Thunder

Thunder (película)

1929 · United States · 86 min

Director: William Nigh
Producer: Hunt Stromberg
Cinematography: Henry Sharp
Editing: Ben Lewis
Production company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

What the critics say

75 % Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews

Cast

Lon Chaney

Wally Albright

Phyllis Haver

James Murray

Tom Keene

James Murray

What it is about

Grumpy Anderson is a railroad engineer obsessed with running his train on schedule. His rigid devotion to punctuality brings a series of tragedies that drive him apart from his family, and a flood will test that obsession.

How it was made

Directed by William Nigh and produced by Hunt Stromberg for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the film has no audible dialogue but carries a synchronized musical score and sound effects, recorded with the Western Electric sound-on-film system and also transferred to discs for theatres wired for that format. Location shooting took place in Wisconsin and Illinois, in towns such as Manitowoc, Green Bay and Chicago. Lon Chaney caught a cold during the snow scenes that developed into walking pneumonia, and production paused for a time before being completed.

Reception and legacy

Released to theatres on July 8, 1929, it eventually grossed about $1,018,000, Chaney's fifth highest-grossing film for MGM. Most of the picture is now considered lost, with only about ten minutes surviving, although the sound discs preserve the soundtrack. It was Chaney's penultimate film and his last silent one; he died two months after the release of The Unholy Three (1930), his final film.