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Thunderbolt (1929)

Drama | 85 minutes
3,35 10 votes

Genre: Drama

Duration: 85 minuten

Country: United States

Directed by: Josef von Sternberg

Stars: George Bancroft, Fay Wray and Richard Arlen

IMDb score: 6,4 (1.046)

Releasedate: 20 June 1929

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Thunderbolt plot

"George Bancroft making Love With the Determination of a Bull Dog! Fay Wray His Foil and Richard Arlen His Enemy"

A prisoner named Thunderbolt awaits his execution. In the cell next to his is Bob Morgan, an innocent man who is in love with Thunderbolt's girlfriend, unknowingly that the two are in a relationship. Thunderbolt hopes he can delay his execution as long as possible to kill Morgan.

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Full Cast & Crew

Actors and actresses

Thunderbolt Jim Lang

'Snapper' O'Shea

'Bad Al' Friedberg

Prison chaplain

Dist. Atty. McKay

Reviews & comments


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avatar van Bobbejaantje

Bobbejaantje

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Thunderbolt starts as a standard crime melodrama but gradually evolves into a black comedy that guarantees an hour and a half of viewing pleasure. The film contains scenes (George Bancroft who has to befriend a street dog) and characters (George Bancroft as a bandit tout court and Tully Marshall as a prison director) that I will not soon forget. It does not bother me at all that the emphasis is mainly on dialogues and there are almost no action scenes, which you would not expect from a crime film. The dialogues are also sharp (and witty) enough to win over the viewer.

Thunderbolt is Josef von Sternberg's first sound film and is fascinating in that respect too. As was customary at the time, all sounds were recorded live at the mise-en-scene, including the orchestra in The Black Cat joint, the gospel pianist and gospel choirs in prison. So there is no track with accompanying music - to create the atmosphere - as would be standard a few years later. For a modern viewer this may give a 'bare' feeling, but because the script of this film is strong enough, it is not a loss for me. Visually, the film is solidly shot without any special outliers. The experiment in this film is therefore in the pioneering synchronization of image and sound, in which the sound is frequently used to support images without the source being in view (e.g. gospel choirs in prison, a tuning orchestra in The Black Cat at the moment the police raid).

This Thunderbolt is a fine introduction for von Sternberg at a time of revolution in film.

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original