Thunder in the City

Advertising man Dan Armstrong (Edward G. Robinson) is fired because his ideas are seen as out-of-date and undignified by his bosses, who cite the English as having a respectable approach to business. He decides to go to England to visit relatives. While there he falls for pretty Lady Patricia (Luli Deste), who is considering marrying stuffy jerk Manningdale (Ralph Richardson) just for his money. Dan cooks up a scheme to help his financially struggling family as well as make himself enough money he could provide Patricia with more security than Manningdale.

Pretty much any film with Eddie G. is worth watching and this is no exception. It's a fish-out-of-water story with the colorful American teaching and learning from the staid Brits. The funniest scene to me was when Robinson gets lost in the family manor. It's all genial enough and the cast is certainly a quality one. Robinson is great. Richardson is always good. Nigel Bruce and Constance Collier are fun. Interesting look at British/American relations and attitudes at the time.

Edward G. Robinson is an American ad executive whose barnstorming style is judged to be too flamboyant, so he travels to England to learn restraint and dignity. While visiting with his aristocratic relatives, he falls for Luli Deste, the daughter of destitute Duke Nigel Bruce. Bruce owns a mine in Rhodesia that's rich is the miraculous mineral magnalite, so Robinson maneuvers to buy it out from under the nose of banker and romantic rival Ralph Richardson. Lacking the money to follow through with his promised purchase price, Robinson engages in a flamboyant campaign to push magnalite to the British public and recruit investors in his mine. An agreeable if pretty slight romantic comedy that sees Robinson escaping his tough guy persona, ably supported by a top notch British cast.

I'd love to know how producer Alexander Esway landed Edward G. Robinson for this low budget British feature. Robinson plays a crafty American businessman who relocates to the old country in order to pick up a few pointers--in addition to teaching the locals a few tricks about wealth creation. Nigel Bruce is delightful (and typically fuddled) as the nobleman who sells his stake in some Rhodesian mines to Robinson, Ralph Richardson is nice and chilly as the villain of the piece, and sexy Luli Deste is adequate as the film's love interest. For a low budget effort, the film is very well made, and features a few impressive sequences, most notably a brief scene in the Escher-like Challoner Hall that seems to consist primarily of staircases leading nowhere. The old Madacy Video tape leaves a lot to be desired, however: their print is worn and washed out. Thunder In the City is no classic, but it deserves to get cleaned up for DVD.

In the middle of one of his disputes with the Brothers Warner, Edward G. Robinson went over to the United Kingdom to make this feature about a fast talking promoter who essentially inflates the value of some mining stock to get more money for the owner who is being squeezed by a tough minded businessman in the purchasing negotiations. The owners are Nigel Bruce and Constance Collier and the businessman is Ralph Richardson in one of his early screen roles.

The role Robinson is playing is one Pat O'Brien probably would have been better suited for, it's the kind of fast talking ballyhoo artist that O'Brien did in his sleep. Bruce and Collier are fine, but Ralph Richardson really gives the best performance with Donald Calthrop as a French chemist who has patented the process to manufacture the 'magnalite' ore from the Bruce/Collier mines, a close second.

If anyone can tell me what magnalite is I'd like to know. Robinson promotes it in the way that Rock Hudson promoted Vip in Lover Come Back.

Thunder in the City is a great deal cheaper on the production values than anything Robinson was doing at Warner Brothers and unfortunately it shows. Still it's not a bad film and it certainly shows British business practice sure ain't different than American ones.

An inoffensive light comedy but it makes the mistake of trying to sell us Edward G Robinson as a comedic, romantic lead. Attention does stray at times. Fortunately, outside of his Holmes' film appearances, Nigel Bruce has one of his larger filml roles. He is billed second and is great fun as the befuddled and loveable Duke. The best sequence in the film features Bruce and Robinson at a fairground.