Cooper coordinated with Michael Redgrave to launch a major production at the Globe Theatre in London's West End. During previews, the play was entitled "Tower of Light" People ... Thunder Rock Nov 14, 1939 Dec 02, 1939 . It was based on Robert Ardrey's 1939 play Thunder Rock. Kazan, Elia. Thunder Rock also won acclaim. He finally allows Melanie to read the tablet describing their deaths, and tells them all that the civilisation they knew is coming to an imminent end, and he has withdrawn to avoid being witness to its demise. to have had a SCUBA diving shop which was located in Marquette, then known as "Lake Superior Skin Diving Company". Might the play feel more urgent now, in these fever-pitch times? Printed in the Playbill for the Hebbel Theatre production. It was based on Robert Ardrey 's 1939 play Thunder Rock. 4-6. "Footnotes on Headliners" Undated review.

Comedy and romantic entanglements ensue soon after. It was also one of the few pieces of art to focus not only on the European, but also the Asian threat. In his syndicated column, Walter Winchell called the film "a glowing fantasy that lights up the dark corners of many current issues...it manages to be high-class without being highbrow". [8] Dorothy Kilgallen, writing in her Voice of Broadway column, urged any of her out-of-town readers planning a visit to New York to "drop in at the World Theatre...and see the film Thunder Rock...you'll remember it a long time, and it may not play your town. "[6] Redgrave agreed to star, and they launched a production at the Neighbourhood Theatre in London. [35] It continues to be popular among University theater departments. David Charleston (Sir Michael Redgrave), once a world renowned journalist, now lives alone maintaining the Thunder Rock lighthouse in Lake Michigan. Take the opening scenes as an example where a phone call is passed higher and higher through a chain of employees. Undated review, available through The Robert Ardrey Papers 1928-1974.

Take our Saturday evening cruise to view the Thunder Bay Island Lighthouse. [7]:64[12][13][14] Looking for a slightly scary movie to watch this Halloween? Available in the Robert Ardrey Papers. Thunder Bay is the outermost island in a group of islands connected to the north point of Thunder Bay by a shallow bank of numerous rocks, most of which are submerged. [2] The film was given a reissue in 1947. Cynical, embittered newspaperman David Charleston (Sir Michael Redgrave) is tormented, then inspired, by visions he keeps having of people who have drowned. 13 of 18 people found this review helpful. But the battle for “Thunder Rock” has been lost again this time around. . Date: 1942 [37] The other is his 1954 play about the treatment of accused communists in post-Cold War America, Sing Me No Lullaby. Marshall sent the script to then rising star Michael Redgrave, who later wrote, "I thought it one of the most exciting plays I had ever read. In 1940, in recognition of the play, Ardrey was awarded the first ever Sidney Howard Memorial Award for young playwrights. Few would listen. Inspired by their confidence, the lighthouse-keeper returns to useful work, determined to create a new order out of the chaos of the old.[11]. Lighthouses on Lake Michigan. A base camp called “Stannardsville,” established near Skanee, Michigan, 51 miles southwest of the Rock, included barracks, offices, workshops, docks and storage. James Agate wrote that Thunder Rock was "a play infinitely superior in craftsmanship, intellectual interest, pure theater and entertainment value to anything the commercial theater can offer in these heartsearching days. The final straw comes when Charleston is at the cinema, and the newsreel feature comes on the screen detailing the German occupation of the Sudetenland. View production, box office, & company info. The initial inspiration for Thunder Rock came in 1938 while the playwright, Robert Ardrey, then on an extended honeymoon on Nantucket, was working on a different play. "American Play Stirs Londoners." Print, Various Authors. You need to be logged in to continue. "[27] The News and Chronicle described it as "A tonic to the mind, and a bath to the spirit. Thunder Rock by Robert Ardrey In August, 1939, reporter David Charleston, jaded by his coverage of the Spanish Civil War, has retreated to keep a lonely lighthouse on Lake Michigan. Thunder Bay Lighthouse One of the oldest light stations on Lake Huron is located on Thunder Bay Island, situated in the center of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. On a stormy night, they take refuge in the isolated cottage of ... See full summary ».

Such is the predicament of David Charleston (Jed Peterson), the hero of “Thunder Rock.” A journalist who once bestrode the world, he lost not only his objectivity but also his hope when he covered the Spanish Civil War. It took five long, difficult years and a cost of more than $300,000 to build the lighthouse. That this story is an allegory is clear from very early on but the director seems to have wanted to disguise it somehow with unnecessary padding.
David has given up on life, but the imaginary passengers give him hope for the future.

[11], Modern critical assessments of Thunder Rock tend to be equally assertive of the film's lasting merit. Thunder Rock

There's also the case of a doctor who is banished for using unacceptable methods. Few would listen.

I never had the experience again, and I must wonder how many authors have gone through a similar spell. As a call to American intervention in the crisis in Europe it presaged the collapse of American isolationism. Jeffrey Dell and Bernard Miles (himself a member of the original cast) adapted the screenplay. A reviewer for the Radio Times comments that the film "succeeds in creating an atmosphere that is at once haunting, mournful and inspiring. Thunder Rock Through Feb. 9 at the Metropolitan Playhouse, 220 East 4th Street, Manhattan; 800-838-3006, metropolitanplayhouse.org .

Finally convinced, Charleston realises he must return to Europe and carry on his fight for truth and justice against the evil which threatens the continent. [6][7]:66, Thunder Rock has seen many adaptations, including a BBC radio version in 1940 and a 1942 film starring Michael Redgrave and Barbara Mullen with James Mason in a minor role. A firebrand heiress clashes with her tyrannical father, a cattle rancher who fancies himself a Napoleon, but their relationship turns ugly only when he finds himself a new woman. "[31] The play has since been produced in over forty German cities. He wrote "This is a deeply democratic and deeply optimistic play, written at a time when there was a good deal of pessimism about democracy. "[16] Brooks Atkinson, writing for The New York Times, wrote that "Thunder Rock exudes so much thunder, and contains so little rock. [10]:26 By the fall of 1945 the play was up in Budapest and Prague. Archival reviews of British productions of. Charleston discovers the story of proto-feminist Ellen (Mullen), repeatedly persecuted and imprisoned for her progressive views, and becomes particularly emotionally involved with the Kurtz family, progressive medical man Stefan (Frederick Valk) and his sad daughter Melanie (Palmer), who seems to harbour a strange ghostly attraction towards Charleston, which he reciprocates.

He imagines their lives, their problems their fears and their hopes. In 1947 CBS broadcast a radio production; it was awarded a Peabody Award. Can't find a movie or TV show? In a spotty cast that includes a fine Thomas Vorsteg as a disillusioned Spanish Civil War veteran, Peterson brings an appealing naturalness to Charleston, whose most vivid ghosts are the British women’s rights activist Miss Kirby (Teresa Kelsey) and the Viennese doctor Stefan Kurtz (Howard Pinhasik). The Glasgow Herald review was typical, almost appearing to damn the film with faint praise by stating: "Though scarcely so good as the play, the film is by no means ineffective or undistinguished. Ardrey’s themes are enduring enough, though: creeping nationalism, rising isolationism, the despair that descends when one is unable to see a way through current troubles to a better future, or any future at all. Quoted in "Concerning Thunder Rock." Moreover, none of the spirits have any intention of leaving him until he faces up to what he has to do. We are always looking for more location identifications, information, snippets, anecdotes or references. The film is based on the 1939 play Thunder Rock by Robert Ardrey, which had originally been a flop when staged in New York folding within three weeks,[1] but proved to be considerably more successful in London where it ran for months in the West End. He doesn't cash his paychecks and has no contact other than the monthly inspector's visit. All other pre-Pearl Harbor plays of note look exclusively across the Atlantic to Hitler, Mussolini, and Europe. Special Collections Research Library: University of Chicago. You can review our cookie policy to learn more.
Production Company: Charter Film Productions, Stars: Michael Redgrave, Barbara Mullen, James Mason, Lilli Palmer, Finlay Currie A play that insists we face the world's hardships with the frankness of cynicism but respond with the courage of hope, Thunder Rock was first staged by Elia Kazan for The Group Theater in 1939. One intellectual play had an enormous effect in keeping alight a spirit of hope at a time when it was nearer to extinction than it had ever been, either before or after. [4], On its British release in 1942, Thunder Rock received mixed reviews, with critics eager to compare the screen version to the stage play, not always to the former's advantage.

St Martin's Theatre, West st., Shaftesbury Avenue, W.C.2. David Charleston (Sir Michael Redgrave), once a world renowned journalist, now lives alone maintaining the Thunder Rock lighthouse in Lake Michigan. Box 11, Folder 2. And within the course of the performance I had beheld Thunder Rock. The production was mounted at the Mansfield Theater (now the Brooks Atkinson Theater).