La mazzata

During the early days of talkies, dialogue writers were in great demand, and many who made the move to California were involved in the Broadway theater industry. The first regular theater critic for The New Yorker, Herman Mankiewicz, was soon in high demand in Hollywood after synchronized sound was introduced to cinema. A prime example of Mankiewicz's style was his screenplay in the early talkie, June 1929 "Thunderbolt." In 1927 Paramount Pictures hired Mankiewicz to write scenarios for its silent films. The studio asked him to work his connections for New York City writers to compose film scripts when talkies arrived. "Most of the newer writers on Paramount's staff who contributed the most successful stories of the past year (1929) were selected by 'Mank,'" wrote film critic Pauline Kael. Herman was the subject in the Netflix 2020 biopic, "Mank."

Mankiewicz's famous telegram to Ben Hecht describes how desperate movie studios were to hire good writers. "Millions are to be grabbed out here and your only competition is idiots. Don't let this get around."

Mankiewicz was the highest-paid writer in Tinseltown. Kael described, "His heroes weren't soft-eyed and bucolic; he brought good-humored toughness to the movies, and energy and astringency. And the public responded, because it was eager for modern American subjects." In "Thunderbolt," adapted from a Charles and Jules Furthman story, Mankiewicz's script focuses on Jim Lang (George Bancroft), nicknamed Thunderbolt, wanted by the police. His girlfriend, 'Ritzy' (Fay Wray), is seeing banker Bob Moran (Richard Arlen) behind Jim's back. Lang is captured and is headed for the chair. In jail, he discovers who Ritzy's boyfriend is and frames Bob in a cop's murder. When arrested and sentenced, Bob finds himself in the jail cell next to Thunderbolt.

"Thunderbolt" was the type of movie designed for director Josef von Sternberg for his first talkie. The silent movie director of 1927's "Underworld," which introduced the gangster genre, was excited to be making talkies. He said he was "no longer at the mercy of movie house organists."

Sternberg especially loved to mix music with his actors' dialogue. In a classic nightclub scene, singer actress Theresa Harris, in her film debut, belts out a song while Thunderbolt and Ritzy are in an argument. Between Harris' numbers, the jazz band plays in the background while tension builds between Lang and nearby loud customers. The tense sequence reveals the inner turmoil of Thunderbolt. Film critic Andrew Sarris notes, "'Thunderbolt' is, in some respects, as much a musical as a melodrama." Sternberg was praised overseas for his film, receiving a telegram from German director Ludwig Berger, stating "I saw your film 'Thunderbolt' and congratulate you with all my heart. It is the first fully realized and artistically accomplished sound film. Bravo!" "Thunderbolt" was the second talkie for actor George Bancroft, his first was the now lost 1929 'The Wolf of Wall Street.' The actor earned a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for his role as Thunderbolt.

The future was bright for Mankiewicz, working alongside his younger brother, Joseph, who wrote the titles in "Thunderbolt." Herman is known by today's movie fans as the first screenwriter for 1939's "The Wizard of Oz," and for his collaboration with Orson Welles in 1941's "Citizen Kane."

If you can get past the really rather stilted production here - almost stage bound in it's presentation, this is quite an entertaining film that sees the authorities on the trail of the most wanted "Thunderbolt" (George Bancroft). He is elusive, though - and their only route to him might be through his ex-girfriend "Ritzie" (Fay Wray) - but she isn't playing ball for reasons of her own. It's only when "Thunderbolt" makes good on an earlier threat he made to her about seeing anyone else, that the police see some light. The performances are fine, not great but the writing is really quite good - plenty of quirky vernacular and it moves along well despite the frequent silent movie style direction and scene framing from Josef von Sternberg. There is also quite an enjoyable contribution from a blues ensemble and though certainly dated, this is still worth a watch almost 100 years later.

Sternberg's first Talkie is virtually a retread of his UNDERWORLD (1927), with the same leading man – George Bancroft – no less. However, while ably flanked by his co-stars there, he is practically the whole show this time around (Fay Wray and Richard Arlen being no match for Evelyn Brent and Clive Brook) and, consequently, the role earned Bancroft his sole Oscar nomination (and the film's as well)! Anyway, the director's approach to Sound was not as experimental as may have been anticipated (resorting to Death Row histrionics and even a number of songs to showcase the format!) and the end result is hardly dazzling in this regard – though the dialogue is surprisingly clean, i.e. audible, for such an early example. Conversely, the visual aspect of the film, usually the director's main concern, is greatly diluted here through the poor quality of the copy I watched which also sported forced German subtitles!

Bancroft is once again a gangster (as before, his activity remains undisclosed throughout, apart from lording it up in an almost exclusively-black nightclub!) and his moll eventually leaves him for another, younger and handsomer, man. Here, too, the mobster is caught and imprisoned – in a wonderful scene where he shows compassion for a mutt, subsequently proving inseparable, thus preceding Raoul Walsh's HIGH SIERRA by 12 years! Yet, he ingeniously has his associates frame the rival for a murder they committed (the development of this particular plot strand is unfortunately rather muddled) and the hero winds up in the cell opposite Bancroft's. As in UNDERWORLD, Fred Kohler also appears here to antagonize the latter – besides lanky warden Tully Marshall and an Irish guard whose name the protagonist continually tries to guess (with the droll pay-off coming at the film's very conclusion).

Wray and her mother plead with the gangster to do the right thing and clear Arlen of his crime but, of course, he will have none of that at the start. Again, however, Bancroft is softened and confesses his role in the young man's entrapment just hours before his execution is due; I have to wonder here why he, a first-time felon, is scheduled to die before the much sought-after "Thunderbolt"! – yes, the film's title is a reference to the character's nick-name. In any case, the moll's own admission that she had left her lover for the gangster rather than the other way around makes the latter realize, as was the case in UNDERWORLD, that he is in the way and gladly accepts his fate. Incidentally, speaking of references to the director's earlier work, Wray and Arlen are made to undergo a hasty marriage here – much like Bancroft himself and Betty Compson in THE DOCKS OF NEW YORK (1928)!

The High-Light of this "First-Year" of the All-Talkie Hollywood in Renowned Director Sternberg Film is the Harlem Night-Club.

This Takes Place in the First Half and while the Remainder of this Gangster-Romance is Peppered with a Few Interesting Flourishes,

None Equate the Impressive Opening and Once the Movie Gets to Prison the Film is Absent Sternberg's Signature Touches.

In Face the Movie Grinds to a Halt and is just Uninteresting Banter and Prison's Inanimate Existence.

The Dialog Deliveries are Pause Laden, Rhythmic Readings that are Stiff, Laborious, and so Wearily Dated as to be Painful.

Fay Wray is Hardly a Presence, Richard Arlen is OK, and George Bancroft (Oscar Nominated) is Domineering but Hardly Special.

Overall, a Curiosity and Film Historians Should Give it a Look for Context and the Director's Complete Filmography.

But Casual Movie Fans and Seekers of some "Old-Stuff" are Likely to be Bored to Death and Very Disappointed.

For some reason I thought this film was a talkie remake by Josef von Sternberg of his great silent Underworld. Although George Bancroft is again the star here (and won an Oscar nomination for best actor) this is an entirely different storyline.

Bancroft stars a a tough hood in love with Fay Wray. But she's trying to go straight with Richard Arlen, who works in a bank. A man hunt captures Bancroft and convicts him to death row. But even from the cell, Bancroft is able to frame Arlen for a murder during a ban robbery. Arlen is sentenced to death row and ends up across the hall from Bancroft. Will there be fairness? Will there be redemption? As in Underworld, Bancroft is terrific as the obsessed and all-powerful thug. His voice is great as he growls and groans and threatens. Wray looks stunning, and Arlen is good as the innocent man.

For a 1929 talkie, this film has its stagnant moments when the editors didn't know when to cut. But it also features some terrific work by von Sternberg.

The entrance scene into the jazz club is a barrage of trellises and picket fences... quite beautiful... and also boasts a really nice song from Theresa Harris (who usually played a maid). There's also a wondrous scene where Arlen has been hurt and is being tended by his mother (Eugenie Besserer). While's she's applying iodine, he pulls his hands away and the bottle smashes. Both try to clean it up and the scene ends in a giggling tickle fight. Totally unexpected and totally wonderful.

Fred Kohler plays a convict. Tully Marshall is marvelous is a jittery warden.

The ending is probably expected but is beautifully done.