Thunder Road (1958)
There was a whole genre of American films in the 1950’s dedicated to cars and particularly hot-rods. With titles like ‘Hot Rod Girl’, ‘Hot Rod Gang’, ‘Dragstrip Girl’, ‘The Cool Hot Rod’ they were cheaply made, badly acted and inevitably had teenagers depicted by 30-year-old actors and directed by 50-year-old West Coast studio men.
Not strictly a hot-rod movie but like them, Thunder Road, has fast cars, an outlaw mentality, bad-boy goodies and lawmen baddies, but, above all, it has Robert Mitchum the Hollywood star who didn’t hide behind studio lawyers when he was caught smoking weed and did his time at the County Farm. Unlike the hot-rod movies, this was bloody good.
Mitchum plays a moonshine runner whose job it is to drive a souped-up Ford filled with illegal booze faster and further than any officer from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, but this is a three-way contest with the Mob trying to muscle in on the booze trade.
Mitchum and real-life son, Jim
Deep down though Mitchum’s character knows there’s no future in Moonshining and tries to convince his younger brother (played by Mitchum’s son Jim) that he’d be better off joining the Army, while fully aware that he himself can never give up the thrill of the chase.
It was based on a story by Robert Mitchum, produced by him and the theme song was both written and performed by him. Bob’s other son, Chris, also had a small, uncredited, part in the film.
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