Thunder in the City

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Thunder in the City
Thunder in the City 1937 poster.jpg
1937 Theatrical Poster
Directed by Marion Gering
Written by Robert E. Sherwood (screenplay) &
Aben Kandel (screenplay) &
Ákos Tolnay (screenplay)
Jack E. Jewell (scenario)
Dudley Storrick (additional dialogue)
Produced by Alexander Esway (producer)
Richard Vernon (assistant producer)
StarringSee below
Cinematography Alfred Gilks
Edited by Arthur Hilton
Music by Miklós Rózsa
Production
company
Atlantic Film Company
Distributed by United Artists (UK)
Columbia Pictures (US)
Release dates
  • 13 January 1937 (1937-01-13)(UK)
  • 22 April 1937 (1937-04-22)(US)
Running time
87 minutes (US)
88 minutes (UK)
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Box office$300,000 [1]

Thunder in the City is a 1937 British drama film directed by Marion Gering and starring Edward G. Robinson, Luli Deste, Nigel Bruce and Ralph Richardson. [2]

Contents

Plot

An American salesman with radically successful methods visits England ostensibly to learn a more dignified manner of salesmanship. He is mistaken for a millionaire by a cash-poor family of noble ancestry with a stately home to sell which he can't afford to buy. But by working with them instead he finds romance and equal success in business with his old marketing techniques.

Cast

Soundtrack

Main dramatic Score by Miklos Rozsa.

Reception

Writing for The Spectator in 1937, Graham Greene gave the film a poor review, labeling it "worst English film of the quarter". Greene criticized the special effects and its "complete ignorance - in spite of its national studio - of English life and behaviour". Conceding that the film is, after all, a fantasy, Greene nonetheless complains that "even a fantasy needs some relation to life". [3]

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References

  1. "Baynes' Setback". Variety. 10 August 1938. p. 17.
  2. BFI.org
  3. Greene, Graham (19 March 1937). "Pluck of the Irish/The Sequel to Second Bureau/Thunder in the City/Head Over Heels". The Spectator . (reprinted in: Taylor, John Russell, ed. (1980). The Pleasure Dome. Oxford University Press. pp. 138–139. ISBN   0192812866.)