Thunderbolt (also released as At The Gates of Death) is a 1929 American pre-Code proto-noir film directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring George Bancroft, Fay Wray, Richard Arlen, Tully Marshall and Eugenie Besserer.

[2][3] Thunderbolt Jim Lang (George Bancroft), wanted on robbery and murder charges, ventures out with his girl, "Ritzy" (Fay Wray), to a Harlem nightclub, where she informs him that she is going straight.

Internationally, filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Alfred Hitchcock, and Dziga Vertov wished to avoid oppressive forms of ”theatrically-influenced dialogue” even as audiences clamored for the novelty of naturalistic speech.

"[14] Sternberg also uses sound expressionistically, such as the erratic start-stop of a sewing machine or the “sinister” squeaking of a dog’s ball toy, squeezed by the condemned criminal in the hours before his death.

[15] Mordaunt Hall writing for The New York Times (June 21, 1929) described the screenplay as “a musical comedy plot striving to masquerade as drama.”[16] Film critic Andrew Sarris would echo that assessment in 1966, writing “Thunderbolt is, in some respects, as much a musical as a melodrama.”[17] Film historian Janet Bergstrom points out that “reviewers were relieved that Sternberg had returned to the gangster genre he had invented and made popular", as in this review entitled “Thunderbolt Registers Hit” from Norbert Lusk of the Los Angeles Times (June 30, 1929): ”Those who applauded [Sternberg’s] Underworld and The Drag Net find new pleasure well worth their patronage…As in previous undertakings of Josef von Sternberg, lighting and direction have brought forth critical praise though in some quarters the observation is made that these more or less synthetic crook stories are unworthy of his ability.

However, there is no denying the skill he employs in assembling the various elements of box-office entertainment…”[18]German filmmaker Ludwig Berger contacted Sternberg via telegram with lavish praise: "I saw your film Thunderbolt and congratulate you with all my heart.