Thunder Bay

The Louisiana coast after the war. Steve Martin and his partner Johnny believe there is oil under the sea and want to build a rig offshore. They raise the money and arrive at Port Felicity. The town lives on shrimping, and the fishermen are against it: drilling drives the shrimp away, ruins the nets, fouls the water. The oil men say they will strike within six months. Both sides believe they are right and neither gives ground. The rig goes up, and a storm comes. Anthony Mann directs the American film; a hundred and three minutes, with James Stewart as Steve and Dan Duryea as Johnny, and Joanne Dru and Gilbert Roland in the cast. It is one of the films Mann and Stewart made together. The film stands with the oil men; it shows the fishermen's objection, but there is no doubt which side it lets win.