Thunder Rock (1942)

Director:

Roy Boulting

Writers:

Robert Ardrey (play)
Jeffrey Dell (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

16 September 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | War

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Writer | Nazi | California | Salt Lake City Utah | Evolution

Cast

Michael Redgrave	...	David Charleston
Barbara Mullen	...	Ellen Kirby
James Mason	...	Streeter
Lilli Palmer	...	Melanie Kurtz
Finlay Currie	...	Capt. Joshua Stuart
Frederick Valk	...	Dr. Stefan Kurtz
Sybille Binder	...	Anne-Marie Kurtz
Frederick Cooper	...	Edward 'Te' Briggs
Jean Shepherd	...	Mrs. Millie Briggs
Barry Morse	...	Robert
George Carney	...	Harry
Miles Malleson	...	Chairman of Directors
Bryan Herbert	...	Flanning (as Brian Herbert)
James Pirrie	...	Jim - the New Pilot
A.E. Matthews	...	Mr. Kirby
Olive Sloane	...	Woman Director
Tommy Duggan	...	Office Clerk
Tony Quinn	...	Office Clerk
Harold Anstruther	...	British Consul
Alfred Sangster	...	Director
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Victor Beaumont	...	Hans (uncredited)
Josef Goebbels	...	Himself (uncredited) (archive footage)
Gerard Heinz	...	Bit Part (uncredited)
Adolf Hitler	...	Himself (uncredited) (archive footage)
Vi Kaley	...	Old Woman In Cell (uncredited)
David Keir	...	1st Magistrate (uncredited)
Guy Le Feuvre	...	(uncredited)
Andreas Malandrinos	...	Italian Police Chief (uncredited)
Arnold Marlé	...	President of the Medical Society (uncredited)
Raymond Rollett	...	1st Judge (uncredited)

Directed by
Roy Boulting

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Robert Ardrey		play
Jeffrey Dell		screenplay
Bernard Miles		screenplay

Produced by
John Boulting	....	producer

Original Music by
Hans May

Cinematography by
Mutz Greenbaum

Film Editing by
Roy Boulting

Art Direction by
Duncan Sutherland

Costume Design by
Honoria Plesch

Production Management
E.J. Holding	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Mike Johnson	....	assistant director (as Michael Johnson Jnr)
Bill Herlihy	....	third assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Elliot Scott	....	assistant art director (uncredited)

Sound Department
John Cook	....	sound recordist
Percy Dayton	....	boom operator (uncredited)
Walter R. Day	....	sound camera operator (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Frederick Ford	....	special effects (as Fred Ford)
Tom Howard	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Jack Hildyard	....	camera operator
Alan Hume	....	clapper loader (uncredited)
Eugene H.E. Pizey	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Ray Sturgess	....	focus puller (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Clifford Boote	....	associate editor (uncredited)
Eve Catchpole	....	assistant editor (uncredited)

Music Department
Hans May	....	music arranger

Other crew
Phyllis Ross	....	continuity

Production Companies

• Charter Film Productions

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1943) (UK) (theatrical)
• English Films (1944) (USA) (theatrical)
• The Accord Group

Runtime:

112 min | USA:90 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

Sweden:15 | USA:Unrated | UK:A

Company:

Charter Film Productions

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Portrait of Jennie (1948)

A Film with Deep Meanings

Enjoyed this film from 1942 which I have never seen over the years and it captured my attention from the beginning to the very end. It concerns an anti-fascist journalist named David Charleston, (Michael Redgrave) who is a reporter for a newspaper in Canada and he has traveled in Europe and has discovered that Hitler is starting trouble in Germany and there is reason to believe that Japan is also starting problems in China. David has great insight and tries to tell the English people about the threat of Hitler's Germany and to prepare for war in the early 1930's. David writes many books trying to tell the world that they are in big trouble and then decides to retire to a lighthouse in Michigan on the Great Lakes. A good friend of David, named Streeter, (James Mason) visits David at the lighthouse and wants to find out why David never cashes his pay checks for months. Streeter gets upset with the way that David is acting and finds out that he is communicating with dead people that had a shipwreck ninety years ago in the great lakes and in his own mind they are alive and talking to him. These people were European immigrants who wanted to come to America and at the lighthouse there is a Commemorative Tablet speaking about this shipwrecked crew members. This is a very deep and wonderful film with a great story to tell.