Josef von Sternberg's THUNDERBOLT (1929) George Bancroft & Fay Wray Crime Drama

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 close shot of gangster "
Thunderbolt
" Jim Lang (
George Bancroft
) putting the move
s on his girl,
Ritzie (
Fay Wra
y
), as she tries to reject his advances. It is in fine+ condition with some small scattered creases in the side borders which just enter the background area (and slightly into the right side of Wray's hat); a 2 in. long by 0.5 in. wide rectangular area of restoration in the yellow background just beneath the center of the top border; and some scattered signs of light wear in the borders. There are no pinholes, tears, stains, writing, or other flaws and the color tints are especially fresh and vibrant without any signs of fading. 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.