Thunder

Beverly Hills, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [MGM], 1929. Draft script for the 1929 silent film. Manuscript pencil annotations throughout by an unknown editor, with an unsigned typescript note of revisions to producer Hunt Stromberg bound in at the front of the script.

Lon Chaney's penultimate film appearance, and his last silent film, as he would develop walking pneumonia during the film's production which, when combined with his throat cancer, lead to his death two months later, after the release of his final film "The Unholy Three (1930)." Now considered a lost film, as only one reel is known to have survived.

Chaney plays a railroad engineer who is obsessed with running his train on time, to the degree that he causes several tragedies and is ostracized from his family.

Set in Illinois, shot on location in Wisconsin.

Blue titled wrappers, rubber-stamped copy No. 12318 and production No. 1713, dated Feb. 5, 1929, with credits for screenwriters Byron Morgan and Ann Price. Title page integral with the first page of the text, dated Feb. 5, 1929, with credits for screenwriters Morgan and Price. 236 leaves, with last page of text numbered 233. Carbon typescript on onionskin stock. Pages Near Fine, wrapper Very Good bound with two gold brads.

[Book #140500]