page_title: Thunder the Dog
section_title: Black Lightning, 1924
hierarchical_section_title: Thunder the Dog / Film career / Black Lightning, 1924
caption_attribution_description: Movie poster for the 1924 film Black Lightning with Clara Bow.
context_page_description: Thunder the Dog was a male German Shepherd that performed in American silent films from 1923 through 1927. Although Thunder's filmography is rather brief, his six- and seven-reel features were much longer and more elaborate than the films in which many of his fellow canine actors appeared during the silent era. His releases did, though, have to compete in the 1920s with other feature films starring rival German Shepherds such as Peter the Great, Napoleon, Rex, and, most notably, Strongheart and Rin Tin Tin. During his career, Thunder worked for Paramount, Gotham Pictures, and Fox Film Corporation; and he shared screen time with Clara Bow, Dorothy Dalton, William Russell, Caryl Lincoln, and other prominent actors of the period.
context_section_description: After Beneva's uncredited performance in The Law of the Lawless, Gotham Pictures cast him to star in its 1924 feature Black Lightning with the new screen name "Thunder the Marvel Dog". Gotham also contracted actress Clara Bow to perform with him in a "supporting" role. The film received generally high marks in trade publication reviews; but, more importantly, the vast majority of theater owners and audiences enjoyed Thunder's performance. Theater owner Herbert Shaw in Morgantown, West Virginia judged Black Lightning to be "The best dog picture produced in some time. Much better than Strongheart and Rin Tin Tin." T. L. Barnett, owner of Finn's Theatre in Jewett City, Connecticut, agreed. "I think", Barnett declared, "that Thunder is more of an actor than either Strongheart or Rin-Tin-Tin". In Phoenix, The Arizona Republican newspaper also credited Thunder with "doing some of the best acting ever done by an animal on the screen." Such positive reactions to Black Lightning convinced Gotham to develop several more films starring the new police dog.
  The plot of Black Lighting includes scenes of Thunder saving a wounded soldier "from the firing line" at the Battle of Verdun in France during World War I. To help promote the new dog hero, Gotham and some media outlets freely incorporated the war-related elements of Black Lightning into Thunder's own biography and fabricated tales of his duties and heroism at the real battle. George T. Pardy in his review of the film in the November 29, 1924 issue of Exhibitors Trade Review encourages theater owners to use Thunder as the "main object of your exploitation" and to tout his many "feats of valor" at Verdun. Since Thunder's pedigree records show that his birth occurred nearly three years after the war ended, any allusions to such "feats" in that issue or in any other period publication are indeed fraudulent.
caption: Thunder's first starring role "supported by Clara Bow", 1924
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