Super Reviewer ½ This tense and bleak film noir, aesthetically mesmerizing and borrowing heavily from German Expressionism, is all the more surprising when you know that Laughton hated children - and while Mitchum is great as the expressionist villain, he seems though too one-dimensional to be truly menacing. Carlos Magalhães Super Reviewer The very definition of a film noir. Robert Mitchum is spectacular as psychotic preacher and serial killer Harry Powell. Few films actually earn the title "edge of your seat" but this dark and incredibly well made film by first (and only) time director Charles Laughton will certainly have you gripping both seat handles in suspense. Edward Boxler Super Reviewer ½ A phony preacher infiltrates a family in order to find hidden money. I have trouble making sense of Charles Laughton's only directorial effort. On the one hand, the thrills - the film's construction as a suspense - is compelling and oftentimes frightening. The action sequences are well-choreographed, and the performance by Robert Mitchum makes the preacher seem like a predecessor of Hannibal Lector.

On the other hand, there are clearly images of religious hypocrisy being deployed here, but there doesn't seem to be a coherent statement about faith's effects or faith as an affect. The foiling of Rachel Cooper and Harry Powell doesn't provide much insight about religion as a guise or a guide. Overall, as a surface thriller, this is quite good, but I think one of us - the film or me - is missing something deeper. Jim Hunter The Night of the Hunter (1955) - The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection Spine #541 The Night of the Hunter—incredibly, the only film the great actor Charles Laughton ever directed—is truly a stand-alone masterwork. A horror movie with qualities of a Grimm fairy tale, it stars a sublimely sinister Robert Mitchum as a traveling preacher named Harry Powell (he of the tattooed knuckles), whose nefarious motives for marrying a fragile widow, played by Shelley Winters, are uncovered by her terrified young children.

Graced by images of eerie beauty and a sneaky sense of humor, this ethereal, expressionistic American classic—also featuring the contributions of actress Lillian Gish and writer James Agee—is cinema’s most eccentric rendering of the battle between good and evil. Cast Robert Golden Disc Features New digital transfer made from 35 mm film elements restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with MGM Studios, with funding provided by the Film Foundation and Robert Sturm, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition Audio commentary featuring second-unit director Terry Sanders, film critic F. X.

Feeney, archivist Robert Gitt, and author Preston Neal Jones Charles Laughton Directs “The Night of the Hunter,” a two-and-a-half-hour treasure trove of outtakes and behind-the-scenes footage New documentary featuring interviews with producer Paul Gregory, Sanders, Feeney, Jones, and author Jeffrey Couchman New video interview with Laughton biographer Simon Callow Clip from the The Ed Sullivan Show in which cast members perform a scene deleted from the film Fifteen-minute episode of the BBC show Moving Pictures about the film Archival interview with cinematographer Stanley Cortez Gallery of sketches by author Davis Grubb, author of the source novel New video conversation between Gitt and film critic Leonard Maltin about Charles Laughton Directs Original theatrical trailer PLUS: A booklet featuring new essays by critics Terrence Rafferty and Michael Sragow New cover by Eric Skillman Current Posts Downriver and Heavenward with James Agee By Michael Sragow November 18, 2010 In Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter, terror and tenderness grapple with each other as profoundly as the words HATE and LOVE when they’re tattooed, one per hand, across the knuckles of . . .

Read more » Film Essays The Night of the Hunter: Holy Terror By Terrence Rafferty November 16, 2010 The Night of the Hunter (1955)—the first film directed by Charles Laughton and also, sadly, the last—is among the greatest horror movies ever made, and perhaps, of that select company, the most . . . Read more » Film Essays The Night of the Hunter By David Ehrenstein February 01, 1988 “It’s really a nightmarish sort of Mother Goose tale we are telling,” Charles Laughton has said of The Night of the Hunter. But, as anyone who has seen this extraordinary film knows, its maker’s . . . Read more » Film Essays Downriver and Heavenward with James Agee By Michael Sragow November 18, 2010 In Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter, terror and tenderness grapple with each other as profoundly as the words HATE and LOVE when they’re tattooed, one per hand, across the knuckles of . . .

Read more » Film Essays The Night of the Hunter: Holy Terror By Terrence Rafferty November 16, 2010 The Night of the Hunter (1955)—the first film directed by Charles Laughton and also, sadly, the last—is among the greatest horror movies ever made, and perhaps, of that select company, the most . . . Read more » Film Essays The Night of the Hunter By David Ehrenstein February 01, 1988 “It’s really a nightmarish sort of Mother Goose tale we are telling,” Charles Laughton has said of The Night of the Hunter. But, as anyone who has seen this extraordinary film knows, its maker’s . . . Read more » Photo Galleries Press Notes: 2010—One Last Look January 03, 2011 Before we put 2010 to bed, we thought we’d catch up with all the year-end lists that have sprung up over the past week or so. A good place to start is DVD Beaver’s annual poll, which ranks the . . .

Read more » Press Notes Press Notes: Looking Back at 2010 December 22, 2010 Sight & Sound ’s annual poll of the year’s best DVD (and Blu-ray) releases is out, and this edition features choices from twenty-four “contributors, DVD distributors, and curators.” We’re . . . Read more » Clippings Powers’s Picks December 03, 2010 ’Tis the season for DVD gift guides, and critic John Powers is quick out of the gate with a lineup of movie recommendations for NPR’s Fresh Air. Among his top choices are works by two great . . . Read more » Press Notes Press Notes: The Night of the Hunter November 19, 2010 It’s easy to forget that audiences and critics were baffled by Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter, starring Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters, upon its release in 1955. Yet, as Dennis . . .

Read more » Film Essays Downriver and Heavenward with James Agee By Michael Sragow November 18, 2010 In Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter, terror and tenderness grapple with each other as profoundly as the words HATE and LOVE when they’re tattooed, one per hand, across the knuckles of . . . Read more » Film Essays The Night of the Hunter: Holy Terror By Terrence Rafferty November 16, 2010 The Night of the Hunter (1955)—the first film directed by Charles Laughton and also, sadly, the last—is among the greatest horror movies ever made, and perhaps, of that select company, the most . . . Read more » Clippings Slate Goes A-Huntin’ November 10, 2010 In a new article for Slate, critic Elbert Ventura digs insightfully into what makes Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter (coming to Criterion Blu-ray and DVD next week) the one-of-a-kind . . .

Read more » Film Essays The Night of the Hunter (1955) Pages: ( 1 ) ( 2 ) ( 3 ) Background The Night of the Hunter (1955) is a truly compelling, haunting, and frightening classic masterpiece thriller-fantasy, and the only film ever directed by the great British actor Charles Laughton. The American gothic, Biblical tale of greed, innocence, seduction, sin and corruption was adapted for the screen by famed writer-author James Agee (and Laughton, but without screen credit). Although one of the greatest American films of all time, the imaginatively-chilling, experimental, sophisticated work was idiosyncratic, film noirish, avante garde, dream-like expressionistic and strange, and it was both ignored and misunderstood at the time of its release. Originally, it was a critical and commercial failure. Robert Mitchum gave what some consider his finest performance in a precedent-setting, unpopular, and truly terrifying role as the sleepy-eyed, diabolical, dark-souled, self-appointed serial killer/Preacher with psychotic, murderous tendencies while in pursuit of $10,000 in cash.

Lillian Gish played his opposite - a saintly good woman who provided refuge for the victimized children. The disturbing, complex story was based on the popular, best-selling 1953 Depression-era novel of the same name by first-time writer Davis Grubb, who set the location of his novel in the town of Moundsville, WV, where the West Virginia Penitentiary (also mentioned in the film) was located. Grubb lived in nearby Clarksburg as a young teenager. [Robert Mitchum's role was inspired by the real-life character of Harry Powers, known nationally as "the Bluebeard of Quiet Dell" (outside of Clarksburg) and West Virginia's most famous mass murderer, who was hanged on March 18, 1932, at the West Virginia Penitentiary. Powers was convicted of killing Asta B. Eicher, a widow, along with her three children, and another widow, Dorothy Lemke of Massachusetts in the early 1930s. He may also have killed a traveling salesman.

The menacing figure of The Preacher inspired such characters as The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) in Phantasm (1979) and (especially) Mr. Dark (Jonathan Pryce) in Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983) who similarly stalk their young prey.] In addition, the visual-striking black-white photography of Stanley Cortez (who also shot Welles' black and white The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) ) and the evocative musical score of Walter Schumann (mixing hymns, children's songs, and orchestral music) are exceptional. However, the film was not nominated for a single Academy Award, in a year when the short romantic drama Marty (1955) unaccountably won the Best Picture Oscar. The film's slogan on a major poster proclaimed: "The wedding night, the anticipation, the kiss, the knife. BUT ABOVE ALL...THE SUSPENSE!" The image showed actor Mitchum hugging a distressed Shelley Winters, with the L-O-V-E tattooed hand embracing her back, and the H-A-T-E tattooed hand grasping a knife.

[Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989) referenced the love/hate, left and right hand theme, when Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) explained the love/hate dichotomy. In The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), LOVE and HATE were tattooed on Eddie's (Meat Loaf) knuckles, and in The Blues Brothers (1980), the two brothers (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd) have their names tattooed on their knuckles. In The Simpsons episode "Cape Feare", the menacing Sideshow Bob (voice of Kelsey Grammer) had similar tattoos on each set of knuckles as well - but since the characters in the cartoon show had only three fingers and a thumb, the tattoos were humorously "LUV" and "HAT" - (with a bar over the A).] The stylistic film, shot in only thirty-six days - an adult story with children as major characters, was extremely unusual and unpopular for its time for other reasons.

It was black and white (when color was en vogue), shown in standard ratio (when theaters were showing Cinemascope wide-screen films), and it daringly portrayed a perverted, pedophile Preacher as the main protagonist - a villainous, obsessive, homicidal, and misogynous character with repressed sexuality and violence. The high-contrast, melodramatic-horror film with macabre humor deliberately pays tribute to its silent film heritage, and to pioneering director D. W. Griffith in its style (the use of stark, expressionistic black and white cinematography, archaic camera devices such as iris down) and in its casting of Griffith's principal protegé/silent star, the legendary Lillian Gish (in her first film since Portrait of Jennie (1948)). Told with inventive, stylized, timeless and dark film noirish images, symbolism and visual poetry, it blends both a pastoral setting with dream-like creatures, fanatical characters, imperiled children during a river journey, a wicked guardian/adult, and salvation and redemption in the form of a old farm woman, 'fairy godmother' rather than a saintly Bible-totin' Preacher.

In Laughton's words, it was "a nightmarish sort of Mother Goose tale." From its start, the film is designed to have the special feeling of a child's nightmare, including the difficult keeping of a secret, and a magical journey to safety - all told from a child's point of view. It also accentuates the contrasting, elemental dualities within the film: heaven and earth (or under-the-earth), male and female, light and dark, good and evil, knowingness and innocence, and other polarizations including equating the Preacher with the devil. The Story The credits play over a starry night sky (heaven), after which a plain, Bible-fearing farm woman named Rachel (Lillian Gish), dressed in a plain dress with shoulder shawl, magically materializes over the star-filled night background. To her five disembodied foster children around her and suspended in the heavens, she tells a Bible story about false prophets ("ravening wolves") in sheep's clothing, while a chorus sings behind her, "Dream, Little One, Dream": Now, you remember children how I told you last Sunday about the good Lord going up into the mountain and talking to the people.

And how he said, 'Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.' And how he said that King Solomon in all his glory was not as beautiful as the lilies of the field. And I know you won't forget, 'Judge not lest you be judged,' because I explained that to you. And then the good Lord went on to say, 'Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly, they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.' The camera then moves plunges downward to earth to the film's general locale - the Ohio River Valley. The farm landscape is first shown in aerial helicopter shots or from a God's eye-view. There is a wooded area near the banks of a winding river. Children are playing hide-and-seek outside a rural house. Suddenly, one of the children discovers the legs of the corpse of a murdered woman inside a basement entrance, and the other children gather around. The Bible story's lesson continues as the camera pulls back to another high-angle view, recoiling from the murder: A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Wherefore by their fruits, ye shall know them.

The camera then tracks after an open touring Essex car [stolen], a Model T driven down a country road by a sinister, crazed, malevolent, black-cloaked, wide-brimmed and hatted 'Preacher' Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), one of the 'false prophets.' In a chilling, perversely evil and memorable monologue to the Lord, the killer-evangelist with borderline sanity, glances heavenward and delivers an insane prayer. He complains that he is "tired" of ridding the world of tempting females [one being the dead body just discovered]. As he drives by a cemetery, he reveals that he is a serial killer who receives divine inspirations to first marry, and then murder and rob women (usually rich lonely widows who do not see the menacing perversity in him): Well now, what's it to be Lord? Another widow? How many has it been? Six? Twelve? I disremember. (He tips his hat.) You say the word, Lord, I'm on my way...You always send me money to go forth and preach your Word. The widow with a little wad of bills hid away in a sugar bowl. Lord, I am tired.

Sometimes I wonder if you really understand. Not that You mind the killin's. Yore Book is full of killin's. But there are things you do hate Lord: perfume-smellin' things, lacy things, things with curly hair. In the next scene, the avenging 'preacher' sits in a burlesque strip show with a stripper in action on stage. He stares with hate in his eyes at the sinful dancer, despising the sexy woman because she arouses his carnal instincts. His left hand, tattooed with the letters "H-A-T-E" on his four fingers, clenches and then reaches in his coat pocket to grab his concealed switchblade knife. As his libido is aroused, the flick-knife spontaneously opens - a sexual phallic symbol - violently and orgasmically ripping out the pocket as he thinks what he might do to the stripper (he would literally open her up with his 'knife') to punish her for tempting him to lustful sin. But then the sexually-repressed Preacher reconsiders: There are too many of them. Can't kill the world.

Suddenly, a long arm of the law grabs him on the shoulder and apprehends him - the hand belongs to a policeman, and with a scene wipe left, 'Preacher' Harry Powell is sentenced before a judge to thirty days in the Moundsville, West Virginia Penitentiary for stealing an auto. The judge is disbelieving: "A man of God? Harry Powell." Another aerial view, the second overhead shot in the film, shows it is rural West Virginia during the height of the Depression in the 1930s. On a flowery lawn in the small riverside town of Cresap's Landing on the Ohio River [a Mark Twain-like environment], a young nine-year old boy John (Billy Chapin) is playing happily with his little sister four-year old Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce) and her doll named Miss Jenny when he sees a car speeding down the road. He cries: "Daddy," and jumps up to meet his father Ben Harper (Peter Graves). He stops suddenly when he sees his agitated father climb out of the car, bleeding from a bullet wound in the shoulder. He is also holding a gun in one hand and a wad of money in the other.

[Harper has robbed a bank of ten thousand dollars to feed his family during hard times, but in his escape killed two people and was wounded.] As police sirens approach closer from the distance, Ben is desperate to conceal the money. He thinks of places to hide his stolen money, almost $10,000: "The rock in the smokehouse, no, the bricks in the grape arbor, no, no, they'll dig for it. Sure. That's the place." He picks a place no one will guess. [Offscreen, the money is stashed inside the body of Pearl's doll.] Then, because he believes that his wife doesn't have "common sense" and won't keep secret the hiding place of the money, he entrusts the knowledge to John. He also has his son swear or promise to be an adult guardian - to take care of and protect his sister, and look after the money: Harper: First, swear you'll take care of little Pearl, guard her with your life, boy. Then, swear you won't never tell where the money's hid, not even your Mom. John: Yes, Dad.

The Night of the Hunter Movie Review (1955) | Roger Ebert Tweet Charles Laughton's "The Night of the Hunter” (1955) is one of the greatest of all American films, but has never received the attention it deserves because of its lack of the proper trappings. Many “great movies” are by great directors, but Laughton directed only this one film, which was a critical and commercial failure long overshadowed by his acting career. Many great movies use actors who come draped in respectability and prestige, but Robert Mitchum has always been a raffish outsider. And many great movies are realistic, but “Night of the Hunter” is an expressionistic oddity, telling its chilling story through visual fantasy. People don't know how to categorize it, so they leave it off their lists. Advertisement Yet what a compelling, frightening and beautiful film it is! And how well it has survived its period. Many films from the mid-1950s, even the good ones, seem somewhat dated now, but by setting his story in an invented movie world outside conventional realism, Laughton gave it a timelessness.

Yes, the movie takes place in a small town on the banks of a river. But the town looks as artificial as a Christmas card scene, the family's house with its strange angles inside and out looks too small to live in, and the river becomes a set so obviously artificial it could have been built for a completely stylized studio film like "Kwaidan" (1964). Everybody knows the Mitchum character, the sinister “Reverend” Harry Powell. Even those who haven't seen the movie have heard about the knuckles of his two hands, and how one has the letters H-A-T-E tattooed on them, and the other the letters L-O-V-E. Bruce Springsteen drew on those images in his song "Cautious Man”: "On his right hand Billy'd tattooed the word "love” and on his left hand was the word "fear” And in which hand he held his fate was never clear” Advertisement Many movie lovers know by heart the Reverend's famous explanation to the wide-eyed boy ("Ah, little lad, you're staring at my fingers.

Would you like me to tell you the little story of right-hand/left-hand?”) And the scene where the Reverend stands at the top of the stairs and calls down to the boy and his sister has become the model for hundred other horror scenes. But does this familiarity give "The Night of the Hunter” the recognition it deserves? I don't think so because those famous trademarks distract from its real accomplishment. It is one of the most frightening of movies, with one of the most unforgettable of villains, and on both of those scores it holds up as well after four decades as I expect " The Silence of the Lambs " to do many years from now. The story, somewhat rearranged: In a prison cell, Harry Powell discovers the secret of a condemned man ( Peter Graves ), who has hidden $10,000somewhere around his house. After being released from prison, Powell seeks out the man's widow, Willa Harper ( Shelley Winters ), and two children, John ( Billy Chapin ) and the owl-faced Pearl ( Sally Jane Bruce ).

They know where the money is, but don't trust the “preacher.” But their mother buys his con game and marries him, leading to a tortured wedding night inside a high-gabled bedroom that looks a cross between a chapel and a crypt. Advertisement Soon Willa Harper is dead, seen in an incredible shot at the wheel of a car at the bottom of the river, her hair drifting with the seaweed. And soon the children are fleeing down the dream-river in a small boat, while the Preacher follows them implacably on the shore; this beautifully stylized sequence uses the logic of nightmares, in which no matter how fast one runs, the slow step of the pursuer keeps the pace. The children are finally taken in by a Bible-fearing old lady ( Lillian Gish ), who would seem to be helpless to defend them against the single-minded murderer, but is as unyielding as her faith.

The shot of Winters at the bottom of the river is one of several remarkable images in the movie, which was photographed in black and white by Stanley Cortez , who shot Welles' "The Magnificent Ambersons," and once observed he was "always chosen to shoot weird things.” He shot few weirder than here, where one frightening composition shows a street lamp casting Mitchum's terrifying shadow on the walls of the children's bedroom. The basement sequence combines terror and humor, as when the Preacher tries to chase the children up the stairs, only to trip, fall, recover, lunge and catch his fingers in the door. And the masterful nighttime river sequence uses giant foregrounds of natural details, like frogs and spider webs, to underline a kind of biblical progression as the children drift to eventual safety. The screenplay, based on a novel by Davis Grubb , is credited to James Agee , one of the icons of American film writing and criticism, then in the final throes of alcoholism. Laughton's widow, Elsa Lanchester , is adamant in her autobiography: “Charles finally had very little respect for Agee.

And he hated the script, but he was inspired by his hatred.” She quotes the film’s producer, Paul Gregory : “. . . the script that was produced on the screen is no more James Agee's . . . than I'm Marlene Dietrich .” Advertisement Who wrote the final draft? Perhaps Laughton had a hand. Lanchester and Laughton both remembered that Mitchum was invaluable as a help in working with the two children, whom Laughton could not stand. But the final film is all Laughton's, especially the dreamy, Bible-evoking final sequence, with Lillian Gish presiding over events like an avenging elderly angel. Robert Mitchum is one of the great icons of the second half-century of cinema.

Despite his sometimes scandalous off-screen reputation, despite his genial willingness to sign on to half-baked projects, he made a group of films that led David Thomson, in his Biographical Dictionary of Film, to ask, “How can I offer this hunk as one of the best actors in the movies?” And answer: “Since the war, no American actor has made more first-class films, in so many different moods.” “The Night of the Hunter,” he observes, represents “the only time in his career that Mitchum acted outside himself,” by which he means there is little of the Mitchum persona in the Preacher. Mitchum is uncannily right for the role, with his long face, his gravel voice, and the silky tones of a snake-oil salesman. And Shelly Winters, all jitters and repressed sexual hysteria, is somehow convincing as she falls so prematurely into, and out of, his arms. The supporting actors are like a chattering gallery of Norman Rockwell archetypes, their lives centered on bake sales, soda fountains and gossip. The children, especially the little girl, look more odd than lovable, which helps the film move away from realism and into stylized nightmare.

And Lillian Gish and Stanley Cortez quite deliberately, I think, composed that great shot of her which looks like nothing so much as Whistler's mother holding a shotgun. Advertisement Charles Laughton showed here that he had an original eye, and a taste for material that stretched the conventions of the movies. It is risky to combine horror and humor, and foolhardy to approach them through expressionism. For his first film, Laughton made a film like no other before or since, and with such confidence it seemed to draw on a lifetime of work. Critics were baffled by it, the public rejected it, and the studio had a much more expensive Mitchum picture (“Not as a Stranger”) it wanted to promote instead. But nobody who has seen "The Night of the Hunter” has forgotten it, or Mitchum's voice coiling down those basement stairs: "Chillll . . . dren?” Popular Blog Posts Film Thoughts: NO ENCORES: The Night of the Hunter (1955) 1.

The Night of the Hunter (1955) Director: Charles Laughton The moment I started the No Encores series, I knew there was one movie I was going to have to talk about sooner or later. “The Night of the Hunter” is widely considered one of the great films of American cinema. In 2008, it was even voted the second best movie ever made , right behind “Citizen Kane.” It’s also, without a doubt, the most famous example of a director only making one film. Charles Laughton, already considered a fine actor, made the film in 1955. Initially, “The Night of the Hunter” was poorly received by critics and did mediocre business at the box office. The negative reception was the reason Laughton never directed again, even though his sole directorial credit would eventually garner a reputation as a classic. Meet Reverend Harry Powell. Powell travels the West Virginian countryside, finding widows, marrying them, and then slitting their throat with his switchblade. Despite his murderous actions, he dresses as a man of the cloth and preaches the word of God.

While serving a prison sentence for the theft of a car, he overhears his cellmate talking about a hidden cache of money. After leaving prison, he hunts down the man’s widow and two children. While everyone else believes Powell to be a pious man of God, the children John and Pearl recognize him for the madman he is. After he kills their mother, the kids row down the river, hoping to escape Powell’s pursuit. In addition to being considered one of the best films ever made, “Night of the Hunter” also unanimously features one of the best villains in all of cinema. Harry Powell is, simultaneously, an incredibly charming man and an unhinged psychopath. He sells everyone around town, including Willa Harper, that he’s a virtuous man. He can convince people of his lies, no matter how unlikely. He’s also a rambling nut case. His introduction involves him talking directly to God. His sermons, in which he represents the struggle between love and hate as an arm wrestling match , have an unhinged energy to them. He has no qualms about threatening a child. When annoyed or injured, Powell growls like a monster or whoops like a stuck animal.

He’s an ultimate villain, calculating, dangerous, monstrous, charismatic, and self-interested above everything else. Robert Mitchum’s performance is utterly captivating. In 1955, you wouldn’t expect a mainstream studio film to directly criticize the institute of religion. Yet “Night of the Hunter” subversively does just that. Powell dresses as a man of the cloth, in the black suit and hat. When introducing himself to Willa and his friends, he pretends to be a prison chaplain. He preaches about the cost of evil… Which he knows intimately, of course. The townsfolk love him, thinking him a respectable, honorable man. Considering her former husband was a criminal, everyone encourages Willa to marry Powell. When he preaches in church, his speeches have a delirious aspect to them. As the film goes on, it reveals that Powell’s sermons are strictly ways for him to vent his rage at the world. Everyone follows and listens, ignoring the warning signs. Religion encourages conformity, even if it’s in service of a serial killer. James Agee’s screenplay, adapted from a novel by Davis Grubb and rewritten by Laughton, is especially critical of the church’s treatment of sex.

Powell constantly rants against “perfume and lace.” He visits a burlesque show, seething in rage at the stripper on stage. On the first night of marriage, he reprimands Willa for expecting a consummation of their relationship. She buys into his rhetoric, preaching his word, condemning the world of material things and sensual pleasures. Before the wedding, Icey Spoon dismisses sex rather bluntly. It’s obvious Powell hates women, because of the sexual desires they create in him. When his lust is aroused, he murders with his knife. By aligning these view points with a misogynistic serial killer, Laughton is clearly condemning anyone who denies the importance of a regular sex life. Yet as critical as “The Night of the Hunter” is of the church, it isn’t dismissive of all religion. After fleeing Powell, John and Pearl meet Miss Rachel Cooper, a kindly old woman played by silent screen legend Lillian Gish . Cooper has taken in many lost children, raising them as her own. Like Powell, she’s well versed in scripture. She sings hymns, prayers, goes to church every Sunday. However, like the kids, she immediately recognizes Powell as a crazy conman.

One of her adoptees is Ruby, a teenage girl coming into her own sexually. Rachel doesn’t judge Ruby for her desires, unlike Powell and his lots. If Powell represents everything wrong with organized religion, Gish’s Cooper represents the positive values. She believes in charity, in protecting children, in love and forgiveness. Gish is great in the role, though one can’t help but wonder how Elsa Lanchester, Laughton's wife and first choice for the part, could’ve done. There are no conventional heroes in “Night of the Hunter.” No brave police officers or big strong men appear to protect the kids from the wicked Reverend. Instead, it’s up to little John to protect himself and his sister. Before the police take their dad away, he makes the boy promise he’ll always keep Pearl safe and never disclose the location of the money. John, showing an honor beyond his age, never goes back on this promise. While everyone is fooled by Powell’s act, John immediately smells a rat. Pearl believes Powell yet can't turn on her brother. By following two siblings, pursued by a monster and lost in a big world, “Night of the Hunter” blatantly recalls a fairy tale .

It also takes place in the secret world of children. The location of the money is only one secret John and Pearl share. They have to survive on their own, necessitating they learn to communicate on their own terms Several other details further that fairy tale feeling. First off, the film is not shot in a realist manner. Instead, Laughton looked to Expressionistic silent cinema for his visual inspiration. “Night of the Hunter” is defined by shadows and light. As John tells Pearl a bedtime story – itself a fairy tale variation on their life – Powell’s shadow looms into view. Willa and Harry’s bedroom has an arched ceiling, framed like a church itself. Spotlights are shined behind structures, rendering them black outlines haloed by white light. Wide shots are often seen primarily in silhouette. Laughton often places strange objects, like torches or hands, in the foreground of shots. It’s a gorgeous looking film, whose sense of design still brilliantly burns sixty years later. Davis Grubb’s source novel was greatly inspired by Depression era West Virginia . Harry Powell was based off Harry Powers , a real life killer from Quiet Dell, West Virginia.

The film version uses this Depression setting as another way to root the story in a different time and place. The Ohio River looms in the background, the children eventually making their escape down the river. A friend of John’s is an old man who works at the docks. The importance of religion among the group seems to be a result of living so close to the poverty line. In 1955, the Depression wasn’t that far away. However, the distinct setting is another way for Laughton to establish a story apart from our regular world. I spend a lot of time talking about horror films , as it’s my favorite genre. “The Night of the Hunter” is sometimes classified as horror. It made Bravo’s list of scariest movie moments. They Shoot Zombies, Don’t They? ranks it as the 171st best horror film. The film more accurately belongs to the noir or thriller genre. However, “Night of the Hunter” is undeniably an intense experience, full of macabre imagery. After Powell kills Willa, her body sits in a drowned vehicle at the bottom of the lake.

The film devotes a solid minute to the image of her frozen body, hair flowing back and forth, both angelic and deathly still. Another frightening moment occurs when John and Pearl first escape Powell. In a deeply shadowed basement, he threatens both kids. After John outsmarts him, Powell’s hands shot outward like an undead ghoul. In this scene, he becomes a boogeyman, as scary as any cinematic monster. His dogged pursuit of the children also marks Powell as something like a horror villain. While obviously on the marginal end of the genre, I think one can make a good case for “Hunter’s” horror bonafides. The first time I saw “Night of the Hunter,” I found its first hour to be brilliant but its last thirty minutes to be somewhat unsatisfying. On this viewing, the whole movie strikes me as great. An especially impressive sequence occurs while John and Pearl float down the river, towards Rachel Cooper. As their little boat pass along the water, the camera focuses on small animals in the foreground. We see rabbits, a tortoise, and a toad. In the background, Pearl sings a haunting song. The parallel is obvious but Agee’s script puts a finer point upon it later.

After an owl scoops up a rabbit, Cooper notes that “ it’s a hard world for the little things .” The Harper kids are comparable to the small animals, vulnerable but good at hiding. Powell, meanwhile, is a predator, capable of killing at any moment and always on the look out for his next meal. “Night of the Hunter” also features a decidedly off-beat ending. After Powell is finally captured by the police, after Cooper corners him in her barn, John dramatically reveals the hidden location of the money. While at the trail, John is reluctant to identify Harry as his mother’s murderer. At the same trial, the townsfolk who previously loved the Reverend loudly scream and condemn him. As the police drive Powell to the gallows, the same people town insist on lynching him. Cooper and the kids, meanwhile, have a peaceful Christmas morning together, exchanging gifts and reestablishing their love for one another. It’s the film’s final jab at conformity and those who preach the Bible but ignore its values. The influence “Night of the Hunter” has had on cinema is wide and far reaching. It would not surprise me to read that it’s one of the Coen Brothers ’ favorite movies.

It has many of the same elements: A combination of rustic location, quirky characters, sharp dialogue, and a tone that mixes humor, thrills, and moral lessons. You can certainly see David Lynch finding something of value in its dream like tone, predatory villain, and old fashion setting. And like all great films, “The Night of the Hunter” will continue to influence future filmmakers. One of the best movies ever made? That’s not for me to judge. However, it certainly is an extraordinary cinematic achievement. Many bemoan that Charles Laughton would never make another film. Yet who can blame the guy, when he got it so right on the first try? [9/10] Posted by The Night of the Hunter (1955) - IMDb IMDb 17 January 2017 4:34 PM, UTC NEWS There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends.

Error The Night of the Hunter ( 1955 ) Approved | A religious fanatic marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real daddy hid $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery. Director: James Agee (screenplay), Davis Grubb (based on the novel by) Stars: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 22 titles created 15 Aug 2011 a list of 44 titles created 18 Jan 2013 a list of 31 titles created 20 Jul 2014 a list of 32 titles created 05 May 2015 a list of 26 titles created 17 Jul 2015 Title: The Night of the Hunter (1955) 8.1/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. A stark, perverse story of murder, kidnapping, and police corruption in a Mexican border town.

Director: Orson Welles Crooks plan and execute a daring race-track robbery. Director: Stanley Kubrick A private eye escapes his past to run a gas station in a small town, but his past catches up with him. Now he must return to the big city world of danger, corruption, double crosses and duplicitous dames. Director: Jacques Tourneur A woman is asked to spy on a group of Nazi friends in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them? Director: Alfred Hitchcock Pulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime. Director: Carol Reed Private detective Philip Marlowe is hired by a rich family. Before the complex case is over, he's seen murder, blackmail, and what might be love. Director: Howard Hawks An insurance representative lets himself be talked into a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses an insurance investigator's suspicions. Director: Billy Wilder A marshall, personally compelled to face a returning deadly enemy, finds that his own town refuses to help him.

Director: Fred Zinnemann In a murder trial, the defendant says he suffered temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case? Director: Otto Preminger A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating. Director: Otto Preminger A care-free girl is sold to a traveling entertainer, consequently enduring physical and emotional pain along the way. Director: Federico Fellini A private detective takes on a case that involves him with three eccentric criminals, a gorgeous liar, and their quest for a priceless statuette. Director: John Huston Edit Storyline It's the Great Depression. In the process of robbing a bank of $10,000, Ben Harper kills two people. Before he is captured, he is able to convince his adolescent son John and his daughter Pearl not to tell anyone, including their mother Willa, where he hid the money, namely in Pearl's favorite toy, a doll that she carries everywhere with her. Ben, who is captured, tried and convicted, is sentenced to death.

But before he is executed, Ben is in the state penitentiary with a cell mate, a man by the name of Harry Powell, a self-professed man of the cloth, who is really a con man and murderer, swindling lonely women, primarily rich widows, of their money before he kills them. Harry does whatever he can, unsuccessfully, to find out the location of the $10,000 from Ben. After Ben's execution, Harry decides that Willa will be his next mark, figuring that someone in the family knows where the money is hidden. Despite vowing not to remarry, Willa ends up being easy prey for Harry's outward ... Written by Huggo The Hands Of ROBERT MITCHUM in "The Night of the Hunter" See more » Genres: 24 November 1955 (Argentina) See more » Also Known As: Die Nacht des Jägers See more » Filming Locations: Did You Know? Trivia Reportedly it was Robert Mitchum himself who thought of the shot of hanging upside down in his bunk. Charles Laughton liked the idea, and it was shot that way.

See more » Goofs (at around 1h 17 mins) When Harry says good morning to Ruby and Mrs. Cooper, he holds the hat about his chest. In the subsequent shot he is lifting the hat from about his knees. See more » Quotes Rachel Cooper : [to Ruby, sobbing in her lap] Child... You were looking for love, Ruby, in the only foolish way you knew how. Leaning on the Everlasting Arms (1887) (uncredited) Sung a cappella by Robert Mitchum often Also sung a cappella by Lillian Gish (London, England) – See all my reviews I still hear the lullaby singing sweetly in my head, like a hazy, haunting dream that won't go away. From the opening scene of the beautiful Lillian Gish and her children, watching over the world in a starry sky, this movie just sinks you into a mesmeric fairy tale land. The camera takes us down in one sweeping move to a scene of children playing, a hot sunny day, and right to the feet of a murder victim.

And that sweet music turns on us like a twisted nightmare as the scene chases after a car speeding along a country road to find one of movies worst villains. Charles Laughton, in sadly his one and only stab at directing, created a masterpiece of horror with Night of the Hunter. The moments of sugar coated sweetness only make this movie even more disturbing as you wonder how the two can inhabit the same world. Mitchum is terrifying. More-so in a town full of simple folk ready to match him up with the local widow who needs a father for her lit'le n's. Its like he's walked into the middle of a Frank Capra movie and he's going to do what he wants to. This is not just a great horror movie, but an artist achievement to rival Welles' Kane. The river scene is one of many moments of pure visual splendor. And that sound track just keeps drifting alone, as if trying to coax you into slumber, till the singing madman of your nightmares comes over the hill, relentless. "Chil-dren, Come along now" You don't watch this movie, it watches you. ...Hush, Lit'le ones, Hush.

176 of 230 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Film Review – The Night of the Hunter | The High Window Film Review – The Night of the Hunter The Night of the Hunter 1955 Director: Charles Laughton Set in an indeterminate date (but which appears to be during the Great Depression), The Night of the Hunter tells the story of a devilish, rouge preacher named Harry Powell (played by Out of the Past star Robert Mitchum) who spends his time stalking his way across America finding, courting and eventually murdering rich widows. All ostensibly in the name of the Lord, of course… After he spends 30 days inside for larceny, he finds himself sharing a cell with a man sentenced to death for bank robbery. Prior to his arrest, he hid the $10,000 he stole and left his two young children the only people knowing where its location, bound by a sworn oath to keep the money safe. Upon his release, Powell makes his way to his cell-mate’s widow and works his way into the family and community under the guise of a loving village preacher.

What follows is a dark and ruthless regime of religious indoctrination, torture and manipulation to force the children into revealing to him the whereabouts of the money. Manipulation leads to murder, and a desperate situation for the children trying to flee from a town drowning in religious hypocrisy. Story-wise, it’s a dark and unpleasant tale for the full 89-minute running time (save for a mildly redemptive ending). There is little sense of hope or the chance for any happy ending for the two children involved – between their father being hung, being taunted at school for their father’s death, being starved by Powell, the death of their mother, the refusal of a town to recognise their plight…it’s a tough ride, and one which seems especially bold given the sensitivity of topics like childhood youth back in 1955.

But then the plot (taken from a 1953 novel by Davis Grubb – a copy of which is making its way towards me in the post as I write this) is based on real life murderer Harry Powers, a serial killer operating in the early 1930s who lured victims in with ‘lonely heart’ ads – and one who did in fact murder a number of children, as well as wealthy widows (read more at ). Given the darkness of the plot and the real-life events that it draws from, there was plenty for Mitchum to get his teeth into in playing the role, and he suitably gives a career-defining performance as the sinister Powell, reaching a brilliant balance in playing the character as a charming, well-intending man of God, as well as a ruthless killer. He’s all but playing two separate roles at times, such is the see-saw nature of the character. Few actors could pull it off with such finesse.

It’s perhaps his darkest role – for those who have seen the original Cape Fear from 1962, Mitchum’s role as Powell here seems very much like an early version of the Max Cady character he would go on to play in that later film (only with the added religious-nut job aspect which Robert DeNiro added to the Cady character for the 1991 Cape Fear remake). He is a dark, sinister man fully confident in his own abilities and pursues his prey like a relentless force of nature. But despite that, you can’t help but wait for the next time he shows up on screen – such is the brilliance and underlying power of the character and Mitchum’s performance. The other surprising stars of the film are the two child actors – Billy Chapin (aged around 11 when the film came out) and Sally Jane Bruce (aged around 6-7) playing John and Pearl Harper respectively. Chapin had much success as a child actor, although appears to have gone off-route after the 1950s, and Bruce had no other known roles after this film.

But together here, they act as the perfect foil to Mitchum and display a rare level of talent (Chapin particularly stands out in a scene where, as he watches Powell being arrested by the police, has flashbacks to his own father’s arrest and begins to emotionally break down, throwing the money – the object of Powell’s desire – into his face as he is being cuffed). In terms of the supporting cast, Shelley Winters gives a strong performance as the widow caught under Powell’s spell – being gradually worn down by his supposed faith and guidance. Lillian Gish (known for starring in the controversial Birth of a Nation) plays the role of surrogate mother who is forced into confronting Powell and exposing his masquerade for all that it is – she very much looks and sounds the part of a doting, God-fearing grandmother who would take in whoever she found at her doorstep. The rest of the cast fill out lighter, gentler roles, often adding light comic relief in a film which is pretty relentlessly dark and brooding. Much has been said about the film’s particular use of camera angles and lighting styles which have roots in German expressionism – certainly Charles Laughton created a film with memorable shots and sequences.

Powell’s repeated singing of a bastardised hymn acts as a sort of devilish calling-card, made all the more powerful in the scene between Mitchum and Gish singing the song to each other in the still of the night as Gish watches over the sleeping children. Close ups of Powell’s flick knife shooting out of its case, along with shots such as the two children hiding in their cellar and their subsequent night spend floating down a river keep the air of tension and suspense up throughout the move. Music is under-played (aside from a few dramatic trumpet noises signalling Powell’s arrival towards the start of the film) in favour of keeping a quiet, tense setting led solely by the intricate dialogue between the characters. Sadly, the film under-performed upon its original release, the fallout of which meant that Charles Laughton never directed another picture, but its reputation has grown a lot over the years and is now recognised as a key film in the later end of the noir era. It has a darkness and eerie charm all of its own – the themes of religious dogma is as much a problem now as it ever was, and so the continues to resonate with us.

It’s a dark and powerful movie, led by a flawless performance from Mitchum and driven by two talented child actors – it’s heavy watching, but it’s impressive watching all the same. The Night of the Hunter Blu-ray - Robert Mitchum S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r directed by Charles Laughton U.S. 1955 The Night of the Hunter �incredibly, the only film the great actor Charles Laughton ever directed�is truly a stand-alone masterwork. A horror movie with qualities of a Grimm fairy tale, it stars a sublimely sinister Robert Mitchum as a traveling preacher named Harry Powell (he of the tattooed knuckles), whose nefarious motives for marrying a fragile widow, played by Shelley Winters, are uncovered by her terrified young children. Graced by images of eerie beauty and a sneaky sense of humor, this ethereal, expressionistic American classic�also featuring the contributions of actress Lillian Gish and writer James Agee�is cinema�s most eccentric rendering of the battle between good and evil.

*** Working from a script by James Agee ( The African Queen ), Laughton created what he called "a nightmarish sort of Mother Goose tale," employing an eclectic mix of visual styles (German expressionism, D.W. Griffith) to convey both the horror of Powell's quest and the idyllic flight of the children to the safety of the farm of an old spinster (Gish). In addition to Stanley Cortez's stunning cinematography, the film boasts Robert Mitchum's greatest performance--a chilling essay that would unfortunately typecast him for much of his career. Beautiful, haunting, poetic, and intensely personal, The Night of the Hunter is a unique, terrifying masterpiece. The adaptation of the Davis Grubb novel was the last film work by James Agee. Audiences didn't know what to make of this one; it bombed, and the great Laughton never directed again.

Movie Review - - Bogeyman Plus - NYTimes.com Bogeyman Plus By BOSLEY CROWTHER Published: September 30, 1955 A WEIRD and intriguing endeavor to put across something more in the way of a horror story involving children than the mere menace of a bogeyman is made in "The Night of the Hunter," a film based on the novel of Davis Grubb and directed by Actor Charles Laughton, which came to the Mayfair yesterday. Paul Gregory produced this audacious film. The trenchant and troubling proposition they are obviously aiming to convey is that being a child in the midst of sordid adults is a terrible experience. Innocent, sweet and trusting youngsters are sorely torn in a world of greed and hate. Withal, the authors assure us, the strength of little children abides. This is a difficult thesis to render both forceful and profound in an hour and a half of tangled traffic with both melodramatic and allegorical forms. And the fact that Mr. Laughton, undertaking his first film directorial job, has not brought forth a wholly shattering picture is easy to understand. The story that Mr.

Grubb provided is a dark and horrifying account of the torment a fake evangelist inflicts upon a couple of kids. In a frenzy to discover where a hanged bank robber has hidden $10,000 in stolen bills, ??? perambulating back-country preacher insinuates himself into the home of the robber's family, marries his moronic widow, murders her and then persecutes her kids (the only ones who know where the money is hidden) until he drives them forth into the world. All this has been crisply compacted into clear screen drama by the late James Agee and it is put forth under the direction of Mr. Laughton in stark, rigid visual terms. The locale is crushingly rural, the atmosphere of "the sticks" is intense, and Robert Mitchum plays the murderous minister with an icy unctuousness that gives you the chills. There is more than malevolence and menace in his character. There is a strong trace of Freudian aberration, fanaticism and iniquity. Credit Mr. Laughton with a clever and exceptionally effective job of catching the ugliness and terror of certain ignorant, small-town types.

He has got out of Shelley Winters a grueling performance as the vapid widow and wife. The scene of the wedding-night of Miss Winters and the preacher is one of the most devastating of its sort since Von Stroheim's "Greed." And Evelyn Varden's and Don Beddoe's performances as village gossips and busy-bodies are edged with a sharp and treacherous cruelty that shows through the appearance of homely farce. But unfortunately the story and the thesis presented by Mr. Grubb had to be carried through by Mr. Laughton to a finish—and it is here that he goes wrong. For the evolution of the melodrama, after the threatened, frightened children flee home, angles off into that allegorical contrast of the forces of Evil and Good. Strange, misty scenes composed of shadows and unrealistic silhouettes suggest the transition to abstraction. When the children find sanctuary in the home of a little old lady who befriends orphans, the idea comes across. The preacher, pursuing, is the Devil; the little old lady is Goodness and Love. All this is handled with obvious pretense.

Lillian Gish is sweet but wispy in the role of the benefactress of orphans, and Billy Chapin and Sally Jane Bruce, who are fine as the youngsters through most of the picture, become posey and incredible in the later scenes. The toughness of the grain of the story goes soft and porous toward the end. The conclusion is an uncontestable statement that children, God bless them, will endure. THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, screen play by James Agee, based on the novel by Davis Grubb; produced by Paul Gregory and directed by Charles Laughton; released by United Artists. At the Mayfair. Preacher Harry Powell . . . . . Robert Mitchum Willa Harper . . . . . Shelley Winters

Question: 'The Night of the Hunter' in 1955 was the only film to be directed by which actor?
Answer: CHARLES LAUGHTON