Word: thunderbolting
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...were boring a 3,500-ft. river-diversion tunnel, blasting a huge underground powerhouse from the bowels of a mountain. The air was blue with humidity; the sides of the cavern dripped water; every so often, a chunk of rock broke loose, came crashing down like a thunderbolt in a closet. The men knew that they might catch amoebic dysentery, malaria, or many another crippling tropical disease, that it would rain every day, that they would not see their families for months...
...news struck the capital like a thunderbolt. It marked the first time that the loyalty of a U. S. scientist of Oppenheimer's imposing stature had been revealed under investigation. From the Boston Herald of April...
When Tight Little Island set audiences chuckling here and abroad, British film producer sealized that the antics of provincial communities were an untapped reservoir of humor. The latest in the stream of hinterland hilarity, Titfield Thunderbolt, should send the cinema men back into the drawing room. For although the film has a relatively well-known cast and Technicolor scenery resembling British Railways posters, it has very few funny lines and its slapstick is unimaginative...
Like Tight Little Island, Titfield Thunderbolt catches the efforts of a small village trying to thwart the stuffiness of legal procedure. Faced with losing their venerated by uneconomical railroad service, the population decides to buy the line and operate it themselves. Since the train provides a convivial place to drink before the doors to the town pub officially swing, an affluent lush happily furnishes the money for the project. Intrigue follows in the form of nefarious busline operators and a pompous London transportation official. However, a sentimental cleric, who gets the town behind him by pointing out the local motive...
Attempting to hastle according to the stage directions, Stanley Holloway leads the cast as the liquor-loveing philanthropist. He is effective in several of the early scenes, but finally succumbs to the thinness of the story. Hugh Griffith playing the Thunderbolt's fireman delivers the most convincing performances. Unfortunately, only a few laughs depend upon his part...