Thunder in the Sun is a 1959

1959 in film

The year 1959 in film involved some significant events, with Ben-Hur winning a record 11 Academy Awards.-Events:* The Three Stooges make their 190th and last short film, Sappy Bull Fighters....

 western

Western (genre)

The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

  made by Carrollton Inc and Seven Arts Productions

Seven Arts Productions

Seven Arts Productions was founded in 1957 by Ray Stark and Eliot Hyman. The company was a frequent producer of movies for other studios, including The Misfits for United Artists, Gigot for Twentieth Century-Fox, Lolita for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and Is Paris Burning? for Paramount Pictures.Over...

 and distributed by Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

. It was directed by Russell Rouse

Russell Rouse

Russell Rouse was an American screenwriter, director, and producer who is noted for the "offbeat creativity and originality"of his screenplays and for film noir movies and television episodes produced in the 1950s....

 and produced by Clarence Greene

Clarence Greene

Clarence Greene was an American screenwriter and film producer who is noted for the "offbeat creativity and originality of his screenplays and for film noir movies and television episodes produced in the 1950s.-Career:...

 from a screenplay

Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

 by Russell Rouse and
Stewart Stern

Stewart Stern

Stewart Stern is a two-time Oscar-nominated and Emmy award winning American screenwriter. He is best known for writing the screenplay for the iconic film Rebel Without A Cause , starring James Dean.-Writing:...

, based on a story by James Hill

James Hill

James Hill may refer to:*James Hill , former professional American football tight end*James Hill , British film and television director...

 and Guy Trosper

Guy Trosper

Guy Trosper was an American screenwriter. He came to prominence in Hollywood because of his scripts for two baseball movies: The Stratton Story in 1949, a big hit for James Stewart, and The Pride of St...

. The music score was by Cyril J. Mockridge

Cyril J. Mockridge

Cyril J. Mockridge was an English film and television composer who composed the scores for such films as Grand Canary, Danger - Love at Work, In the Meantime, Darling, Wake Up and Dream, Nightmare Alley, and Road House...

 and the cinematography

Cinematography

Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...

 by Stanley Cortez

Stanley Cortez

Stanley Cortez, A.S.C. was an American cinematographer. He worked on over seventy films, including Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons , Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter , Nunnally Johnson's The Three Faces of Eve , and Samuel Fuller's Shock Corridor and The...

.

The film stars Susan Hayward

Susan Hayward

Susan Hayward was an American actress.After working as a fashion model in New York, Hayward travelled to Hollywood in 1937 when open auditions were held for the leading role in Gone with the Wind . Although she was not selected, she secured a film contract, and played several small supporting...

 and Jeff Chandler

Jeff Chandler (actor)

Jeff Chandler was an American film actor and singer in the 1950s.-Early life:Chandler was born Ira Grossel to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, the only child of Anna and Phillip Grossel. He attended Erasmus Hall High School, the alma mater of many stage and film personalities...

 with Jacques Bergerac

Jacques Bergerac

Jacques Bergerac is a former French actor with a brief Hollywood film career.Originally a lawyer, Bergerac met and married Ginger Rogers with whom he appeared in Twist of Fate . He then went on to appear as Armand Duval in a television production of Camille for Kraft Television Theatre, opposite...

, Blanche Yurka

Blanche Yurka

Blanche Yurka was an American theatre and film actress.Born in St Paul, Minnesota, Yurka was an opera star before she became an actress. She made her Broadway debut in 1910 and established herself as a character actor, also appearing in several films...

, Carl Esmond

Carl Esmond

Carl Esmond was an Austrian stage actor, born in Vienna, Austria. His birth name was Willy Eichberger which he later changed to Charles Esmond and finally to Carl Esmond. Like many of his fellow actors, Esmond fled Nazi Germany to England during World War II. Esmond continued to appear on the...

, Fortunio Bonanova

Fortunio Bonanova

Fortunio Bonanova is the pseudonym of Josep Lluís Moll , who was a baritone singer and a film, theater, and television actor...

, Alvaro Guillot

Alvaro Guillot

Alvaro Guillot was a French artist born in Uruguay. He was a notable exponent of the "new surrealist school".- External links :***...

 and Veda Ann Borg

Veda Ann Borg

Veda Ann Borg was an American film actress.Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Borg was the daughter of Gottfried Borg, a Swedish immigrant and Minna Noble. She became a model in 1936 before winning a contract at Paramount Pictures. A car crash in 1939 necessitated drastic reconstruction of her face by...

.

Plot

The film shows a family of French Basque immigrants

Basque diaspora

The Basque diaspora is the name given to describe people of Basque origin living outside their traditional homeland on the borders between Spain and France...

 pioneering into the Wild West while carrying their ancestral vines.

It is infamous among Basques for its misunderstandings of Basque customs, such as the use of the xistera (a device of the jai alai

Jai alai

Jai alai is a sport involving a ball bounced off a walled space. It is a variety of Basque Pelota. The term, coined by Serafin Baroja in 1875, is also often loosely applied to the fronton where the sport is played...

 sport) as a weapon or shouting irrintzi

Irrintzi

Irrintzi is an armed Basque nationalist group or cell that acts in the French Basque Country . The word irrintzi refers originally to the traditional Basque folk high pitched scream used to express celebration or happiness....

ululation

Ululation

A is a long, wavering, high-pitched vocal sound resembling a howl with a trilling quality. It is produced by emitting a high pitched loud voice accompanied with a rapid movement of the tongue and the uvula. The term ululation is an onomatopoeic word derived from Latin...

s as meaningful communication.