Unrepentant Tennessee moonshine runner Luke Doolin (Robert Mitchum) makes dangerous high-speed deliveries for his liquor-producing father, Vernon (Trevor Bardette), but won't let his younger brother Robin (James Mitchum) join the family business. Under pressure from both out-of-town gangster Kogan (Jacques Aubuchon), who wants a piece of the local action, and Treasury agent Barrett (Gene Barry), who wants to destroy the moonshine business, Luke fights for his fast-fading way of life.
Thunder Road is a 1958 American drama–crime film directed by Arthur Ripley and starring Robert Mitchum, who also wrote the story. The supporting cast features Gene Barry, Jacques Aubuchon, Keely Smith, James Mitchum, Sandra Knight, and Peter Breck. The film's plot concerns running bootleg moonshine in the mountains of Kentucky, North Carolina, and Tennessee in the late 1950s. Thunder Road became a cult film and continued to play at drive-in movie theaters in some southeastern states through the 1970s and 1980s.
