Robert Mitchum stars in and developed the story for this popular drive-in entry about a moonshine family in the south harassed by U.S. treasurers and gangsters. Despite authentic locales and great hillbilly music, this B-flick is short on exciting action and long on dreary talk and character conflict. Stilted direction, wooden acting (even by Bob), but the black-and-white cinematography is good despite the constant back-projection. Mitchum cuts his usual menacing-yet-cartoony good guy/bad guy presence, but there's no vitality to his character--and no rapport between him and the other actors. Barely average, the film might have been good but needed a bigger budget, a stronger script, and a direction with tighter pacing. *1/2 from ****
Review of Thunder Road
