just watch it!

Just so...so bad

Brilliant and touching

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

All the reviewers who wished they could see this film again (some of whom saw it originally in 1942!), can now see it again if they are resident British and subscribe to Freeview tv on Channel 81 It is shown regularly on this wonderful channel which I constantly watch if you can put up with the adverts which finances it, as it saves paying for numerous dvds which I used to do before I discovered this tv station.For example, every Sunday @ 9.p.m. GMT they are repeating the wonderful mid 60s episodes of "The Human Jungle" starring Herbert Lom which I originally saw when it was transmitted (I am now 72).Some reviewers thought Thunder Rock was too stagey.Does it matter? I saw the classic R.C.Sherriff's "Journey's End" on Youtube the other day which of course is based on his play.What if Michael Redgrave is a bit declamatory at times, he was an accomplished stage actor first.In 1942 Britain was in a precarious position so of course the Government sought propaganda films to help morale & the war effort.See this film on the aforesaid channel, the tv station is bound to repeat it occasionally.

The sheer tedium of the pacing was enough to make me want to turn this WW II propaganda film off, but I was determined to see it through. The message, however, came stomping over my hopes for some redemption from a very solid cast with unquestioned talents. Sadly, they didn't stand a chance with this gray, grim material that was meant to convey a very plain and unadorned message: Oppression is bad, liberty is good. It is impossible to disagree, but this movie was so drawn out, so yawn-worthy, that it almost undercut the sentiment. Not one of the better products of the difficult war years from Britain's film industry. And, alas, Michael Wilding's central performance was such a sorry one-note of morose self-pity that it was extremely difficult even to want to empathize with him. Times were tough for the British during the Forties but at least they couldn't have been this boring.

The 1940s was certainly the decade where Hollywood was producing many films with psychological overtones (everything from SPELLBOUND to POSSESSED to THE SNAKE PIT), so it comes as no surprise that Britain was also delving into stories where such elements were found in some of the prominent British films of that decade--films like BLACK NARCISSUS where madness overtakes a woman's mind and leads to attempted murder. Here, it's the supernatural that takes center stage.THUNDER ROCK has an intriguing premise and deals more with the supernatural and the effect that the ghostly inhabitants of a lighthouse have on the mind of a disillusioned war correspondent during the WWII era. MICHAEL REDGRAVE is the writer who retreats to a lighthouse in Lake Michigan when he wearies of a world drifting toward fascism and loss of freedom as the Nazi menace increases. His books and speeches meet with indifference by an uncaring public. The inhabitants of the lighthouse (from an 1849 shipwreck) inspire him to have courage and go on with his life and fight for his beliefs.Unfortunately, the allegorical fable of a man visited by the spirits of dead passengers who lost their lives at sea doesn't ring true. The heavy handed treatment of a delicate theme doesn't help. In short, the story never reaches the kind of potential it had--and despite good acting by the entire cast, especially by a young MICHAEL REDGRAVE and JAMES MASON. LILLI PALMER has little to do in a minor role but look worried and decorative.Should have been a memorable film, but the tale is not smoothly told. Instead, it's both overlong and uneven, falling far short of the mark. Perhaps it worked better as a play or novel, but the screen version is too diffuse, overlong and preachy to make a lasting impression.Trivia note: In overall concept, the story is reminiscent of the play "Outward Bound" which was filmed in the '30s and remade in the '40s as BETWEEN TWO WORLDS, a more successful allegory/fantasy.

I saw Thunder Rock as a student in Toronto (Canada)when it came out in about 1942. Thought the plot has faded somewhat in my memory, the acting, the allegorical inferences and the very remarkable optical distortions that said far more than words--all of these have stayed with me for the sixty years since that time.I'd love to see it revived for viewing.