I first watched this movie in a Ford with my parents and brother at the drive-in . . . also located directly on Kingston Pike, maybe a half mile East of the High School. Attending the University of Tennessee years later, I lived in student housing behind the theater and rode my motorcycle up behind the drive-in, not being able or willing to buy a ticket, and watch Easy Rider many times. A movie named Candy Striper or something similar played there, but I watched it for other types of education.

Both Moonshiners and Bootleggers lived in our old neighborhood on Oak Ridge Highway which led, eventually, to the Oak Ridge National Laboratories where important advances were made in creating “The Bomb.”

In our Third Creek community one early morning, a weekday about 4:00 a.m., police chased a Bootlegger into a gulch across from the small farm where I grew up. The driver walked up to the house — by then dad was up, having heard the wreck and seeing the small fire — and wanted to use the phone. Moments later the police arrived and I remember being told his response: “I won’t be needing to call now.”

The police handed out the unbroken jugs to neighbors, though my dad wouldn’t take any lest someone would think badly about him for doing so. The cops didn’t want to have to haul it away . . . .

By the time school was out the car was towed, the mess mostly cleaned up, but I still found pieces of the wreckage in my snooping later that day.

In 1987 I had my first sip of White Lightening in a different area we lived, walking with my dad to drink from a neighbor’s stash. My father passed away three months later.

I’m still so glad we got to share some moonshine together that day.

Thanks again,for your professional insight
Sam Nova

Mitchum is also my very favorite actor. I appreciate Thunder Road for what it is, and like most of the film in general. I think the weakest link (for me) was casting Keely Smith. Not only was her acting weak, but she was not much to look at either.

Thanks for your comments on Mitchum, Al and Vincent. I may do more on him in the future, because like Al says, he did not get his due in the industry.

Agreed, Al. He also appeared in a little-remembered 1985 TV movie, “The Hearst And Davies Affair,” as William Randolph Hearst (with a young Virginia Madsen as Davies). Considering how the Hearst press went after him in the late forties following the drug bust, he must have appreciated the irony.

That is the opening lyrics of the Thunder Road song playing during the credits after a car chase and crash.

My favorite scene is when Mitchum confronts the Mr. Big of the crime syndicate who wants to take over the local moonshining operation.
He enters the office to see the thug staring out the window. Recorded classical piano music is being played, something you least expect to hear in this movie.
Mr. Big tells him in a folksy way that he is observing a bird outside building a nest and is watching how productive the bird is when certain music is being played. “That stuff interests me.”
After an unpleasant exchange Mr Big asks, “How rough do you want it?” Mitchum responds by hitting him in the neck with a karate chop and escaping through a window.

You’re right. Keely and Mitchum’s son are both “acting challenged.”
But there is another fine actor on hand, Gene Barry, who would find success four or five years later starring in TV’s mystery series Burke’s Law, which relied on the gimmick of having many famous guest stars each episode. The mystery in one episode is resolved by noting the date of a photograph of that famous actor, Robert Mitchum. As far as I know, Mitchum did not guest on the show.

The career of Mitchum is amazing and dumbfounding. What can you say about an actor who appeared in Hopalong Cassidy films and a David Lean epic and showed equal respect toward the makers of both?
I’m not surprised Mitchum’s career survived the drug scandal. I am surprised that it survived the Howard Hughes regime at RKO. From 1949 to 1952 Mitchum appeared exclusively in Hughes RKO films which were NOT hits. They would have made money but Hughes spent too much on reshooting scenes and other wasteful habits.

I think it is sad Mitchum was not honored by AFI or with an honorary Oscar. One newspaper reporter called him one of Hollywood’s most authentic characters. And so he was.
Thanks Suzidoll for your post.

I agree with debbe — thanks, suzi, for a splendid entry that brought a new insight into this film.