Thunderbolt (1929) on Netflix
Thunderbolt Jim Lang, a wanted robber, is condemned to die. Bob Moran is put in the facing cell, in love with Ritzie and unaware that she was Thunderbolt's girl.
- Watch on NetflixThis title is not on Netflix right now. Please check back later for updates.
- Watch on NordVPN
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.4/101,097 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes70%
Plot summary
Thunderbolt Jim Lang is wanted for robbery and murder. He takes his girl, Ritzie, to a nightclub in Harlem, and she tells him she means to go straight. A police raid breaks up the club, and he gets away. His gang watches Ritzie and reports that she is living with Mrs. Moran, whose son Bob, a bank clerk, is in love with her. Fearing for Bob's safety, Ritzie helps the police set a trap. Thunderbolt escapes it, but he is caught, tried and condemned to be executed at Sing Sing.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Thunderbolt (1929)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- In Thunderbolt, Josef von Sternberg uses sound expressionistically, including the erratic start-stop of a sewing machine and the "sinister" squeaking of a dog's ball toy squeezed by the condemned criminal in the hours before his death.
- Thunderbolt was Josef von Sternberg's first film using synchronized sound, and two versions were produced, including a silent one for theaters that had not yet been adapted to sound.
- Sternberg welcomed synchronized sound as a way to gain complete control of his picture, saying he was "no longer at the mercy of movie house organists," and avoided atmospheric or background music; Thunderbolt and his next three sound films used source music arising from the mise en scène.
- Sternberg experimented with asynchronous sound effects in Thunderbolt to supplement the visuals, holding that sound had to bring to the image a quality the lens could not include and had to counterpoint or compensate the image.
