Arthur Ripley directs this cult classic crime/Noir. War vet Robert Mitchum returns home to ramrod the family moonshine business. This hard headed bootlegger takes on the Feds and the Mob while burning the roads in his whiskey laden hot rods. If that is not enough, he must keep his young brother(James Mitchum)from moving up from mechanic to driver in the family business and then there is the romancing of a Memphis chanteuse(Keely Smith). Also in the cast are Gene Barry, Sandra Knight and Jacques Aubuchon. Bob Mitchum produces, and takes partial writing credit plus writes songs for this evocative glimpse of southern culture. Mitchum also oversees his younger brother's film debut.

NOTE: It is said that Elvis Presley enjoyed this movie so much he memorized bad Bob's lines of the script.

THUNDER ROAD is about the efforts of moonshiner Robert Mitchum to run carloads of illegal liquor past federal authorities AND avoid being killed by a mob that is attempting to corner the industry. Time and again, Mitchum risks his life and nearly gets himself killed...though we really never understand his motivation or his actions late in the film. That's because he and the rest of the cast just seem like caricatures--not real people.

I am sure that many Southerners (particularly those in Tennessee, Kentucky and North Carolina) see this film and cringe. While I know this could not have been the intention, those who watch THUNDER ROAD are likely to assume that 1950s Southerners are all a bunch of hillbilly moonshiners! Much of this because these are the ONLY sort of folks you see in the film other than the Federal agents (who seemed to have more Northern or neutral accents). As for me, I wasn't the least bit offended...I just thought it all was pretty funny--which is a problem, as the film was not meant to be a comedy. That's because the plot never seems particularly real and the film just came off as perhaps well-intentioned but silly.

Interestingly, the film actually is about the roots of NASCAR. Little known to many today, the race car champs of the early days of stock car racing were originally runners for moonshiners. In order to avoid being caught, they learned tricks for enhancing their cars and became amazing drivers--and explains why most of the early champs had roots in this underground business. Showing this connection and evolution would make for an interesting film. Instead, the film just never seemed particularly good and was almost like an episode of "The Beverly Hillbillies" instead of a serious drama. The only item of minor interest was seeing Robert Mitchum's oldest son, James--especially since he looked like the spitting image of his old man. Otherwise, a dull film with little to offer in the way of real entertainment.

Thunder Road is the film that Robert Mitchum got to use all his many talents. Not only did he star in it, but he produced it and wrote the original story on which the film is based. And if that wasn't enough he wrote the songs for the film and made a hit record singing the title song. The other song, Whipporwill, he left to the considerable talents of Keely Smith who appeared in this film with him.

The story is about moonshiners, those mountain people in the Appalachians and the Ozarks who distill their own spirits and sell it at a cut rate price. Of course that doesn't sit well the government which wants it share of the sin tax. You can do just about anything else, but NEVER try to evade taxes, the most heinous of crimes as the government sees it.

Gene Barry is their man on the scene, but Barry is after bigger fish. He's after racketeer Jacques Aubuchon who wants to eliminate the independent moonshiners like Robert Mitchum and his family. Barry would like Mitchum's help, but Mitchum says a plague on both your houses.

Mitchum with his hobohemian life in his formative years which included jail time among such people learned their ways very well, knowledge put to great use in creating this story. His character is something of a rebel hero, the kind Marlon Brando or Paul Newman would normally be playing, but Mitchum aces the part. It's usually in the top 10 of anybody's list in the films of Robert Mitchum.

Making his screen debut is Bob's oldest son James Mitchum whose resemblance is so uncanny he looks more like a clone than an offspring. Of course the one that the part was offered to first was Elvis Presley. Unfortunately Mitchum made the mistake of seeing Elvis directly instead of dealing with Colonel Tom Parker. Parker would probably have nixed it in any event because he was making Elvis a star who never was less than first billed in any of his films. Still Elvis would have been perfectly cast in the role Jim Mitchum played, that was his background as well. Imagine what a different direction the King's career would have taken had he done Thunder Road.

Even without Elvis, Thunder Road is a classic film from the Fifties. Shot on a low budget on location, it reaped much profit for the Mitchum coffers. Kept old rumple eyes in some of his favorite diversions for a long time, I'm sure.