Of course, the problem for Lucas is that his family line of work is moonshine running, the regulatory agencies on his tail are law enforcement and the larger concerns are big-city mobsters willing to shed blood to make some money. As played (and written and produced) Robert Mitchum, Lucas will have to navigate situations as twisted and dangerous as the hills of Harlan County Tennessee's Thunder Road in order to keep his lifestyle and his life out of the hands of others.
Mitchum was said to have heard a story about a Tennessee moonshine driver who had crashed with a full load while trying to outrun pursuers, and it inspired him to write the original story that was adapted for the movie. By that time a powerful enough star to control some of his own productions, Mitchum recruited the eccentric Arthur Ripley to direct and tried to sign Elvis Presley to play the character of Robin Doolan, Lucas' younger brother whom he wants to keep out of the moonshine business. Elvis's manager Tom Parker asked for a salary equal to the cost of the movie, so the role went to Mitchum's son James. Thunder Road was in the same time frame as Presley's two best movies, Jailhouse Rock and King Creole, so who knows what might have happened had Parker cared about more than his own wallet?
Thunder Road does a good job of showing how deeply the production of homemade, untaxed -- and therefore illegal -- liquor is woven into the economy of the poor farmers of the Tennessee hill country. Both Lucas Doolin and his father Vernon (Trevor Bardette) operate their business as much out of pride, independence and tradition as economic benefit. Troy Barrett (Gene Barry) is a government agent who recognizes Lucas' reasons but enforces the law because it's the law. Keely Smith as Lucas' girlfriend Francie Wymore and Sandra Knight as Roxie Ledbetter, the object of Robin's affections who carries a torch for Lucas, add humanity to the story -- they show the outlaws don't live in a vacuum but have lives to live outside of their dangerous business.
Mitchum's movie is sometimes called "the perfect drive-in movie," referencing a kind of movie heavy on the cars, chases, loner anti-heroes dripping charisma and cool and the real potential for tragic human costs. That it takes all of those elements and blends them according to a good script and tells its story with solid, competent acting puts Thunder Road well ahead of the pack. It's a load of fun in any setting, even if it probably is best heard through a tinny window-hung speaker and seen through the windshield of a parked car, one with tailfins as sleek and swift as any rocket ship in flight.
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