Thunder
Cast & Crew
William Nigh
Lon Chaney
Phyllis Haver
George Duryea
James Murray
Frances Norris
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Twenty-nine minutes late into Chicago, engineer Anderson, nicknamed Grumpy because of his single-minded devotion to timetables and railroad protocol, plows through heavy snowdrifts to make up lost time. His sons have followed into the railroading business, but they are gradually embittered by his apparent callousness. One of them was worked to exhaustion as the fireman of the Chicago run through the snow but gained sympathy from Zella, a nightclub singer whose private car Anderson had refused to tow, forcing her to jump into the cab and ride. His stubborn inflexibility eventually alienates his in-laws, causes the death of one of his sons, and provokes a wreck on the train on which the body was being carried by scuffling with his other son over his culpability for the death. Relegated to the railroad machine shop, he is called to service during the crisis of the Mississippi floods, and he ends up, along with his estranged son, at the throttle of a relief train that blasts through the flooded area on track often submerged as much as 4 feet to save the widow of his son and Zella, who are stranded in the flood area.
Director
William Nigh
Cast
Lon Chaney
Phyllis Haver
George Duryea
James Murray
Frances Norris
Wally Albright Jr.
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
This movie was shot on the Lake Shore Division of the Chicago & North Western Railroad.
Only a few minutes of this film have survived and the film is presumed lost.
Reported to be the last silent film made by Lon Chaney.
