The law they swore they’d get him, but the devil got him first!
Thunder Road is one of the great American car films, and the theme from the movie, “The Ballad of Thunder Road,” is one of the great American car songs.
The flick is a true piece of Americana, an important artifact in pop culture. Actor and Hollywood rebel Robert Mitchum served as producer and co-writer of the screenplay, and according to film lore, actually did much of the directing.
For gearheads, the scenes featuring liquor-hauling cars make the movie worth the trip, but there’s plenty more to see—Keely Smith, for instance, in the role of a nightclub chanteuse, while Mitchum is at the height of his screen-smoldering powers. Southerners identified with the story and characters. Released in 1958, the movie remained a drive-in staple in the deep South well into the 1970s.
Mitchum, underrated as a musical artist, also wrote the movie’s theme song, though the film version was performed by Randy Sparks, later of the New Christy Minstrels. Mitchum’s own rendition (below) made the Billboard chart twice, in 1958 and then again in 1962. The fan-made video features lyrics and action footage from the film. Enjoy.
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~ Great movie, great song, great video. I’ve lost count of the number of times I have seen the film. I believe Mitchum is the only leading man to score a number 1 hit with the theme song to a movie in which he stars, produced, wrote and directed. [Take that, Elvis!]