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.

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.

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.

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.

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…

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.

Affleck's field ? actors in those days were only expected to turn up , say their lines and go home , they surely weren't expected to do something like point a camera or make a classic movie , least of all a British leftist like Charles Laughton. Knives out for British leftists I'd say which may possibly explain why this haunting beautiful movie didn't get a single Oscar nomination , not even for obvious nominations like cinematography or director . It should also be mentioned that this movie deals with false prophets and in mid 1950s ultra conservative America no one but no one ever questioned men of the cloth in those days in case they faced accusations of being a commie agitator . This explains to a modern day audience the naive attitude of the characters towards Harry Powell in relation to a 2003 audience , times have changed both in cinema and the real world in the last 50 years and it's impossible to remember when was the last time we saw a Hollywood movie that actually had a good preacher NIGHT OF THE HUNTER seems to be best remembered for the scene where the camera follows the fisherman's point of view on the boat to the lake below , but there's several more scenes that deserve to be remembered like the opening sequence of the children's faces across the starscape ,or Robert Mitchum howling like a cartoon character after being shot or the children floating down the river and rabbits and turtles watching them pass . This last scene is very obviously studio bound but that's not a criticism , this is a very highly stylised movie who's technical aspects must have been as jaw dropping back then as LORD OF THE RINGS technical aspects wowed audiences 50 years later . The bitter irony now is that this would have picked up several Oscars -Regardless of its strengths ala BRAVEHEART - if it were made today simply because it was directed by an acto

career, tapping into that creepy/handsome, dangerous persona of his that is by turns comically overwrought and terrifying. ***1/2 from ****

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.