The Stalking Moon
  • The Stalking Moon
  • Cracked Leather Armchair
  • The Small Screen
  • About Me
    • Cool things About Japan
    • Travel Recollections
    • Contact me

Thunder Bay (1953)

4/16/2014

 
Picture
Johnny Gambi:
(Dan Duryea)


Steve Martin:
(James Stewart)
Can you, uh, juggle or anything like that? We might pick up a few bucks.

I can imitate a movie star.

From 1950 to 1955, James Stewart made 8 films with director Anthony Mann, five of them westerns. Everyone always talks about those westerns, and they are all undeniably wonderful, each in their own way, but the colorful adventure drama Thunder Bay usually gets overlooked whenever the Stewart/Mann collaboration is brought up, and it's a shame. Perhaps it doesn't quite hit the heights of their best films together, such as The Man From Laramie or Bend of the River, but it's an exciting, absorbing film in its own right, and deserves to be better known.

Picture
1946, Louisiana. Ex-G.I. buddies Steve Martin (Stewart) and Johnny Gambi (Dan Duryea) have spent all their mustering out pay to gamble on a wild scheme: Steve is convinced that there's oil out in the bay, and he knows how to get it. With a mix of hucksterism and the passion of a true visionary, Steve convinces the lease holder, oil tycoon Kermit "Mac" McDonald (J.C. Flippen), to bankroll the building of an offshore oil rig. Mac, a former wildcatter with a hardscrabble background himself, senses a kindred spirit in Steve and agrees to fund the extra $1 million to complete the project, against his company's financial adviser's (Henry Morgan) and board members wish' with one condition: they have to build the derrick and strike oil before Mac's lease runs out...in three measly months away.

Getting the funds proves the least of Steve and Gambi's problems, however, as the town's shrimp fishermen, experiencing several years of bad luck and poor catches, soon come to resent the oil men's presence, starting with their dynamiting shrimp beds to test for the best location for the rig. One of the more vociferous opponents is Stella Rigaud (Joanne Dru), daughter of veteran fisherman Dominique (Antonio Moreno). Stella once left her little backwater town for life in the big city and was burned badly in a relationship with an oil man not so unlike Steve. More amenable to the pair - especially the affable, boisterous Gambi - is Stella's pretty younger sister, Francesca (Marcia Henderson). Gambi is soon in hot pursuit, enchanting Francesca and luring her away from her stolid boyfriend, Philippe (Robert Monet). Also in the mix is local tough guy and charming blowhard Teche Bossier (Gilbert Roland), who's happy enough in lean times to take the oil men's money, but changes his tune when he feels the shrimp business that is his, and the town's, heart-and-soul is threatened.

To make his dream of being the first person to strike oil offshore come true, Steve drives  Gambi and his crew of workmen hard - but he's even harder on himself, pursuing his plan with a single-minded determination that at times borders on obsession. Despite her bitterness over her past experience, Stella gradually begins to thaw towards Steve, but when a disgruntled Phillippe, reluctantly assisted by Teche, tries to blow up the rig during a big storm, Steve is incensed, convinced that Stella had something to do with it. Meanwhile, Gambi's growing more and more tired of Steve's hardcharging management style, and is on the verge of quitting. With time running out, the board's funding pulled, and nearly everyone (town and workers alike) turning against him, it seems Steve's chance of a big offshore oil strike is disappearing before his eyes...


Read More
    Picture

    Videophilia!

    Opinionated ramblings about new and old  movies (mostly old, as that's the way I like 'em!)

    Picture

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Blogs of Note

    Stuart Galbraith IV's World Cinema Paradise

    Movie Morlocks (TCM's Classic Movie Blog)

    50 Westerns from the 50s

    Riding the High Country

    Sweet Freedom

    Tipping My Fedora

    Thrilling Days of Yesteryear

    Silver Screenings


    Laura's Miscellaneous Musings

    Classic TV and Film Cafe

    Just a Cineast

    She Blogged By Night


    Chess, Comics, Crosswords, Books, Music, Cinema

    Out of the Past -
    A Classic Film Blog


    Pretty Sinister Books

    They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To

    In So Many Words...

    Greenbriar Picture Shows

    Flix Chatter

    My Love of Old Hollywood

    Tales of the Easily Distracted

    Another Old Movie Blog

    Lasso the Movies

    Kevin's Movie Corner

    Films From Beyond the Time Barrier

    Carole & Co.

    Rupert Pupkin Speaks

    Caftan Woman

    Vienna's Classic Hollywood

    The Lady Eve's Reel Life

    ClassicBecky's Brain Food

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Hey! 
    Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed below, to be informed of new postings!

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Categories

    All
    10 Best
    1960s Sci-Fi
    1970s Sci-Fi
    20 Million Miles To Earth
    50 Years Of James Bond
    70s Crime Films
    7 Faces Of Dr. Lao
    Abbott And Costello
    Abbott & Costello
    A Boy And His Dog
    Air Force
    Alan Ladd
    Alien
    A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010)
    Attack Of The Crab Monsters
    Bad Guys
    Basil Rathbone
    Beneath The 12-Mile Reef
    Bernard Herrmann
    Bite The Bullet
    Black Belt Jones
    Blade 2
    Blogathons
    Boris Karloff
    Brides Of Dracula
    British Empire In Film Blogathon
    Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter
    Carole Lombard
    Caroline Munro
    Cary Grant
    Cecil B. DeMille
    Charade
    Charles Bronson
    Charles Coburn
    Charlton Heston
    Christopher Lee
    Circus World
    Claudette Colbert
    Clint Eastwood
    Clint Walker
    Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
    Colossus: The Forbin Project
    Dark Of The Sun
    Dark Shadows
    Deadlier Than The Male
    Desk Set
    Dirty Harry
    Disaster Movies
    Dog Soldiers
    Donovan's Reef
    Dorothy Malone
    Douglas Sirk
    Dr. No
    Elmore Leonard
    Ernest Borgnine
    Fantastic Voyage
    Fast And Furious
    Fast And Loose
    Fast Company
    Four Frightened People
    From Russia With Love
    Garden Of Evil
    Gargoyles
    Gary Cooper
    George-montgomery
    Giant Of Marathon
    Gladiator
    Gordon Scott
    Gregory Peck
    Halloween
    Hammer Horror
    Hardboiled93338e779d
    Hard Times
    Has Anybody Seen My Gal
    Haywire
    Heat
    Henry Fonda
    Hold That Ghost
    Hombre
    Horror
    Horror Express
    Hot Potato
    House Of Wax
    Howard Hawks
    How The West Was Won
    I Love A Mystery
    Il Postino
    Isle Of The Dead
    It! The Terror From Beyond Space
    I Walked With A Zombie
    James Bond
    James Coburn
    James Stewart
    Jaws
    Jim Brown
    Jim Kelly
    John Carpenter
    John Cassavetes
    John Ford
    John Garfield
    John Wayne
    Katherine Hepburn
    Key Largo
    Kirk Douglas
    Lee Marvin
    Legend Of The Lost
    Lives Of A Bengal Lancer
    Love Before Breakfast
    Marilyn Monroe
    Memorable Movie Dads
    Mickey Spillane
    Mirage
    Monster On The Campus
    Musicals
    My Man Godfrey
    Mysterious Island
    My Top 25 Films
    Night Of The Grizzly
    Once Upon A Time In The West
    Only The Valiant
    Open Range
    Pandorum
    Paranoiac
    Paul Newman
    Peter Cushing
    Phase IV
    Phenomena
    Poltergeist
    Rampage
    Randolph Scott
    Raquel Welch
    Raw Meat
    Ray Harryhausen
    Ride Lonesome
    River Of No Return
    Robert Aldrich
    Robert Mitchum
    Robert Wagner
    Rock Hudson
    Rod Taylor
    Roy Scheider
    Sean Connery
    Shotgun
    Silent Running
    Sleepy Hollow
    Sophia Loren
    Soylent Green
    Spencer Tracy
    Starman
    Sterling Hayden
    Steve Mcqueen
    Steve Reeves
    Stewart Granger
    Tarzan The Magnificent
    The Abominable Dr. Phibes
    The Andromeda Strain
    The Awakening
    The Badlanders
    The Big Country
    The Birds
    The Black Scorpion
    The Black Swan
    The Blob
    The Body Snatcher
    The Cat And The Canary
    The Crawling Eye
    The Creature From The Black Lagoon
    The Dark Knight Rises
    The Devil Rides Out
    The Expendables 2
    The Face Of Fu Manchu
    The Falcon
    The Fearless Vampire Killers
    The Fog
    The Getaway
    The Ghost Breakers
    The Girl Hunters
    The Gorgon
    The Great Escape
    The Hole
    The Invisible Man
    The Last Of The Mohicans
    The Last Sunset
    The Late Show
    The Laughing Policeman
    The Leopard Man
    The Lone Gun
    The Long Goodbye
    The Man With The Golden Gun
    The Mark Of Zorro
    The Matrix
    The Mechanic
    The Monster That Challenged The World
    The Night Strangler
    The Omega Man
    The Outfit
    The Princess Comes Across
    The Shining
    The Shootist
    The Thing
    The Thing From Another World
    The Tingler
    The Uninvited
    The Wild Bunch
    The Wild North
    Thomas Mitchell
    Thunder Bay
    Tom Conway
    Tony Randall
    Trollhunter
    Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil
    Two-Minute Warning
    Tyrone Power
    Underrated Detective/Mystery Movies
    Val Lewton
    Vincent Price
    Walter Matthau
    Went The Day Well?
    Westerns
    Westworld
    William Powell
    William Wyler
    Ww2
    Yvonne De Carlo

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Archives

    September 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • The Stalking Moon
  • Cracked Leather Armchair
  • The Small Screen
  • About Me
    • Cool things About Japan
    • Travel Recollections
    • Contact me