Thunder Road is a 1958 American Southern Gothic film noir directed by Arthur Ripley and written by James Atlee Phillips and Walter Wise, who based the screenplay on a story by Robert Mitchum. Mitchum based the story told to him by writer and friend James Agee regarding an alleged incident that occurred in Knoxville, Tennessee involving a bootlegger transporting moonshine being pursued by law enforcement along a section of highway from Harlan, Kentucky to Knoxville known infamously as "Thunder Road."

Considered a passion project, Mitchum starred in the lead role of Lucas Doolin, a Korean War veteran who returns to his East Tennessee countryside home to operate his family's moonshining operations while confronting federal revenuers seeking to shut his operations down and urban mobsters seeking to take over control of bootlegging in the Appalachia region. The film features Gene Barry as U.S. Treasury agent Troy Barrett and Jacques Aubuchon as Memphis mob boss Carl Kogan for the film's antagonists.

Despite an initial lackluster box-office release, Thunder Road later became a cult film and a staple of drive-in movie theaters in the Southern United States from its release and into the 1980s. Additionally, the film became further embedded in popular culture when its name was used as the title of a song by Bruce Springsteen, having been inspired by the poster of the film and having served as an inspiration for later released "bootlegger films" such as Moonrunners, Smokey and the Bandit, and Moonshine Highway.

Plot

Lucas Doolin works in the family moonshine business, running liquor his father distills to clandestine distribution points throughout the South in his hot rod. However, Lucas has more problems than evading government "revenuers".

Both a hothead and a fatalist, he is concerned that his teen-aged younger brother Robin, who is also his mechanic, will be tempted into following in his footsteps. An aggressive urban gangster, Carl Kogan is trying to gain control of the independent local moonshine producers and their distribution points. Dead shiners strewn along Thunder Road prove he is willing to kill anyone who stands in his way. Determined Treasury agent Troy Barrett is drawn in to stop the bloodshed, and its cause.

Barrett's attempt to engage Lucas are thrown right back in his face. The stakes rise when an attempt by Kogan to kill Lucas results in the deaths of another moonshine driver, Jed Moultrie, and Treasury Agent Mike Williams mistaken for him and one of Barrett's men.

Still, Lucas does not back off, a stubbornness and strike-first hostility attributed by townsfolk to a "machine-gunner's mentality" they feel he brought home from the Korean War, which pervades his every doing. Only with nightclub singer Francie Wymore can he drop his guard, as far as he is able. At the same time, he steadfastly resists the attentions of the belle of the mountain girls, innocent Roxanna Ledbetter, who has a crush on him and fears for his life.

When a series of government raids destroy local moonshiners' hidden stills, Lucas's father and the others shut down production "for a spell" to let the government deal with Kogan in its own time. In spite of this, Lucas is forced by circumstances and his own code of honor to make one final run of his dad's shine.

Kogan's men successfully trick Robin into agreeing to drive for them, infuriating Lucas, who sends Robin home on the bus. Barrett tries to enlist Robin's help in convincing Lucas it's Kogan his Bureau is after, not his brother, but is rebuffed. In the exchange Barrett reveals Lucas never left the States in the Army and implies he may have spent his hitch in its stockade instead, explaining his pent-up anger and seeming death wish.

After Lucas meets with Francie and forebodingly gives her a large sum of money to hold for him, he calls Kogan to let him know he is coming to kill him for trying to set up his brother. Meanwhile, Roxanna spills all she knows about Lucas's intended final moonshine run – for now, anyway, till things sort out – to agent Barrett's wife when she can't contact Barrett directly. He deploys a sweeping dragnet of Bureau men and state police in an attempt to intercept Lucas before he gets caught, or killed, in Kogan's trap.

Kogan sends his top henchman after Lucas just before Barrett and his officers arrive and arrest Kogan for murder. Lucas turns the tables on Kogan's driver and runs him off the road. Kogan's men then set spike strips to blow out Lucas's tires, which send his car careening down an embankment into an arcing electrical transformer. Barrett arrives too late to help with anything.

As a snake of headlights winds up the lonely mountain road back home, Robin and Roxanna stand alone in silence. The same cortege of mourners bring their own back home as when a local boy was taken out by Kogan's men early in the conflict. As the glows draw closer Robin and Roxanne approach one another slowly. Without a word they clasp hands and walk away together into the dark.

Cast

  • Robert Mitchum as Lucas Doolin
  • Gene Barry as Troy Barrett
  • Jacques Aubuchon as Carl Kogan
  • Keely Smith as Francie Wymore
  • Trevor Bardette as Vernon Doolin
  • Sandra Knight as Roxanna Ledbetter
  • James Mitchum as Robin Doolin
  • Peter Breck as Stacey Gouge, a rival driver
  • Mitchell Ryan as Jed Moultrie, a decoy driver
  • Dale Van Sickel as Mike Williams (uncredited)
  • Francis Koon as Sarah Doolin (uncredited)
  • Nicholas Mann Konrad as Robert Mitchum's stunt driver

Production

The film was a production of Mitchum's own company, DRM, but no producer was credited.

The film was based loosely on an incident in which a driver transporting moonshine was said to have crashed to his death on Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Tennessee, between Bearden Hill and Morrell Road. Per Metro Pulse writer Jack Renfro, the incident occurred in 1952 and may have been witnessed by James Agee, who passed the story on to Mitchum.

Casting

The part of Lucas's younger brother, Robin, was originally written for Elvis Presley per Mitchum's request. Mitchum personally submitted the script to Elvis in Los Angeles. The singer was eager to play the role, but his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, demanded Elvis be paid a ridiculous sum of money, more than the entire budget for the movie, which ended negotiations. Mitchum's elder son, James, who strongly resembled his father, got the part instead. It was his first credited film role.

The stunt coordinator was Carey Loftin, with a stunt team of Hollywood's most accomplished stunt drivers, Ray Austin, Neil Castes Sr., Robert Hoy, and Dale Van Sickel.

Music

The film's theme song, "The Whippoorwill", was sung by Keely Smith in her role as a nightclub singer, and a different studio rendition by her was released as a 45 rpm single on Capitol Records. Mitchum wrote the music with lyrics by Don Raye.

Thunder Road has been referenced in several forms of media after its release. American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen stated during a 1978 live performance that he had used the film's name for the opening track to his 1975 breakthrough album, Born to Run, having been inspired by the theatrical poster for the film, despite not actually seeing the movie. In the season 2 episode, "And Coachie Makes Three," of the American sitcom Cheers, characters Sam and Coach watch the film as part of a long-running tradition of watching Robert Mitchum movies whenever they are on television.

The final crash scene that takes the life of Lucas Doolin was utilized in later films such as the 1968 Made-for-TV science fiction film They Saved Hitler's Brain, and the 1995 science fiction-horror film Species.

See also

  • List of American films of 1958

References

  • Lyrics & recording: "Ballad of Thunder Road"
  • "Thunder Road festival held yearly (April) in Rockwood, TN."