The Night of the Hunter (1955) User Reviews

Nightmares of the Hunter...

[Xstal · 9/10 · 5 October 2022]

You can run, but you can't hide, from a wolf in a sheep's hide, when he senses he can take, and he's happy to forsake, gets a paw inside to prise, no one to hear your frightened cries, as you're taken to a place, and hunted down without much grace.

Seldom will you encounter such a soulless character as Harry Powell through such an outstanding performance by Robert Mitchum. I remember watching this as a child and being quite disturbed by how nasty people can be. I've watched it several times since and the most recent viewing left me thinking I'd just watched a promotion for a church or some such religious organisation, so intense was the in your face piety of the dialogue and direction - which didn't enhance the experience if I'm honest.

Masterpiece of Cinematography

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 16 November 2009]

No subtlety here. Robert Mitchum plays a phony minister who has gotten wind of a stolen fortune from a condemned man in prison. The movie then launches into a obsessed assault on two children who know where the money is. He is one of the most complex villains in the history of the cinema. He is totally in control of every scene. Everyone buys into his gig and he uses religion to get what he wants. The young boy knows what the man is and protects his sister (a major task because she is totally clueless and innocent). When Mitchum kills the children's mother, slashing her throat shortly after their marriage, the kids take off down the river. The story is allegorical as the two try to find their way to freedom. Mitchum doesn't give up, but meets his match in Lillian Gish, who has taken the kids in. One of my favorite things about this movie is the strange screams that emanate from Mitchum when he is frustrated or in danger. He is so cocky and quirky that it's hard to imagine anyone falling for his hoo haw. See this for the incredible camera work especially. Some of the finest scenes in black and white cinematography are present here, particularly the use of shadows.

Overwhelming

[Felix-28 · 9/10 · 6 November 2005]

I was lucky enough to see this in a cinema with a restored print. I had previously caught a snatch of it while channel surfing cable TV, and saw enough in about 30 seconds to realise that this was worth watching through if I got the chance.

I could barely speak at the end of the film. Pauline Kael called it one of the scariest movies ever made, and she was absolutely right. Robert Mitchum becomes the embodiment of evil, and his pursuit of the children is so relentless, and so menacing, that it becomes impossible to believe that they can escape. The images are brilliant; there's a depth to black and white that colour somehow lacks, and it is used superbly here to create a sense of brooding terror.

I didn't mind the homily at the end. Like everything else in the film, it is done with utter conviction, and this makes it work. Charles Laughton saw it as the indispensable conclusion to the film, and the strength of his belief makes it indispensable.

The images are so much part of the film that it must lose a great deal on the small screen, although my minimal exposure to it in that environment showed that it was still well worth watching, but if you get a chance to see it in a cinema, jump at it.

Sleep, Lit'le ones, sleep...

[paulhjrickards · 10/10 · 23 September 2002]

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.

One of the most extraordinary movies ever made. Essential viewing for anybody interested in American movies!

[Infofreak · 20 May 2004]

'The Night Of The Hunter' is recognized by most critics and hard core film buffs as one of the most extraordinary movies ever made, but sadly it's still frequently overlooked by the many movie fans, probably because it's so difficult to categorize. Yes, it's a thriller but it's also a child's nightmare. A Noir but also a fable. Robert Mitchum gives one of his very best performances as Harry Powell, the charming but evil preacher with "love" tattooed on one hand, "hate" on the other. Powell is one of the most memorable screen villains of all time, and 'The Night Of The Hunter' is worth watching just for Mitchum, who is mesmerizing. Shelley Winters is surprisingly effective as the widow Powell woos, Peter Graves has a small role at the beginning as her first husband, and Lillian Gish plays the saintly Ms. Cooper, guardian of unwanted children. Because this movie isn't set in isn't the "real world" many viewers don't know exactly how to react to it. Charles Laughton's small town America is a stylized, dreamlike place, in some ways not unlike David Lynch's twisted world depicted in 'Blue Velvet' and 'Twin Peaks'. It also reminds me of Flannery O'Connor's Gothic South in her classic novels 'Wise Blood' and 'The Violent Bear It Away'. Some of the scenes involving Powell menacing Winters' children deliberately invoke James Whale's 'Frankenstein', and the sequence depicting the children's journey down the river is charming but blatantly artificial. While I'm a big fan of "outsider" film makers like Russ Meyer, Coffin Joe and Alejandro Jodorowsky, I also greatly admire those who work within the system but still manage to subvert Hollywood with doses of surrealism. I'm thinking of movies such as 'Kiss Me Deadly', 'Shock Corridor' and 'The Manchurian Candidate'. Each of these films are unique but they also remind me of each other and of 'The Night Of The Hunter'. I highly recommend them all and wish that there were a lot more movies like them today. 'The Night Of The Hunter' is essential viewing for anybody interested in American movies!

Innocence shattered

[jotix100 · 10/10 · 4 October 2005]

It's a shame Charle Laughton, the distinguished actor, didn't direct more films. As he clearly indicates with "The Night of the Hunter", he had a rare gift for guiding a production into achieving greatness. This film, which didn't receive the attention it got when it was released, has turned out to be something discerning movie fans saw from the start, a classic.

Charles Laughton was basically a man of the theater, then came the movies, but he was at heart someone who was equally at ease working on the stage, or performing in front of a camera. Mr. Laughton undertook to direct this screen play written by another distinguished American writer and critic, James Agee, based on the David Grubb's novel.

The result is a magnificent film about to what extreme a man will go in order to steal from two young and innocent children something their father had left for them in trust. The evil character of Harry Powell, a charlatan preacher taking advantage of poor and unsophisticated country folk, is one of the best creations in the novel. Harry Powell doesn't care what he must do to get his hands in the money. He marries the children's mother, a widow who was hoping for some happiness in her life, only as part of his overall scheme of things.

The film is a poetic account of the story with great emphasis on the kindness the children receive at the end from Rachel Cooper, a woman with a heart of gold who took John and Pearl into her home when they needed it.

Robert Mitchum is the evil Harry Powell. It's without a doubt, one of Mr. Mitchum's best screen work. As guided by the director, the actor gives a performance that still surprises whoever watches the film for the first time. Shelley Winters plays Willa, the widow who can't sense the danger connected to the man she marries. Lillian Gish is another luminous presence in the film because she projects no-nonsense kindness and sweetness toward the children she takes into her home.

The film also is enhanced by the brilliant black and white cinematography by Stanley Carter. The film still shows a pristine look fifty years after it was released. Also, the musical score of Walter Shumann adds another layer in the film's texture.

"The Night of the Hunter" is ultimately a work of art that moves the viewer because of the tremendous work its director, Charles Laughton, gave to the movie.

A must-see for lovers of art cinema and suspense. Exquisite!

[Moxie · 10/10 · 29 December 1998]

One of the best suspense films ever made. Exquisite art direction: moody, scary, sometimes lyrically beautiful. Yet there are comical and even idyllic moments. Mitchum is EXCELLENT, especially in the cellar scene. Subtle, different; not just the same old ax-after-ax tear-'em-up blood-and-gore formula, but REAL suspense built from the personalities of the characters and the artful editing, music, art direction, and Charles Laughton's directing. Yet warm and lovely in parts. The cast's characterizations are excellent, even in minor roles, such as the "typical townspeople". You'll remember this one for a long time. Maybe not for kids under 12, as the frightening parts are too much like real life (compared to run-of-the-mill horrendous movies) and might leave unsettling memories.

Breathtaking Imagery

[Lechuguilla · 10/10 · 16 December 2007]

Extraordinary, unparalleled, breathtaking ... that's how I would appraise the film's visuals, from DP Stanley Cortez. The images are all in B&W, and many have a noir design straight out of German Expressionism. Sharp angles, high-contrast "hard" lighting, and deep shadows amplify form, or rather distort reality, and as such project human experience as an exaggeration of the emotional.

Some of the images in "The Night Of The Hunter" are so enthralling that they will live on in the collective mind as long as cinema exists. Who can forget that famous underwater scene wherein a dead woman's body sits upright in a car with her hair flowing along the current like seaweed, accompanied by background music that is so dreamlike? One of my favorite images is the one wherein Willa Harper (Shelley Winters) lies in blissful repose on a bed as Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) stands by a window in an unadorned room with angular walls that slope upward, as if in a church.

One of the most haunting, and famous, sequences has the two children, John and Pearl, in a rowboat, as they make a Homeric odyssey down a river, lorded over by giant spider webs, frogs, and rabbits. And then there's that electrifying scene with Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish) in silhouette, sitting in a chair, holding a shotgun, as Harry Powell sings "Leaning On The Everlasting Arms". Cinematic brilliance extraordinaire!

Consistent with its expressionistic visuals, the story is presented from the POV of a child's nightmare. John and Pearl symbolize innocence, and the bogeyman comes in the form of an adult, a godlike man who cons the gullible townsfolk including the children's mom. Our good reverend Powell is less interested in saving souls than he is in finding all that loot stashed away somewhere. Thus, the film's underlying theme is at least as relevant now as it was fifty years ago; the film has not aged one bit.

Production design is sparse, true to the film's visual style and to the setting in Depression era West Virginia. The casting is perfect. Robert Mitchum has just the right look and voice for the part of Harry Powell. I like how he calls to John and Pearl ... "chill-drenn?" Lillian Gish is well-suited to represent ... reality.

And those two kids likewise are ideally cast. Love the way Pearl, with her round face and those rag-a-muffin curls refers to herself, in that Southern drawl, as "Pell". And the film's horror combines with humor in many scenes, one of which has "Pell" sitting on the ground with scissors in hand nonchalantly cutting up paper currency into paper dolls.

Acting is generally exaggerated, again consistent with what one would expect in a nightmare. Evelyn Varden, as Icey Spoon (love that name), hams it up in a gossipy, mother hen sort of way. And Shelley Winters effectively jitters her way through the film, ghostlike, her character lost in delusion.

The film's original score is haunting and mournful, and could hardly set a more appropriate tone: "Dream little one, dream; dream my little one, dream; oh the hunter in the night fills your childish heart with fright; fear is only a dream; so little one dream".

With its brilliant photography, its unpopular but deeply truthful theme, and its nightmarish story, Charles Laughton's "The Night Of The Hunter" is high up on my list of twenty best films of all time.

Good, but.

[snow0r · 7/10 · 24 March 2006]

The Night of the Hunter sees Robert Mitchum play a corrupt preacher in a well-done atmospheric thriller that gets increasingly confused as it draws to its overdue conclusion.

The first half is fantastic. It's shot brilliantly, the use of shadow and contrast very effective (although perhaps easy in a black and white film), and it is well acted for the most part. Mitchum plays his role brilliantly, and even the children play their parts well, but some of the older actors are guilty of over-eagerness and put in comically "hammy" performances. The score is guilty of being similarly over the top; as it announces Mitchum's entrance, there's no doubt that you really aren't supposed to like him. But it is unfair perhaps to criticize it for sticking to the styles of the times.

The second half is a different matter, as the children run away to escape the evil preacher's clutches. From this point onwards it turns into a form of social commentary ("Gee, look at the problems they had back then"), complete with seasonal workers and a sort of orphanarium. On top of the theologizing such a message is a bit unnecessary and only serves to slow down the film's pace and delay it's inevitable conclusion. It even turns into a TV Christmas movie of sorts before announcing its end, and such an off-key conclusion spoils the great work put in in the first half.

Overall, it's very good and is definitely worth watching, with some good performances and cinematography, but as it draws towards its slow end and Christmas scenes you'll be left wondering what might have been.

Grotesque beauty

[travisyoung · 8/10 · 28 February 2020]

The crickets are chirping amid the stillness of what must be a balmy summer night. Bathed in moonlight sits an old farmhouse, its high gabled roof and slatted walls shining brilliantly against the dark outline of a quaint picket fence. And there, in sharp silhouette is the slim figure of the Hunter perched on a tree stump facing the house, conveniently dappled in shadows from a nearby oak. He slowly begins to croon a smooth a cappella rendition of "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms," his baritone voice filling the night air with dread and premeditation. Also cloaked in shadows is old Rachel Cooper, sitting in her chair on the screened porch breathing silently, ever vigilant, staring towards the voice piercing the darkness, her shotgun laid ready across her lap. Perhaps they can see one another, perhaps not. As the Hunter once again sings the refrain, Rachel even joins him in canon, the blend of their voices beautiful but eerie, ancient foes locked in eternal conflict, watching and waiting. Suddenly, the night dissolves in an instant as the screen covering the porch clots with blazing reflected light--a child has innocently approached Rachel with a burning candle, not realizing the mortal significance of the stalemate she has disrupted. Rachel frantically blows out the flame, but it is too late: the Hunter has vanished from his perch, and surely lurks invisibly somewhere close in the darkness, anywhere, everywhere, waiting with a patience as old as time. Rachel gazes into the abyss and hears the echoed hoot of an owl. The owl too is perched on a tree, his snowy blank face like a mask, imperial and emotionless, floating disembodied in the night. He shakes his feathers and spies a lone young rabbit scurrying clumsily on the ground. When the rabbit screams, Rachel's expression falls in weary recognition, her large eyes sad, and she says to herself, "it's a hard world for little things."

In The Night of the Hunter, it is indeed a hard world for little things. To siblings John (Billy Chapin) and little Pearl Harper (Sally Jane Bruce), it must seem like an unending nightmare fraught with immense evil and unspeakable loss. That their world is so mesmerizing and beautiful for us should almost make us feel guilty if this was not the work of fiction that it is.

John and Pearl seem like ordinary kids growing up somewhere in rural West Virginia along the Ohio River Valley during the depression. Their father, Ben (Peter Graves), robs a bank for ten thousand dollars, kills two people in the process, and before his children's eyes hides the money, is arrested, and is subsequently convicted. It so happens that his cell mate, Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), is a prolific but opportunistic serial killer of widows who is nabbed for stealing a car, the full extent of his crimes apparently unknown to authorities. Tattooed alternately along the knuckles of his hands are the words "L-O-V-E" and "H-A-T-E", and it is not a coincidence that the hand that holds his ever-present switchblade is labeled "HATE". He saves that hand for women in particular. He has adopted the nickname "Preacher", professing a religion he and the Almighty "worked out betwixt us." Though Preacher wheedles and begs, Ben Harper takes the secret location of the ten thousand dollars he stole to his grave when he is swiftly executed by the state.

Preacher is not a subtle character, but upon his equally swift release, he is somehow able to dupe just about everyone into believing that he is actually a former prison chaplain who bonded with the late Ben Harper before his execution. With a broad swagger, he ingratiates himself into the lives of not only his ex-cellmate's children, but prominent members of their gossipy tight-knit community, and even their mother Willa (Shelley Winters). His masquerade is so persuasive that in almost no time at all Willa accepts his hand in marriage (the one tattooed "LOVE", no doubt).

Of course, the markings professed on his right hand are a lie: Preacher is not interested in love, or Willa, or anything except the ten thousand dollars Ben Harper hid somewhere. Willa doesn't know or care where the money is, and indeed, is only interested in love. At the conclusion of a marriage possibly even shorter than its courtship, Willa sits bolt upright tied up behind the wheel of her car at the bottom of the river, her hair flowing gloriously amongst the long river weeds, a deep, jagged slash across her throat.

Preacher knows the newly orphaned children are the key to the money, but when they narrowly escape his clutches and sail down the river, the cat and mouse game really begins. Preacher becomes the titular Hunter, and his obsessive pursuit of young John and Pearl leads us through an odyssey of astonishing beauty and madness. Along the way, an elderly lady named Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish) becomes their protector, proving herself an unlikely but ultimate adversary to Preacher, a woman who is as committed to goodness as he is boundless evil.

Charles Laughton directed The Night of the Hunter at the height of his acting career. It was the first and only film he ever directed. Upon release, it was widely considered a failure, but today is often lauded as one of the best films ever made. Following a basic Southern Gothic formula, The Night of the Hunter is a savage antithesis to the preachy moralizing and sentimental pedagogy of To Kill a Mockingbird. The Preacher is no Atticus Finch, but the reverse is equally true.

The Night of the Hunter has a special place in my heart due to its heightened characterizations and a visual aesthetic that has been charitably labeled "expressionistic" but is actually nothing but baroque exaggeration. Like the smooth voice of the preacher, this film is hypnotic, casting a spell of affection it may not entirely deserve. There is something profound and exhilarating watching The Night of the Hunter for the first time--the scenes where the children glide down a shimmering river fill me with thrill and mystery, and the silhouette of the preacher riding a lone horse along the glowing horizon singing his hymn with patient omniscience stills the very blood in my veins. Too canny to be classified an avant-grade experiment (a la Eraserhead) and too dreamy to totally suspend disbelief, The Night of the Hunter is a startlingly gorgeous work of art that challenges us to find good in the face of evil, beauty within ugliness, and light in the darkness.

Overrated in the extreme

[Delmare · 6/10 · 18 August 2008]

Ben Harper (Peter Graves) steals $10,000 and leaves the money in the keeping of his children, John (Billy Chapin) and Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce), hoping they might one day find their way out of the economic trauma of the Depression-era South. John knows where the money is hidden, but Harper has sworn him to secrecy, a move John quickly resents when posing preacher Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) comes to town. Powell shared a cell with Harper, who, immediately after hiding the money, was arrested for murder and armed robbery. Ben is executed, and the wicked Powell, released from jail, moves in on Willa (Shelly Winters), Harper's gullible widow, hoping to draw out the secret of the money's location. As tensions mount, it becomes progressively clear that the only hope for the children's salvation rests with regional matriarch and philanthropist Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish) who always keeps her doors open for displaced youngsters.

It's not often that I'm stumped by the question of why a classic is a classic, but thanks to Night of the Hunter, I know it's not unthinkable. Yes, the cinematography is amazing, even by the standards of film noir, but the pace is rushed, the plot is a walking disaster, and the characters – if we can call them that – more closely resemble flotsam.

The movie opens with Gish's disembodied head floating on a backdrop of stars, the drifting heads of children listening with rapt attention to her formulaic Bible-talk. Even if we grasp the intended irony of the moment – a dreamy segue into a deadly nightmare – there's no escaping how God-blastedly cheesy the image looks, how it feels more like a presage to Sesame Street or an eighties sit-com than a purportedly moving work of horror. As an intro, it destroys any precedent for subtlety. We're less than a minute into the movie and it's already abundantly clear that our storytellers have absolutely no faith in our ability to figure anything out for ourselves.

The trend continues with the introduction of Harry Powell. Eschewing what could have been a very creepy experience – encountering the dark side of Powell in a slow, subtle, and action-driven manner – Powell hits us over the head with a string of didactic monologues, our occasion for discovery smashed right at the outset. Ben Harper, by contrast, is dispensed with so quickly we're barely aware of his presence. He's a completely wasted opportunity, a perfunctory McGuffin for an even more perfunctory plot. The movie would have been much more powerful if John had gone through the story haunted by the memory of a loving father who died in a desperate act to provide for him. Instead, Harper's only function is to set the story in motion, and as soon as he does this, he disappears from view and from memory.

Willa Harper is even more obnoxious. A pivotal factor in the story, Willa's fanatic devotion to Powell is the main instigation of everything else that follows, but because we never get a sense of who Willa was prior to Powell's arrival, her devotion feels unfounded, her behavior seems unreasonable, and, as a consequence, everything else in the story feels like it's balancing on thin air. Why is this woman so easily brainwashed? Why does Powell consistently come out on top? Every single plot-point is, at best, the product of characters acting mysteriously, and at worst, the product of characters behaving in a manner completely opposed to reason. How an entire town can get swept up in the patently obvious lies of a figure like Powell is beyond me, especially to the extent that they side against their own. There's nothing particularly strategic about Powell's methods, nor is he notably charismatic or even all that bright. He constantly loses his temper, performs actions so rash and brainless you'd expect immediate rejoinder, and holds among his many beliefs the bone-headed conviction that the best way to track down a fugitive is to ride through open country and sing at the top of his lungs. Yet Powell always gets way, because the rest of the universe is too stupid to stop him, and it's precisely this idiocy that drives the story forward, not the heroes, and certainly not the villain.

Which brings me to the last point: acting, i.o.w. what the devil is everyone smoking? I respect Robert Mitchum a great deal, but his performance as Powell is woefully over-the-top, in-your-face, and not the least bit compelling. Gish is great, but the credits start rolling before she's even gotten her feet on the ground. Shelly Winters is a tremendous actress, and she does her best as Willa, but again, the character is so poorly written that she comes across feeling like a mariner who's been thrown off the edge of a ship, floundering for all she's worth, but no match for the dead-weight of the screenplay, which drags her to the bottom and feels no remorse. Worst of all is Chapin as John, suffering from prolifically delayed reaction time, always lagging at least a second-and-a-half behind whatever he's supposed to be responding to. Expressions of shock and anger seem to come out of nowhere, a clear indication of his being taught to look and act in a particular way at a particular moment without anyone telling him why. I'm not blaming the kid for this. I'm blaming Charles Laughton, who found children so dislikable he dumped them all on Mitchum, who did his best to direct them, but was clearly not up to the punch.

All in all, I'm at a loss as to why this movie continues to garner such widespread acclaim, save the unfortunate reality that the herd mentality of movie criticism discourages any kind of dissension, so we continue trumpeting the virtues of fossils, long after they've outlived their usefulness.

Suffer the little children

[bkoganbing · 9/10 · 24 September 2006]

Charles Laughton had only one choice to pay the role of psycho-reverend- conman for his adaption of Night of the Hunter and it was Robert Mitchum. When he's on the screen Mitchum fills it with malevolence.

It's an unusual part for Mitchum. Usually he's terse and laconic in films, but as Harry Powell he's just full of words. Of course he doesn't mean anything he says, but he's just a fountain of speech in Night of the Hunter. Mitchum as he did later on in Thunder Road drew from his hobohemian background of the open road to get his characterization of the Reverend Harry Powell.

Powell who marries and murders women after robbing them blind has more than 25 to his credit in the backwoods of the Ohio river country in West Virginia and Kentucky during the Depression years. But he gets arrested for stealing a car and gets 30 days in jail. Mitchum gets thrown in the same cell as Peter Graves who robbed a bank and killed two people. Graves before he's caught gave the loot to his son Billy Chapin with a promise not even to tell their mother because she's not too swift. How right he's proved to be.

After Graves is hung, Mitchum finishes his sentence with the intention of wooing and marrying widow Shelley Winters. She falls for his line as does her little girl Sally Jane Bruce. But young Billy spots Mitchum for a phony from the gitgo.

The children are in for a lot of heartbreak and tragedy before the film concludes. One of the things I like best about Night is the Hunter is the way Laughton graphically demonstrates the life and poverty of rural America during the Depression. The film is all seen through the eyes of the children as they begin their Huck Finn like odyssey down the Ohio river, escaping from Mitchum.

According to Lee Server's biography of Mitchum, Laughton while great with the adults had no patience at all with the kids. After a while he let Mitchum actually direct Chapin and Bruce in their scenes.

Lillian Gish gives one of her great performances in the sound era of her career as the farm woman who eventually takes in the kids as she does for a few others. She's there to be a contrast to Mitchum. Her actions speak her faith a lot louder than Mitchum's phony ramblings.

Another role I like in this is that of Evelyn Varden. She and husband Don Beddoe employ Shelley Winters at their drug store and she's all full of concern in a showy pharisee like way for the kids. She's totally taken with Mitchum, but when he's unmasked as a phony her rage is something to see on screen.

Sad that Charles Laughton didn't do more behind the camera than this one film. He and Robert Mitchum formed a mutual admiration society that lasted until Laughton passed on inn 1962.

Still Night of the Hunter is a testament to that mutual admiration.

Excellent movie, and well ahead of its time.

[PyrolyticCarbon · 7/10 · 13 September 2002]

This film is way ahead of its time, not only in subject matter but also in cinematic style. The subject is a psychopathic preacher who believes that God is telling him to murder women, usually widowers, and take their money.

From the opening two shots and the first few lines of the preacher, the characters history and intent is laid down. As quickly, the first few scenes with the children show the circumstances that will bring about the main premise. After that you are allowed to wallow in Robert Mitchums role as the over acting preacher. Laughton directs very well, with some visually rich scenes and wonderful shots. However, there are a couple of cheesy moments of dialogue, and a few, almost laughable, scenes. Despite this it's a very good movie with some stunning acting from Robert Mitchum.

Unsettling, but not in a good way.

[rtiplady · 1/10 · 14 January 2005]

It's a unique experience for me to see a movie that's universally acclaimed and not get something out of it. Night Of The Hunter is that movie. The first thing that struck me was, apart from Mitchum, how bad the acting was. It was hard not to believe that some of the cast had not been plucked from the street outside the studio, prodded onto the set with long poles and forced to read their lines off idiot boards. Secondly, any suspense evaporates early on when the kids escape from Mitchum, after being cornered in a cellar, by a contrivance so lame it doesn't just suspend belief, it kills it stone dead. The film has one or two memorable images but the mood is consistently broken by bad acting, excruciating dialogue, backdrops that ripple gently in the draught from the studio fans and poor continuity. Mitchum's performance is good but it's drowned in a sea of tedious, one-dimensional, ham-fisted twaddle - what a waste. I can see my opinion is a minority view, all I can suggest is that people who find this film worthwhile should check out Peter Weir's Picnic At Hanging Rock, a subtle exercise in atmosphere and menace that actually works.

Brilliant One of a Kind

[dougdoepke · 12 November 2015]

This movie could have fallen apart in so many places, crafted as it is from many diverse parts. Expressionism vs. naturalism, fable vs. social commentary, dream vs. reality, convention vs. experiment. Yet somehow these disparate elements not only hold together, they soar together, into film making heights. I'm almost tempted to say miraculously so, because on paper such opposing styles would seem to resist any kind of meaningful synthesis. Yet there it is, on the screen, an almost seamless work of movie-making art. After so many reviews - a testament to Hunter's mesmerizing effect - there is little left to say. Except to observe that if the film's brain is Director Laughton, and its eyes Stanley Cortez, then its heart (which is considerable) comes from screen writer James Agee. Literary conscience of the Great Depression, Agee makes of this modern day fairy tale a moving tribute to children of all times who have had to struggle against forces so much bigger and more knowing than themselves. Cast adrift in an alien world, they can only hope for the best, which amounts to trusting in the presence somewhere of a benevolent force to protect them. John and Pearl are lucky. Other children as Agee well knew are not so lucky. In an odd way, this is a conscionable movie about spiritual compassion that Hollywood too often turned into emotional mush, but not here. Too bad this neglected masterpiece was not so recognized during Laughton's lifetime.

A classic that is still chilling over sixty years later

[Tweekums · 10/10 · 22 March 2018]

This classic film is set during the Great Depression; Ben Harper has stolen ten thousand dollars, killing two people in the process. He manages to get home and gives the money to his children, John and Pearl. They hide it in Pearl's favourite rag doll and he tells them not to tell anybody else, including their mother, about it. Shortly afterwards he is arrested and sentenced to hang. In prison he tells his story to his cellmate, Harry Powell. Powell professes to be a preacher but he preys on women who he murders for their savings. After Ben is executed and Powell's short sentence ends he heads off to befriend Ben's widow, Willa. Everybody except John takes an immediate liking to Powell. It isn't long before Powell marries Willa and soon after that he starts pressuring John to find where the money is hidden. Things soon get very dangerous as Powell will go to any length to get the money.

After over sixty years this film is still gripping and manages to provide some real surprises for the first time viewer. Robert Mitchum manages to be both plausible and genuinely menacing as the evil Powell. The innocent town where the Harpers live certainly isn't ready for a man like Powell. Shelley Winters is solid as Willa and Lillian Gish impresses as the woman who ultimately helps the children. Young Billy Chapin and Sally Jane Bruce are also good in the roles of John and Pearl respectively. Director Charles Laughton did a fine job building the tension, creating the right atmosphere and providing some moments that are surprisingly disturbing for a film of this era. Overall I'd say that this is a must see for any fans of classic cinema in general and certainly for fans of film noir.

It's a harsh world for little things. The night of the hunter is still pretty scary, even today.

[ironhorse_iv · 8/10 · 12 September 2014]

Wonderful direction by Charles Laughton. The movie is based off the 1953 novel of the same name by Davis Grubb, tells the story about a corrupt reverend-turned-serial killer, Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) who uses his charms to woo an unsuspecting widow, Willa Harper (Shelley Winters) and her two children, Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce) & John (Billy Chaplin) in an attempt to steal a fortune hidden by the woman's dead husband. The novel and film draw on the true story of Harry Powers, hanged in 1932 for the murders of two widows and three children in Clarksburg, West Virginia. Loosely based on it, Davis Grubb add his own sinister turn to it, making Harry Powell into a more frightening character by making a priest out of him. He can be both smooth and charming, while misogynist, opportunist, and evil, all at the same time. Robert Mitchum is great as a roaming preacher with blood on his hands. The acting for the most part is pretty good. Still, it can go a little 'over the top'. I don't know why Mitchum hate working with Shelley Winters as I found her acting to be well-done. I have to give mad praise to Lillian Gish as Rachel Cooper, a tough old woman who looks after stray children. The stand-off between them were amazing. The war of wills between Mitchum and Gish is the heart of the film's final third, a masterful blend of horror and lyricism. Mitchum's character professes to be a preacher, he assumes the role of the spiritualist, acting as the literal "wolf in sheep's (or shepherds) clothing". Lillian Gish's character is the actual spiritualist, her spirituality is evident in her course of actions, rather than her words and appearance. Even the children actors were pretty good. It's hard not to break down crying when Powell yells at Pearl. She was so charming. Even, the actor that did John, had a few good scenes. The arresting scene is one of them. Still, the film lost its menacing premise, when a ten year old and old woman can outwit the wily psychopath. It might be a real stretch of the imagination. It's make worst when the Preacher is made out to be an idiot, some scenes. Even his scream about getting hurt is over the top cartoony. It's such a high-pitched whooping sound that you would hear from a Three Stooges short film, not a horror movie. Still, it's a well written, creepy-as-hell Appalachian Gothic with a lot of symbolism. I love the symbolism of the pocket knife suddenly springing out during a peep show. Excellent way of highlighting the pathological repression driving the character. Add the line, 'There are too many of them... I can't kill a world!' with his look of disinterest & disgust. The stylized dialogues are the best. There are too many quotes that worth remember about. Some great examples are the love and hate tattoo speech. You got movie magic with how it was written. Even the camera shot of the owl and rabbit scene had so much depth. The whole river dream sequence was so surreal shot by Stanley Cortez, the cinematographer. While, it did look cheap-looking, it was unbelievably magical, scary, poignant and, well, a little unreal. It's not even slightly "realistic", yet it's truthful in a way that all great art aspires. Laughton drew on the harsh, angular look of German expressionist films of the 1920s. The film was shot in black and white in the styles and motifs of German Expressionism, having bizarre shadows, distorted perspectives, surrealistic sets, odd camera angles to create a simplified and disturbing mood that reflects the sinister character of Powell, the nightmarish fears of the children, and the sweetness of their savior Rachel. Due to the film's visual style and themes, it is also often categorized as a film noir. You get that feeling of abandonment - of hope mixed with dread. It did captures it so very well. It moves me deeply every time I see it. The film's score, composed and arranged by Walter Schumann in close association with director Laughton, features a combination of nostalgic and expressionistic orchestral passages. Grimmification of known bible verses and children's songs were used to eerie effect. The film has two original songs by Schumann, "Lullaby" (sung by Kitty White) and "Pretty Fly" (originally sung by Sally Jane Bruce but later dubbed by Betty Benson). A recurring musical device involves the preacher making his presence was by singing the traditional hymn "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms." The movie really push against the Hays Codes are the time. There was a very convincing drowning murder scene that nearly got the movie, pulled. Another one is the treatment of children. Even The Hays Code insisted at the time, that the children on film must be all right at the end. Overlooked when it was first release, The Night of the Hunter is now regarded as a classic. Sadly, Director Laughton never did directed another film. The film was remade in 1991 as a TV movie starring Richard Chamberlain, but it's not as good as this version. In 1992, The Night of the Hunter was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress got preservation in its National Film Registry. The movie later influence directors such as David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, and others with their works. Not only that, but villains were based on Mitchum's performance as Powell, such as Kane from Poltergeist II: The Other Side and Caleb from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Even The Simpsons' Sideshow Bob gets in on the action in one episode. Also, the movie became the inspiration for music songs from The Clash 'Death or Glory', or Thirty Seconds to Mars song of the same name. Overall: This movie is a classic masterpiece of suspense, horror and thriller. A must watch for any horror fan.

"It's a hard world for little things"

[nickenchuggets · 9/10 · 17 October 2023]

There are many films I still remember as classics even though I last watched them very long ago. Upon rewatching Night of the Hunter, it's easy to say it feels just as thrilling and creepy as it did when I first saw it. While not a horror movie, it makes sense to consider it as one seeing as how the antagonist is so brilliantly portrayed as a genuine psychopath. The story in this takes place in West Virginia during the Depression. Two kids, John and Pearl (Billy Chapin and Sally Jane Bruce respectively) are approached by their criminal father Ben (who has just committed a robbery) and told never to tell anyone where he hid the money he stole. Immediately after, he is cuffed and taken away to be hanged. Before his execution, his cellmate is a preacher named Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) who tries his hardest to get Ben to give up his secret, but the secret dies with him. Powell was in jail for stealing a car. When he gets out, he goes to Ben's town and catches everyone's attention because he appears to be an honest man of God at first glance, and he also acts the part. Ben's widow, Willa is soon the target of his affection, and she and Powell soon marry. Pearl is naive and doesn't seem to mind, but John's instinct tells him this guy is not to be trusted and he'll never replace his real father. Powell guilt trips Willa into going to religious gatherings with him, believing her only purpose in the eyes of the Lord is to take care of John and Pearl. One night, she comes home late and Powell is caught red handed threatening Pearl about the missing money. Powell realizes Willa is now a liability and must be silenced. He stabs her to death in her bed and sinks an old car into a lake with her corpse in it. Powell comes across John and Pearl and threatens to kill John if he doesn't say where the money is. Pearl finally confesses it's in her doll, which is the truth, but before Powell can do anything, John causes shelves to collapse on his head in the basement. They barely manage to get away by using a small boat to paddle to safety up a river. John and his sister eventually arrive at a house owned by Rachel (Lillian Gish), an affectionate but stern elderly woman who takes care of orphans. Powell manages to find Rachel's house and tries to persuade her that he is the father of John and Pearl, but she isn't fooled and sticks a shotgun in his face. He promises he'll be back. Once night falls, Powell returns and threatens Rachel to give up the kids, so she shoots him. He limps into the barn where he is later apprehended. During his arrest, John is reminded of the pain his father went through while being handcuffed, so he gives up the money to Powell. In court, John can't bring himself to say Powell is guilty, but he will still be executed sometime soon. Back at Rachel's house, John, Pearl and the other children open Christmas gifts. With this legendary movie, Charles Laughton shows that he wasn't just a top of the line actor, but a nearly perfect director too. Sadly, in one of the most baffling anecdotes I can think of off the top of my head, the initial reaction to Night of the Hunter was quite bad. Because of this, Laughton never again directed an actual film. Sometimes, I really do have no faith in humanity. Thank god public opinion has shifted in favor of this film, because there are so many different reasons to praise it. Being a noir, it has a lot of dark shadows and reminds me a lot of Grapes of Wrath. The fact they both take place in the 30s I feel is no coincidence. The music is quite disturbing and really contributes a lot to the moments where Powell is trying to chase after the kids. No matter how slow he moves he always seems to catch up with them. Speaking of whom, Robert Mitchum puts on one of the most defining performances of his whole career here. He's still in a noir, so it's not out of place for him, but even when playing a southerner he does so extremely well. He's one of the most downright evil characters in a noir just because he's perfectly willing to kill children to get what he wants. Silent film legend Lillian Gish also portrays a woman who is determined to stand up for what she thinks is right and does so with much tenacity. It is odd seeing her in a non-silent movie though. The movie is made more convincing by the fact that the main characters are two small children who haven't done anything wrong. It's not their fault their father was a criminal, but because of his choices, they enter a nightmare. In my view, Mitchum's performance makes this movie what it is, but there are tons of other reasons why I consider Night of the Hunter one of my favorite noirs.

Outstanding acting , fascinating camera-work and extraordinary direction by Charles Laughton

[ma-cortes · 8/10 · 1 July 2009]

This is a nightmarish tale of a psychopathic preacher named Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum). Ben Harper (Peter Graves) commits killings and he hides the money , promising his sons -Pearl and John- silence about the secret place where it is stashed . While Harper is in prison meets lugubrious preacher Powell who has the words ¨Hate¨ tattooed on the knuckles of his left hand and ¨Love¨ on his right . One time condemned Ben to death penalty , Harry is freed from jail and goes Harper's home where lures Willa (Shelley Winters) and after he marries her in the hopes of getting the cache of money . Later on , the kids are protected by Rachel (Lilian Gish) when Powell threatens them , she's a valiant old lady , rifle wielding and Bible-reading .

This is an ogre-tale in which the psychotic baddie is a bogus preacher. It's a rare film noir , a classic of bizarre beauty and extraordinary performances , totally unique in Hollywood history . A perfect collaboration between novel author : David Grubb , the great screenwriter : James Agee , the cameraman : Cortez and director Laughton . This unusual , odd picture is proceeded under point of sight the children , describing mysterious scenarios and has its moments of strange images , such as the magic journey across the river . Dutch-born American serial killer Harry Powers was the inspiration for the Preacher . Top-notch Robert Mitchum in the acting of his life along with ¨Cape fear¨, he said that Charles Laughton was his favorite director and indicated that this was his favorite of the movies in which he had acted . Magnificent Lilian Gish as old lady who defends the children wielding her shotgun . Special mention for James Gleason as an old drunk who lives on a cottage by the river . Stanley Cortez's masterly cinematography drew heavily from photographers Nicholas Musuraka and John Alton , noir cinema's masters , in its use of lights , darkness and shadows to originate apprehension , suspense , mood and fear . Splendid musical score by Walter Schumann with sensitive lyrics and songs creating a hypnotic atmosphere . This masterpiece was wonderfully directed by great actor Charles Laughton , his only film behind the cameras , however being a flop on original release and he was never again to be offered the film-making another movie . Rating : Over-the-top film , above average . Indispensable and essential watching.

is it really a classic?

[HelloTexas11 · 6/10 · 20 February 2008]

To Roger Ebert, 'The Night of the Hunter' is one of the Great Movies. To Pauline Kael, it's "one of the most frightening movies ever made." To me, well... it's neither. It definitely has its moments. Brilliant actor Charles Laughton's one and only directorial effort is a very offbeat, stylized film that takes a lot of chances. Unfortunately, not many of them work. The main problem I think is that the story it tries to tell is at odds with the presentation and performances. The latter suggest a kind of Twilight Zone-ish children's fable, dreamlike at times, not meant to resemble real life. And yet the story reminds one more of another film starring Robert Mitchum, 'Cape Fear;' gritty, realistic, even mean-spirited. The two just don't blend together into an effective whole. There is humor here and it is perhaps the most effective part of 'The Night of the Hunter.' Small town religion and Americana circa 1930 are spoofed throughout, sometimes pretty heavy-handedly, but it's hard not to laugh when Shelley Winters' character exclaims, "I feel clean! My body's a-quiverin' with cleanliness." Winters herself looks like she can barely keep from laughing after delivering the line. Mitchum has his share of funny moments too. It's when he's supposed to be menacing that the movie comes up short. His Preacher Harry Powell can't touch 'Cape Fear's' Max Cady in terms of malevolent creepiness. Powell is a con-artist posing as a man of God who discovers that two young siblings, John and Pearl Harper, know where $10,000 is hidden. It was given them by their now-dead father who had them swear never to reveal its whereabouts to anyone, even their mother Willa (Winters). Powell marries Willa for the express purpose of getting his hands on the money. The lack of any graphically believable violence is, in this case, a fatal flaw. When Powell finally comes after the children, his manner is more like a boogeyman in an Abbott & Costello movie than a genuinely deranged killer, which he's supposed to be. Now I know all the art-film critics would call me a numbskull for not appreciating the 'poetic' approach Laughton and his cinematographer take, but again, it just doesn't work for this kind of material. After the children escape, there is a lovely, almost surreal scene where they drift down a river in a skiff and the setting becomes even more like one in a dream or fairy tale. The art direction is beautiful and for a few moments, it is a magical film. The story takes a different direction during the last part of the movie, as John and Pearl are taken in by elderly woman, Rachel, a sort of bible-quoting, occasionally shotgun-toting Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. She runs an orphanage of sorts and protects the brother and sister when Powell comes after them, though not through any particularly imaginative means. He is eventually arrested and sentenced to hang. There are a few more bizarre scenes, such as the townspeople rising up in anger to lynch Powell once they discover his true past. They tear up a drugstore and march down the street carrying torches (as if they were going after Frankenstein's Monster) and we expect a vicious hanging scene, then the police simply smuggle Powell out a back door and drive him away. So much for the lynch mob. Rachel and the kids celebrate Christmas while Rachel spouts more homely homilies (she's got a million of 'em.) The end. Like I said, I don't know, maybe I'm completely insensitive and unperceptive but the best I can say about 'The Night of the Hunter' is that it's a very mixed bag. Billy Chapin (I wonder whatever happened to him) gives a fine performance as the boy John, who really is the character that holds the movie together. I think lurking somewhere in the myriad of ideas that make up 'The Night of the Hunter' is a great movie, but Charles Laughton just couldn't find it.

Suffer the children

[nikhil7179 · 10/10 · 2 June 2022]

Part Grimm Fairy Tale, part Southern Gothic, part Film Noir, NOTH is an all-time classic.

Robert Mitchum delivers one of his most iconic performances as psychopathic preacher and wolf in sheep's clothing, Harry Powell.

Lilian Gish is equally good as the shotgun-wielding Mother Goose figure, Mrs Cooper.

Evelyn Varden also gives a standout performance as the brilliantly named busybody Icey Spoon.

Stanley Cortez's camerawork is pure magic. It evokes a sense of mystery and wonder like few movies do.

Although not a success at the time of its release, NOTH has gained a dedicated following over the years, and has been hugely influential to several filmmakers, including the Coen Brothers, Scorsese, Bogdanovich and Del Toro.

Charles Laughton famously only directed the one film. It would've been really interesting to see where he would've gone from here.

An interesting failure (SPOILERS)

[counterrevolutionary · 6/10 · 11 June 2003]

I'd heard so many great things about this movie that it was a major disappointment to finally watch it.

Not that it isn't an interesting film. Mitchum portrays menace perhaps better than any other actor ever (his wedding night lecture to Winters made my skin crawl), the cinematography is fascinating (and oddly reminiscent of the 1930s), and Laughton certainly had a decent eye for the striking image; the expressionistic composition of the bedroom shot where Winters is rabbiting on about their marriage while Mitchum stands at the window preparing to kill her is terrific, and the underwater shot of Winters's body is justly famous (though marred by a poor edit as the shot jumps awkwardly between too-similar POVs). I'm even willing to forgive the over-the-top acting, since it fits in well with the 30s-style filmmaking.

But too much of the movie is absurdly overdirected (the opening shot of Heads In Space is just plain silly, and what is with all those shots of animals during the trip downriver?), and Mitchum seems to have a real problem with the charm which the role requires; I never for a second believed he could con anyone into thinking he was anything but a stone killer. The kiddie songs on the soundtrack are annoying and distracting, especially the one that's supposed to be sung by Pearl, who apparently sings much more articulately than she talks (by the way: "Pearl Harper"? Please!). And Mitchum's "failure" to catch the kids, first in the basement and then in the river, is utterly unconvincing.

I find the kids' behavior after they flee completely implausible. This smart kid never thinks to call the cops? And when Powell passes them as they hide in the barn, it never occurs to the kid to double back and head for home, thus *increasing* the distance between them and the guy who wants to kill them? And since he's obviously following the river, wouldn't it be a pretty obvious thought, even for a kid, to get away from the river, rather than continue down it? And I didn't even think about the fact (which another review reminded me of) that these kids were carrying thousands of dollars in cash. Geez, they could hire a cab to take them somewhere.

And don't you think the kid might have considered telling the nice old lady who takes them in that they're being stalked by a knife-wielding maniac, especially when he shows up at the front door? And is it really plausible that Pearl should have forgotten that he tried to kill them and run to him with open arms? And after seeing the guy chase the boy around with a switchblade, the old lady just chases him off, but doesn't call the police, even though the guy announces that he'll be back? No, she waits around for him to come back, shoots him with a shotgun, *then* calls the police! Incidentally, the police ask her the same very good question, and I don't think they'd be satisfied with the smartass answer she tries to blow them off with. I know I'm not.

And Mitchum's defeat is rather an anti-climax after all that buildup about what a big, bad guy he's supposed to be.

The boy's reaction to Mitchum's arrest is, as others have said, completely implausible, given that we receive no indication that the boy ever felt anything warmer than intense suspicion for Mitchum's character. He certainly does not see him as a surrogate father, which is what we are required to believe in order for the scene to make sense. And there's no way a judge would allow the prosecutor to ask the boy "if that is the man who killed your mother." The boy has no direct knowledge of the crime.

And you know, there's a reason most directors outside of zany screwball comedy don't have their actors address the camera: it cuts the thin thread that suspends the audience's disbelief. Another reason is that it looks really, really stupid.

And the denouement is, let's face it, just ridiculous.

There is too much of interest here to rate this as merely mediocre, but it is too deeply flawed to be counted a success.

6/10.

Laughton used every cinematic device to tighten the tensions

[Nazi_Fighter_David · 9/10 · 30 April 2005]

When I think of the special terror that comes from the vulnerability of the helpless I am haunted by the shock-memory of two films ("The Night of the Hunter" and "Cape Fear") which, by no means coincidentally, both starred Robert Mitchum…

Now there is an actor who would no doubt have attracted more critical garlands if he had not been so incredibly popular, if he had not intercepted such a variety of roles, and if a sardonic air of self-deprecation did not tend to obscure a high talent… If he had decided to specialize in villains, he might even have come to out-play the great Bogart because, to the menace they both could share, Mitchum was able to add a genuinely frightening brutality...

In 1955 Charles Laughton went round to the other side of the cameras to direct one and only one motion picture… Laughton used every cinematic device of camera-angle, sound and lighting to tighten the tensions…

Mitchum played a psychopathic preacher with a restrained malice who married and murdered Shelley Winters for her money – only to find that her young children had it, and he proceeded relentlessly to terrorize them…

Mitchum constructed a really superb characterization of the obsessed drifter, with "love" tattooed on one finger and "hate" on another to point his terrifying parables

Hilarious!

[Doctor A.D. · 6/10 · 4 February 2000]

I think that if I had seen "Night Of The Hunter" on t.v. When I was six years old it might have left some kind of twisted, haunting impression on me; however, as an adult I don't see anything suspenseful about this film or for that matter anything of great value at all beyond its sheer ridiculousness. This movie is very dated. Don't get me wrong- I thoroughly enjoyed it until the novelty wore off, but then I got extremely bored about the time the kids started drifting down the river and then all of a sudden it seemed like an entirely different film altogether and then Mitchum came back and nothing particularly climactic happened and then I was like, "what???!!!??" But don't look for a scare here- it's more like farcical comedy. The whole religious freak theme is hilarious, and the music is beautifully silly. There are some neat shots (the underwater car/corpse etc.) and Mitchum gives a fine performance (if he intended to play the part as comedy), but don't expect anything amazing.

WHY does this film receive so much critical acclaim?

[dbranan · 1/10 · 14 October 2006]

Wow, I just cannot say enough bad things about this film. The acting covers the complete spectrum from "ham-fisted" to "wooden." Poor Shelly Winters is obviously misdirected to deliver her lines as though she were reading from a cue card. If you don't believe she can act, check out "A Patch of Blue" or "The Diary of Anne Frank." She is certainly capable of better than this horrible performance which evokes no emotion whatsoever beyond disbelief. And Robert Mitchum! He certainly shows some chops, but my goodness, has there ever been a more ignorant and stupid character in film history? He'd fit right in with "Dumb and Dumber!" How could anyone in his position (who ostensibly had gotten away with murder and robbery on several occasions) NOT see that the money was hidden in the doll? He oozes menace in some scenes, but then is reduced to popping up like something in a carnival shooting gallery and whooping his way into a barn when Lillian Gish shoots him. Seriously, if you want subdued menace in a BELIEVABLE character, how about Tony Perkins in "Psycho" or Sterling Hayden in almost anything? The only actors who manage to pull off believable performances are Billy Chapin and a wonderful Peter Graves, who, in the few minutes he has on screen, out-acts old Bob handily. Think about it, you actually sympathize with a robber and murderer because Graves turns in an almost "Fonda-esque" performance. Oh, and I can't leave out the wonderful old James Gleason as Uncle Birdie. He's both likable and pitiful and has far too little screen time.

In addition to lame dialogue and poor directing, the sound track is an evil entity of its own. Laughton uses it with the subtlety of a jackhammer to announce that "Rev Powell is a bad guy" or "Rev Powell is on that train," etc. I'm all for overshadowing but these "hints" are more like headlines.

Most of the remaining cast of characters are almost cartoons. Evelyn Varden does a particularly egregious bit of overacting as "Icey Spoon". In fact the film itself could be a parody of film noir! Come on, Lillian Gish actually SINGS A DUET with the menacing man sitting outside her house waiting to kill her! I have no idea why people feel compelled to rave about the greatness of this film. It doesn't hold a candle to REAL 1950's film classics like Kubrick's "The Killing" or "Hatful of Rain" or "On the Waterfront," which has more feeling and menace and credibility in the cab scene than "Night of the Hunter" has in its entire fabric. Face it folks, there's a good reason why this was Charles Laughton's ONLY directorial offering.