Thunder Road

City gangsters attempt to take over a country boy’s illegal moonshine racket in Arthur Ripley’s Thunder Road, a unique crime drama in which the doom and futility of film noir descends on a mountain community of bootlegging bumpkins who speak with a twang and drag race like the Dukes of Hazard. Loosely inspired by a real-life Knoxville moonshine operation, the film stars Robert Mitchum, who also produced and wrote the original story, as recently returned Korean War veteran Lucas Doolin, whose father Vernon (Trevor Bardette) produces moonshine and distributes it via Lucas’s car, which is specially designed with a “moon tank.” In a role originally written for Elvis Presley, Mitchum’s real-life son James plays Lucas’s younger brother Robin, who aims to run moonshine too if only Lucas would let him. The family business is under threat from two directions: out-of-town gangster Carl Kogan (Jacques Aubuchon) plans to usurp the Doolin business one way or the other, and U.S. Treasury agent Troy Barrett (Gene Barry) is homing in on Lucas to infiltrate the larger distribution network. The Southern boys may speak slowly, but they drive really fast, most of the action taking place in and around automobiles, whether they’re blowing up at gas stations or sending vehicles over a cliff with Batman-like oil slick technology. Listen for several arrangements of a lovely ballad written by Mitchum called “The Whippoorwill,” which adds a wistful sadness to the final shot.