In movies, people are always taking sanctuary in churches, monasteries and convents, but I do not recall ever hearing about somebody doing this in real life. This is what residents of a flooded town do in 1951’s Thunder on the Hill, taking shelter in a hilltop convent. As for me, I wasn’t taken in when I charged into a church shouting “SANCTUARY!” like I was the hunchback of Notre Dame. How could I know I would be disrupting a wedding? Things went even worse the time I loudly tried to seek diplomatic immunity at an International House of Pancakes.
One of the arrivals is Ann Blyth, playing a woman convicted of murdering her brother. She was being transported to her execution by hanging when washed-out roads forced this layover. Despite Blyth’s belligerent manner, head nun Claudette Colbert comes to believe she is innocent.
Colbert has a great role here: a highly intelligent and resourceful manager of a large building and those who do their work in it. She’s the kind of person who keeps her head in a crisis. I was reminded of Deborah Kerr’s role in Black Narcissus. And, if you don’t know that movie, stop reading and watch that immediately. I’ll still be here when you get back.
I watched this picture as part of one of the sets in Kino Lorber’s excellent Dark Side of Cinema noir collection. I am glad I got to see this picture, though I wouldn’t label it as noir. Instead, this is solidly melodrama, as one would expect from Douglas Sirk, the go-to director of “women’s pictures” in that era.
Colbert and Blyth both turn in solid performances and are supported by a decent cast. Connie Gilchrist is particularly noteworthy as Colbert’s enthusiastic second-in-command, the kind of person who finds joy in their work. She especially cherishes old newspapers and has more uses for them than even a homeless person would. This actually figures into the plot, as she helps Colbert research the history of Blyth’s case via newspapers she used for shelf liners. A nice touch is how they work backwards through time, finding each previous edition according to the order of the projects Gilchrist had worked on.
A decent but less convincing performance is delivered by Michael Pate as a person of diminished mental capabilities except for when the script needs him to be smarter. He’s kind of the Forest Gump of the picture. You know, he’s dense as the bogs surrounding the convert, yet is the only person able to retrieve a boat. Then he demonstrates frankly unbelievable metal powers when he decides to destroy the boat after it is used, so nobody can easily transport a potentially innocent woman to be hanged.
Still, I couldn’t help but enjoy his interactions with other characters, especially Gilchrist, who gently chastises his sloppy eating with, “Put the food in your mouth not your mouth in the food.” I think I saw that on a sign once at a Golden Corral.
I wasn’t able to fully suspend my disbelief while watching Thunder on the Hill, but I enjoyed it, regardless. In a way, it is like the title, as thunder cannot actually strike anything—despite what AC/DC says.
Dir: Douglas Sirk
Starring Claudette Colbert, Ann Blyth
Watched as part of Kino Lorber’s Dark Side of Cinema II blu-ray boxed set