Thunderbolt
Directed by Josef von Sternberg
Written by Jules and Charles Furthman, Josef von Sternberg and Herman J. Mankiewicz
1929/US
Paramount Pictures
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020499/reference
First viewing/YouTube
Warden: Listen Doc, you just gotta see that this man lives. Do something. I’ve got to execute him tonight.
George Bancroft has some marvelous bits in this gangster/love triangle/deathrow tale. The rest is pretty “meh”.
Jim ‘Thunderbolt’ Lang (Bancroft) is the boss of a gang of vicious thugs. He is wanted for bank robbery and murder. Ritzie (Fay Wray) is his moll. But lately she has fallen for straight arrow banker Bob (Richard Arlen) and attempts to break up with Thunderbolt. Nobody quits the Thunderbolt and he makes it his mission to assassinate Bob.
His mission fails. He is apprehended, tried, and sentenced to death. Thunderbolt will not rest until Bob dies before he does. So he frames him and soon Bob is his neighbor on death row.
Bancroft is great, as always, in this. The part where he tries to get an annoying dog to come to him is hilarious. On the other hand, I have never seen Wray or Arlen give such stilted performances.
George Bancroft was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar.
Catch the glance George Bancroft gives singer Theresa Harris. Definitely pre-Code!
