Josef von Sternberg's THUNDERBOLT (1929) Crime Drama Fay Wray & Richard Arlen

Description

Vintage original 11 x 14 in. (28 x 35 cm.) US lobby card
from the classic 1920's early sound crime drama,
THUNDERBOLT
, released in 1929 by Paramount Pictures and
directed by Josef von Sternberg
. A criminal known as Thunderbolt (George Bancroft) is imprisoned and facing execution. Into the next cell is placed Bob Moran (Richard Arlen), an innocent man who has been framed and who is in love with Thunderbolt's girl (Fay Wray). Thunderbolt hopes to stave-off the execution long enough to kill young Moran for romancing her. The cast includes Tully Marshall, Eugenie Besserer, James Spottswood, Robert Elliott, Fred Kohler, and E.H. Calvert.
The image features a dramatic close shot of Bob Moran (
Richard Arlen
)
pushing away "Snapper" O'Shea (
James Spottswood
) as
Ritzie (
Fay Wra
y
) watches the man whom she has feelings for. It is in very good condition and has been professionally paper-backed to address a vertical tear on the bottom border and a vertical crease at the top of the background area. There is a 5 x 0.5 in. vertical area of restoration immediately to the left of Spottswood's jacket in the tan background area and the borders have been air-brushed. The color tints are especially fresh and vibrant without any signs of fading and this card was printed during a time when Paramount used very rich and bright colors to showcase their lobby cards.
Thunderbolt
is a revolutionary early sound film which made use of asynchronous dialogue long before this became standard and directed by the highly-regarded director of world cinema, Josef von Sternberg with Art Direction by Hans Drier. The script was by Charles and Jules Furthman and Herman J. Mankiewicz. Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Sternberg wrote the dialogue. Star George Bancroft received his only Academy Award nomination for his performance in this film, though nominations were not official that year.