Thunder in the City (1937)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Marion Gering's Thunder In The City (1937) is an utterly pretentious farce. It rightly belongs in the Fairy Tale genre as well.However, I enjoyed viewing this film tremendously. The entertainment value of this film for me is as high as it can get. Perhaps something in me not only as a film fanatic, but also just as a human being really related to the characters in this film. I wanted to be one of them. I wanted to crawl into the screen and be with these people as they played out this highly improbable tale. If this film is a fairy tale, then I guess that it is somehow my fairy tale too.This film is an example of good cinematic storytelling. Although it is a highly improbable story, and the acting overall, especially that of Edward G Robinson, is very pretentious, this story impacted me in a very favorable manner. The storyline is well thought out, and is not at all predictable.I will remember viewing this film for a long time, and will probably view it again soon in the future. I suppose that I just want to vicariously relive this pretentious, farcical, fairy tale again.

The Atlantic Film Company only released one film--"Thunder in the City". I know nothing about this British company but was surprised to see a big star from the era, Edward G. Robinson, slumming it with a small production company instead of working with familiar old Warner Brothers. Regardless of why he agreed to this, it turned out to be an enjoyable sort of movie.The film begins with Robinson being fired from his job. It seems his way of marketing didn't sit well with the company, as they didn't like his hard sell techniques. On a whim, he decides to travel to the UK to look up some relatives and ends up coming up with a crazy scheme to market something that he knows nothing about--a mineral called magnalite. And, he actually is able to pull it off with a nationwide crazy blitz that got the Brits abuzz about this 'miracle metal'. However, the path to riches isn't all THAT easy, as he's about to discover the hard way.Robinson turns in a rather delightful performance as a good-hearted huckster. However, he's ably supported by a nice cast that includes Ralph Richardson and Nigel Bruce (among others). Not a brilliant film by any means but enjoyable throughout. Fluff? Perhaps...but enjoyable fluff!

Nigel Bruce, Watson to Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes in the 1939 "Hound of the Baskervilles" and of the 1940s Holmes movies, was usually cast as a befuddled and kindly Englishman. The actual second son of a baronet, in this 1937 movie he portrays the English Duke who owns an African mine of useless metal no one knows anything about. Edward G. Robinson plays a brash American who gets involved in promoting the mineral. Ralph Richardson, later knighted by the Queen for theatrical excellence, makes an early film appearance. He later played Dr. Watson on British radio with Sir John Geilgud as Holmes. Arthur Wontner made 5 British Sherlock Holmes movies in the early to mid 1930s. Here he makes small but effective appearances as the English cousin of Robinson's returning American, the father of adult children and the owner of an enormous estate that Robinson gets lost in. This is not an exciting, complex movie, but serves a purpose in filmdom for bringing together Bruce, Richardson and Wonter in one story. I plan on winning some bets with other Sherlockians with this information. P.S. I liked the movie itself, it had all the content of an episode of "Friends".

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.