Thunderbolt (1929) YIFY - Download Movie TORRENT

Nobody would argue that 1929 was a year of classic movies. Amongst the flotsam and jetsam however there's APPLAUSE and a few other good ones..... and this as well - almost. What a difference a top director and screenwriter can make!This isn't a gangster film, it's an intelligently written character study and in-depth look into the mind of a mobster. You find writer Jules Furthman's name on virtually every other classic Hollywood picture of the 20s, 30s and 40s. His style was quality and his skill was creating believable engaging stories with real genuine characters. His story was further adapted by H Mankiewicz - who wrote the scripts for the probably the other half of the classics from this period. Needless to say - this is well written with fascinating and deeply faceted characters.Josef von Sternberg directed this which by the look of it was his fiftieth talkie. Surely it's impossible that this was his first sound film? Being made in 1929, it's still a little experimental, not quite everything works so this is not one of his best pictures. Nevertheless he creates a brooding almost surreal atmosphere with real tension. That style intensifies significantly in the latter part of the film on death row which has an almost dream like feel about it.The story is tense, the characters are believable, the production is innovative but this is not a perfect film. To enable clear sound recording, some but not all of the actors speak very slowly which sounds especially weird when the actor they're talking with is speaking normally. Actors had their own individual vocal coaches then with different techniques thus the inconsistency and maybe not being a native English speaker, von Sternberg probably didn't notice the subtle differences.As great a director as he was, von Sternberg was given the impossible task of trying to make Fay Wray seem like a proper actress. Not even he could do that and predictably she's absolutely dreadful. As always she just projects that limp, whining and insipid expression to convey whatever emotion she's trying to express.Whether she's pretending to be a hard as nails gangster's moll or a reformed, sweet and vulnerable fragile young thing she's that same bland, shallow character. Not only can't she act but in this she doesn't appear to be able to speak English - what on earth is that accent! She's meant to be a girl from the streets so why is she doing history's worst impression of Queen Mary? That two men could be besotted with this dull sour-faced non-entity completely stretches all credibility.

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by CinemaSerf 6 / 10

Thunderbolt

If you can get past the really rather stilted production here - almost stage bound in it's presentation, this is quite an entertaining film that sees the authorities on the trail of the most wanted "Thunderbolt" (George Bancroft). He is elusive, though - and their only route to him might be through his ex-girfriend "Ritzie" (Fay Wray) - but she isn't playing ball for reasons of her own. It's only when "Thunderbolt" makes good on an earlier threat he made to her about seeing anyone else, that the police see some light. The performances are fine, not great but the writing is really quite good - plenty of quirky vernacular and it moves along well despite the frequent silent movie style direction and scene framing from Josef von Sternberg. There is also quite an enjoyable contribution from a blues ensemble and though certainly dated, this is still worth a watch almost 100 years later.

Reviewed by 1930s_Time_Machine 7 / 10

Thunderbolt

1929

Crime / Drama / Film-Noir / Music / Romance / Thriller

Thunderbolt

1929

Crime / Drama / Film-Noir / Music / Romance / Thriller

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Movie Reviews

Thunderbolt

Even Fay Wray can't spoil this!

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