Thunder Road

In 1958, Robert Mitchum starred in Thunder Road (no relation to the Bruce Springsteen song). He produced it, wrote the story, and even co-wrote the theme song. Some think he directed it, but it's credited to Arthur Ripley.

The film has been a cult favorite in the South, as Mitchum plays a driver for his moonshining family. In the hills of Tennessee, Mitchum delivers liquor to distributors but they are not taxed, and are therefore targets of the Treasury Department (who are known as revenuers). Gene Barry plays the guy after Mitchum.

There's also another person  after Mitchum, a gang boss who wants to muscle in on the whole territory. A driver from another moonshining family is murdered, and Mitchum is one step ahead of two groups after him.

Also in the film are Mitchum's son, Jim, who plays his brother (the resemblance is obvious). This role was supposed to be played by Elvin Presley, but Colonel Tom Parker asked for more money than the entire budget of the film. Keely Smith, the singer who just died last week, plays Mitchum's girlfriend, a nightclub singer.

The film plays fast and loose with morals. What the hill people are doing is illegal, and they know it, but the money is too good. Mitchum is portrayed as heroic, even though he is a criminal (he's got the forelock of hair hanging on his forehead, perfectly placed). Since it's 1958 and films must show that crime does not pay, Mitchum gets his comeuppance, but that feels tacked on. The other film about liquor drivers, The Last American Hero, is unfettered by these kind of morals.