The Night of the Hunter (B+ or 3.5/4 stars)
'The Night of the Hunter' (directed by the great Charles Laughton – sadly, his only film directing effort) is a creepy, starkly realistic good vs. evil parable, with the "good" represented by a couple of young farm kids & a pious old lady, and "evil" literally in the hands of traveling murderer. The story is set during the Depression in the rural Bible belt and, the people we meet & the visuals we see are striking. While serving a prison sentence for stealing a car (a misogynist, the feds don't know about the countless women he's murdered), psychopathic Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) learns about a huge amount of stolen $$ (10,000 bucks) that his cellmate Ben Harper (Peter Graves) has hidden, but is unable to learn where before Harper is hanged. When Powell, a faux-fire & brimstone "Preacher," gets out of jail 30 days later, he ventures to Harper's hometown & approaches the dead man's family in the hopes of finding the $$.
He begins to romance Harper's naive - some would say 'moronic' - widow, Willa (Shelley Winters) & to torment his kids, the 9 yr. old John & 4 yr. old Pearl. But when Powell kills Willa (her corpse lies at the bottom of a river with her hair billowing among the weeds), John & Pearl embark on a frightening journey to escape from wrathful Powell. The children travel downriver under the moonlight with Pearl clutching her doll that is stuffed with the stolen $$ ... gliding in eerie silence while watched over by innocent, "good" animals hidden in the darkness. They find refuge in a home for abandoned children run by the apron-wearing, scripture-quoting Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish). She protects them. But Powell shows catches up to the kids and, the image of her waiting on the front porch with a shotgun - waiting for nut job Powell to arrive - is unforgettable. It's a powerful image of good vs. evil in which both good AND evil believe that they have God on their side.
'The Night of the Hunter' is just a wonderfully unsettling movie in every way. The locales are brutally rural, the atmosphere is thick, & Robert Mitchum plays the murderous minister with an icy malice that is bone-chilling. Mitchum provides, for me, one of the most horrifying of movie villains because, really, he believes everything he does is in the name of God -- he feels that he's doing the right thing. Director Charles Laughton does an exceptional job of catching the ugliness & even ignorance of small-town types of folks, as well. He has got out of Shelley Winters a jittery performance as the vapid widow, Willa (her wedding-night scene with the preacher is quietly devastating). Evelyn Varden struck a nerve as the cruel, village busybody/gossip monger. And the war of wills btwn. Mitchum & the Lillian Gish character is the heart of the film's last Act; a masterful blend of lyricism & horror. Seeing 60-something Gish with her rifle is something to behold.
Cinematographer Stanley Cortez gives the oh-so-rural landscape a real surrealistic feel, using tilted camera angles and the black-&-white photography as varying shades of good & evil, just like the tattoos on Powell's fingers: L-O-V-E on his right hand & H-A-T-E on his left. You know, 'The Night of the Hunter' did not do too well back in 1955 with critics or with audiences; which is a shame, because the so-so response dissuaded Laughton from ever directing again. Perhaps the film didn't click/resonate back then was because it's one of the few films from that era that showcases 2 children in menacing danger. i.e., Powell kills both their parents & the movie leaves no doubt that he will kill the kids once he gets that $$. Laughton also shot the film with exaggerated sets to give his film a bizarre faerie tale/nightmare feel. Walter Schumann also lends a great musical score and, though he didn't compose it, Mitchum's incessant hum/singing of the ode "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" will haunt my dreams at night. And so, overlooked at the time of its 1st release, I see why 'The Night of the Hunter' is now regarded as a classic.
He begins to romance Harper's naive - some would say 'moronic' - widow, Willa (Shelley Winters) & to torment his kids, the 9 yr. old John & 4 yr. old Pearl. But when Powell kills Willa (her corpse lies at the bottom of a river with her hair billowing among the weeds), John & Pearl embark on a frightening journey to escape from wrathful Powell. The children travel downriver under the moonlight with Pearl clutching her doll that is stuffed with the stolen $$ ... gliding in eerie silence while watched over by innocent, "good" animals hidden in the darkness. They find refuge in a home for abandoned children run by the apron-wearing, scripture-quoting Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish). She protects them. But Powell shows catches up to the kids and, the image of her waiting on the front porch with a shotgun - waiting for nut job Powell to arrive - is unforgettable. It's a powerful image of good vs. evil in which both good AND evil believe that they have God on their side.
'The Night of the Hunter' is just a wonderfully unsettling movie in every way. The locales are brutally rural, the atmosphere is thick, & Robert Mitchum plays the murderous minister with an icy malice that is bone-chilling. Mitchum provides, for me, one of the most horrifying of movie villains because, really, he believes everything he does is in the name of God -- he feels that he's doing the right thing. Director Charles Laughton does an exceptional job of catching the ugliness & even ignorance of small-town types of folks, as well. He has got out of Shelley Winters a jittery performance as the vapid widow, Willa (her wedding-night scene with the preacher is quietly devastating). Evelyn Varden struck a nerve as the cruel, village busybody/gossip monger. And the war of wills btwn. Mitchum & the Lillian Gish character is the heart of the film's last Act; a masterful blend of lyricism & horror. Seeing 60-something Gish with her rifle is something to behold.
Cinematographer Stanley Cortez gives the oh-so-rural landscape a real surrealistic feel, using tilted camera angles and the black-&-white photography as varying shades of good & evil, just like the tattoos on Powell's fingers: L-O-V-E on his right hand & H-A-T-E on his left. You know, 'The Night of the Hunter' did not do too well back in 1955 with critics or with audiences; which is a shame, because the so-so response dissuaded Laughton from ever directing again. Perhaps the film didn't click/resonate back then was because it's one of the few films from that era that showcases 2 children in menacing danger. i.e., Powell kills both their parents & the movie leaves no doubt that he will kill the kids once he gets that $$. Laughton also shot the film with exaggerated sets to give his film a bizarre faerie tale/nightmare feel. Walter Schumann also lends a great musical score and, though he didn't compose it, Mitchum's incessant hum/singing of the ode "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" will haunt my dreams at night. And so, overlooked at the time of its 1st release, I see why 'The Night of the Hunter' is now regarded as a classic.