Thunder Road (1958)
Unrepentant Tennessee moonshine runner Luke Doolin (Robert Mitchum) makes dangerous high-speed deliveries for his liquor-producing father, Vernon (Trevor Bardette), but won't let his younger brother Robin (James Mitchum) join the family business. Under pressure from both out-of-town gangster Kogan (Jacques Aubuchon), who wants a piece of the local action, and Treasury agent Barrett (Gene Barry), who wants to destroy the moonshine business, Luke fights for his fast-fading way of life.
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Tied for the best movie I have ever seen
What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review
Thunder road movie with robert mitchum was low budget but good. The car was a 1951 ford with a 1950 ford grille and a 1949 ford hood. The car was later bought by james mitchum who brought it back to California to go to high school. It was sold again in 1962 and had the wheel wells opened and had a supercharger put on it. The show cost 750.00 dollars to make Thanks rob.
More than a half-century before Yost The Younger decided to bring Harlan County back to the small screen in Justified (see my many reviews on the IMDb) you have this little gem.As one of the characters laments on screen, "We've been making shine here for more than 250 years" and that is all the reason anyone really needs for this film.Enjoy the chase scenes. Get a rare opportunity to catch Keely Smith (one of the greatest and most under-rated singers of the era) in a dramatic role. See a young Gene Barry puff and strut. And of course watch Mitchum give a breakout star performance.At the risk of generalizing, in his later films Mitchum was cast as the Alpha Male and he merely had to maintain the image. Here the audience gets to see him earn that image. It is a treat.Holds up well over the years but suffers from the same issues as many other 50's films. Too many wide-screen static shots. Black and white but never any greys. And every ostensibly "authentic" Kentucky boy in the film is wearing freshly creased coveralls with not a mark of dirt.See it anyway. It is a one of a kind.
When I would hear Robert Mitchum's voice on those beef commercials, he sounded just a bit psychotic. Like he had just slaughtered a steer and was going to hand the meat to you raw. Here he gets caught up in the moonshine business, carting shipments of the home made alcohol to all precincts, facing off against criminals and the police, who were just as bad. He is the centerpiece of this movie, which is, for the most part, pretty predictable, and lacking in real heroism. Mitchum, with his monotone, his sad eyes, and his seeming entitlements (and, I am certain, his sex appeal to women) grinds his way through the forces he must face to get the job done. There are some pretty cool car chases and a fantastic theme song.
I grew up in oak ridge,Tennessee near bearden where the moonshiner that Lucas doolin portrayed was killed running from the law-he was nicknamed tweet-o-low-twill and was from rockholds,Kentucky and actually crashed into a power station like mitchum did on Kingston pike in bearden-the movie brought in the mob who were not involved in the true story-there is a book return to thunder road written by a man named Alex gabbard,who never could get an interview with mitchum regarding the true story that mitchum based his book on-apparently Mr.gabbard was friends of tweet-o-low-twill and met him while staying with his grandparents when he was a boy