Le port des passions

Thunder Bay is directed by Anthony Mann and written by Gil Doud and George W. George. It stars James Stewart, Joanne Dru, Dan Duryea, Gilbert Roland and Jay C. Flippen. Music is by Frank Skinner and cinematography by William H. Daniels.

Offshore oil drillers set up base at Port Felicity, Louisiana and find the town's shrimpers are not at all happy about this threat to their livelihood. Conflict and affairs of the heart do follow.

One of the eight films that James Stewart and Anthony Mann made together, Thunder Bay was relevant in topicality upon its release, and remains so today. Whilst lacking the psychological smarts that the duo's Western productions had, it's a handsome production with the expected qualities in front of and behind the cameras. There's a lot of talky passages, which given the subject matter pulsing away at the core is understandable, but Mann ensures that action and suspense is never far away. It all builds to a crescendo, with loose ends and quibbles conveniently tied up in a Hollywood bow, but such is the skills of actors and director it rounds out as good and thorough entertainment. 7/10

What starts off as a cute conman buddy movie turns into an unexpected dual romance as the pals find girls in a small fishing town, and a locals-against-outsiders fight. James Stewart and Dan Duryea, frequent costars, have great chemistry together as friends who are down on their luck. With failures on their resume and nothing but slick tongues, they con their way into a car ride into town, renting a boat for the day, and hosting a business meeting with an important investor - all without paying. Joanne Dru is skeptical, Gilbert Roland is jealous, Marcia Henderson is interested, and Jay C. Flippen believes in their vision: underwater off-shore drilling.

If you like the actual story of the drilling and the local fisherman trying to sabotage their plans, you'll really enjoy Thunder Bay. I was more interested in the love stories, and I was still happy. Dan Duryea usually plays slimy villains, so I can only imagine what a treat it was for him to be the funny comic sidekick with an eye for the ladies. I've never seen him get to smooch someone after exclaiming, "Oh darling!" It's just adorable. If this is the first movie you see of his, you probably won't be able to imagine him playing a bad guy in his other movies.

This is the mailing , brawling saga of Steve Martin , the Bayou woman he loved and the billion dollar dream of glory he battled into the biggest bonanza of them all . In 1946, a pair of Louisiana wildcat oil drillers , formed by ex-Navy engineer Steve Martin (James Stewart) along with his pal Johnny (Dan Duryea) come to a Louisiana town with a dream : to construct a drill rig . As they believe there is oil at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of the town of Port Felicity. Having finessed financing from a big oil company (managed by Jay C Flippen) , formerly penniless . Steve and his colleague Johnny are in business...and getting interested in shrimp-boat captain Rigaud's two lovely daughters (Joanne Dru , Marcia Henderson) ; however , the fishermen believe they will interfere with their livehoods and problems crop out . In any way , they decide to built the oil platfom in spite of hazards and opposition from the fishing community growing fast , led by Stella Rigaud. Tensions rise between the groups and violence seems likely ..

Action-filled with timely story ,including hurricane , brawls , a near-lynching and free-for-alls , being based on an ahead-of-its-time script and story from John Michael Hayes , George Slavin and George George . There's much of the spirit of the Western here , though , especially astounding the main and support cast giving over-the-top interpretations . This attractive movie deals with a confrontation between Shrimpers and oilmen clashing when an ambitious wildcatter begins constructing an off-shore oilrig ; however , a lot of risks and strong opposition emerges , including sabotage , betrayal , violent fights ...and a treacherous board of directors . James Stewart took a break from their great series of rugged Westerns along with Anthony Mann such as : Winchester 73 , When the river bends , The naked spur , Far horizons , The man from Laramie , to play this equally exciting and action-packed drama story of two wild-catters drilling for oil . James Stewart delivers a very good acting , as usual , as the engineer who wants to build a safe platform for offshore oil drilling and in the end completes the winning formula by getting covered in oil . Support cast is frankly good , plenty of reliable and rich cast of notorious secondaries such as : Marcia Henderson , Jay C Flippen , Gilbert Roland , Antonio Moreno , Robert Monet and Fortunato Bonanova .

Colorful and brilliant cinematography in Technicolor and wide-screen by William Daniels , Greta Garbo's usual cameraman . Being shot on location in Morgan City and on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico . Stirring and moving musical score by Frank Skinner . This Universal International Picture flick lavishly produced by Aaron Rosenberg was competently directed by Anthony Mann . Mann was an expert on all kinds of genres as Thriller/Film Noir such as: Desperate , T Men , Raw Deal , Border incident ; Wartime as Strategic Air command , Men in war , Heroes of Telemark ; Historical and biographical : Reign of terror , El Cid , The fall of the Roman empire , The Glenn Miller story ; and outstanding in Western genre as Devil's doorway with Robert Taylor , The tin star with Henry Fonda , Man of the West with Gary Cooper , The Furies with Barbara Stanwick , Cimarron with Glenn Ford and The tall target .Being his last one, A Dandy in aspic , played and co-directed by Laurence Harvey . Rating : 7/10 . Better than average . Well worth watching . The picture will appeal to James Stewart fans .

The first of two fifties adventure films with heroes called Steve Martin (the second was 'Godzilla' with Raymond Burr)! Shot on location in Morgan City, Louisiana in rich Technicolor (all the better to show off local girl Joanne Dru's vibrant and extremely durable lipstick), this was Jimmy Stewart's first non-western with Anthony Mann; and although easily the least known of their eight films together remains fun.

To 21st Century environmental sensibilities, oil prospectors no longer seem the heroic buccaneering figures they were once portrayed as. The film does acknowledge the disruptive impact Stewart and Duryea have on this sleepy little backwater; as much due simply to being men as oilmen...

Thunder Bay is an anomaly, a pedantic film on a subject seldom dealt with in the movies, the conflict between businessmen, whose ambitions will cause great change in the local landscape, and the locals, who want things to remain as they are. In this case it's oil drillers versus shrimp fisherman in the Louisiana of the early 1950's. The conflict at times seems almost Marxian, with James Stewart's hardheaded, no-nonsense outsider going up against ragin' Cajun Gilbert Roland, a far more charming and sympathetic figure. Rather than shy away from class conflict, the movie confronts the issue repeatedly, in a variety of ways, and builds up a good deal of tension along the way, as Stewart's compulsive, oil drilling loner, increasingly isolated, takes on the entire community.

There's a good deal of fifties sociology here, with the modern, inner-directed Stewart against the tradition-centered fishing people. Neither side understands the other, as one can well see how these local folks would view Stewart as an uncaring and forbidding figure, the embodiment of alien, big city values. On the other hand these people are a rough and tumble lot, uneducated, clannish and utterly without curiosity. It's easy to see how an educated man might look down on them. There's a good deal of action along the way, and some fist-fights. At a time when many Americans still thought of themselves in terms of class, and with the Depression fresh in everyone's minds, it was rather bold of director Anthony Mann to take on this subject from a middle of the road, basically Republican (but not right wing) perspective. In this respect the movie, which came out in the first year of the Eisenhower administration, heralded a new era of compromise, with the promise of better things yet to come. As to which side is right, well, you be the judge. I'm still thinking this over.