

  • In the movie grease what was the hot rod race called?  Answer »
  • Why did Danny have to drive during the race on Thunder Road instead of Kenickie in Grease?  Answer »
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  • In which 1950s movie did Robert Mitchum play a moonshine runner?  Answer »
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