Thunder Bay ** (1953, James Stewart, Joanne Dru, Gilbert Roland, Dan Duryea, Jay C Flippen) – Classic Movie Review 10,534

Director Anthony Mann’s 1953 shrimpers versus oilmen adventure drama Thunder Bay stars James Stewart, Joanne Dru, Dan Duryea, Gilbert Roland and Jay C Flippen.

When oil-drilling engineer Steve Martin (Stewart) believes that oil lies under the sea in the Gulf of Mexico, he comes up against opposition from the local shrimp fishermen, whose livelihood is threatened.

The ever-reliable Stewart, Duryea (as his buddy Gambi), Dru (as Stella Rigaud. the fishergirl he falls for), Roland (as Teche Bossier) and Flippen (as an oil mogul, Kermit MacDonald) make a fine team and all work desperately hard. But they cannot keep a faded film from a soggy end, or hide the fact that it is not one of Stewart’s or director Mann’s best movies.

The subject matter and film techniques seem badly dated, in a way that wouldn’t have happened if it had been a Western. It is worth a look, though, at least for Stewart’s acting, and William H Daniels’s Technicolor cinematography.

Also in the cast are Robert Monet, Marcia Henderson, Harry Morgan, Antonio Moreno, Fortunio Bonanova, Mario Siletti, Frank Chase and Ben Welden.

The screenplay is by Gil Doud and John Michael Hayes.

It is made by Universal International Pictures at Universal Studios, and on location in New Orleans, Louisiana, Morgan City, Louisiana, and Gulf of Mexico, US. It is released by Universal Pictures (1953) (US) and General Film Distributors (1953) (UK).

Although it was filmed in the standard 1.37-1 aspect ratio, Universal chose it for its first widescreen feature, cropping the top and bottom and projecting it at 1.85-1. It was marked Universal’s first use of 3 Channel Stereo sound.

Mann and Stewart made the Westerns Winchester ’73, Bend of the River, The Naked Spur and The Man from Laramie together, as well as The Glenn Miller Story (1954).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,534

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