until i saw the night of the hunter , it had been a long time since i had gasped while watching a movie .
forget the others and the deep end ( which veered toward strained dramatics ) , the night of the hunter is by far the scariest movie i 've seen so far this year .
even though the movie is nearly 50 years old and there 's a not drop of blood to be seen .
luckily , the night of the hunter , charles laughton 's first and final directing gig , has been restored by the ucla film and television archive and is being re - released in october 2001 .
so , there 's still plenty of time to spill your popcorn all over the place .
robert mitchum stars as harry powell , a reverend with a nasty habit of courting and then killing widows for their cash .
his newest target is young mother willa harper ( shelley winters ) ,
whose murderer husband ben ( peter graves ) has hidden $ 10 , 000 somewhere .
powell finds out about the stash and decides to court mrs .
harper after he 's released and ben is hanged .
but finding the money is n't easy for powell , who must contend with his stepchildren ( billy chapin and sally jane bruce ) , who know where the money is , but are n't telling .
the hard part about seeing a classic now is the pop culture monster has usually drawn and quartered and then flaunted all the memorable moments , thus ruining the spontaneity and adventure when we finally watch it for the first time .
how many spoofs or salutes to the shower scene in psycho have we seen in other movies ?
what about the brilliant baby stroller sequence from battleship potemkin ?
( no , i 'm not blaming brian de palma entirely for this sampling problem . )
yes , there are some visual elements that other directors seem to have borrowed from the night of the hunter .
powell 's " love " and " hate " knuckle tattoos obviously influenced spike lee in do the right thing ( remember radio raheem ? ) .
and powell 's black suit , with black tie and white shirt , could have shaped quentin tarantino 's early visual style .
seeing the night of the hunter for the first time , i was amazed at how much it crackled with wicked wit and fright and how much intensity was intact .
you can now sign me up as president of the robert mitchum fan club .
he plays the role with a controlled malice that induces unease every time he appears .
he 's like the senior class president with an evil streak .
if i ever need to stay awake , i 'll just picture him crooning , " leaning . . . leaning . . . .
"
any actor who wants to play a character with a touch of evil should study his performance the way a rabbinical student studies the torah . and credit must be handed out to laughton and cinematographer stanley cortez , who create a series of haunting , surreal shadowy images over the rural depression - era backdrop .
it 's a testament to both men that they 're able to invigorate what has become a hackneyed storyline ( kids harassed by evil guardians ) by sticking to the old maxim that we 're more scared by what we do n't see .
screenwriter and legendary film critic james agee
does a beautiful job giving shape and substance to an array of supporting characters : the drunk birdie ( james gleason ) who 's haunted by his wife , and the spoons ( evelyn varden and walt spoon ) whose marriage has become a verbal vaudeville act .
the only lapse is the movie 's third act , when pearl and john run away from home and find a home with the motherly , bible - reading mrs .
cooper ( lillian gish ) .
her showdown with powell is memorable --
a battle done with dueling hymns .
however , the whole segment feels a little rushed and underdone , but it 's still a thrill seeing the queen of the silent film era handling a shotgun .
do yourself favor and do n't miss this if it comes to a nearby theater .
note : a series of revealing , but overlong , outtakes preceded the movie .
the highlights included the legendary laughton ( who sounds eerily like mr .
pitt from seinfeld ) running winters ' lines with mitchum , and the adorable , tiny bruce having trouble descending a coal pile .
hours more of such footage exists , as laughton liked to keep the cameras constantly rolling .
screened as part of the 2001 new york film festival retrospectives ( feature story coming soon ) .
it 's a testament to both men that they 're able to invigorate sign me up as president of the robert mitchum fan club i was amazed at how much it crackled with wicked wit and fright and how much intensity was intact does a beautiful job credit must be handed out