| Robert Mitchum | Preacher Harry Powell |
| Shelley Winters | Willa Harper |
| Lillian Gish | Rachel Cooper |
| Billy Chapin | John Harper |
| Evelyn Varden | Icey Spoon |
| Peter Graves | Ben Harper |
| James Gleason | Uncle Birdie |
| Sally Jane Bruce | Pearl Harper |
| Don Beddoe | Walt Spoon |
| Gloria Castillo | Ruby |
| Mary Ellen Clemons | Clary |
| Cheryl Callaway | Mary |
| Corey Allen | Young Man in Town |
| Paul Bryar | Hangman Bart |
| Walter Schumann | Conductor |
| Charles Laughton | Director |
| James Agee | Screenwriter |
| Jerry Bos | Costumes/Costume Designer |
| Hilyard M. Brown | Art Director |
| Evelyn Carruth | Costumes/Costume Designer |
| Don L. Cash | Makeup |
| Stanley Cortez | Cinematographer |
| Louis de Witt | Special Effects |
| Robert Golden | Editor |
| Paul Gregory | Producer |
| Jack R. Rabin | Special Effects |
| Ruby Rosenberg | Production Manager |
| Walter Schumann | Score Composer, Musical Direction/Supervision |
| Alfred E. Spencer | Set Decoration/Design |
Anonymous
Posted October 1, 2010
I first heard the story read on WNYC in NY in 1957 by Charles Laughton. It scared my socks off. Then, I saw the film and although I knew what was coming, Mitchum scared my socks off all over again. It is the best of its kind. It is exceptionally good for children over 10. They can see the worst and the best in human nature as well as true love, responsibility, caring for family members and the victory of the meek over the vicious. Great good and evil metaphor. The entire cast is perfect. Not a vulgar word or allusion.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted October 1, 2010
"The Night of the Hunter" is one of the utterly unique experiences the movies can offer, a wild concoction of fantastic, expressionistic, even surrealistic imagery. The only film directed by legendary actor Charles Laughton is a primal fable about two children, John and Pearl, menaced by a crazed preacher Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) who marries their mother Willa Harper (Shelley Winters) as part of his plan to coax (or force) their secret from them: where they've hidden the stash of stolen money their father left with them before he was arrested. The American Gothic, Biblical tale of seduction, sin and corruption was based on a novel by Davis Grubb and adapted for the screen by famed writer-author James Agee (and Laughton, but without screen credit). Although recognized today as one of the greatest American films of all time, the imaginatively-chilling, experimental, sophisticated work was originally a critical and commercial failure, both ignored and misunderstood at the time of its release in 1955. From its start, the film is designed to have the special feeling of a child's nightmare, including the difficulty of keeping 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 Night of the Hunter" is part fairy tale and part bogeyman thriller--a juicy allegory of evil, greed and innocence, told with an eerie visual poetry. Drawing on sources as diverse as rural American fable, this is a strange, tense and at times dream-like film that sends a shiver down the spine. In one of the film's greatest visual sequences, the children, Pearl and John, float softly down a moonlit river, bound for an unseen providence. Laughton and cinematographer Stanley Cortez (who also shot Orson Welles' "The Magnificent Ambersons" in 1942), film the children from the riverbank, placing a series of images--a frog, a spider's web, two rabbits--boldly in the foreground. In other sections, "The Night of the Hunter" borrows its visual motifs from the silent films of D.W. Griffith and the German Expressionist cinema of the '20s. Laughton plays with the long, slanted shadows of film noir, and in Willa Harper's A-shaped bedroom creates a Gothic chamber with showers of celestial light. Described by Laughton as a "nightmarish Mother Goose", this profoundly disturbing psychodrama marked both the beginning and the end of his career as a director. Driven by a performance by Mitchum that goes a long way to defining on-screen evil, both tone and tale are absolutely compelling throughout. Laughton's picture looks different from other noir films of the period--though Alfred Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train" (1951) with its unusual camera angles, and Stanley Kubrick's "The Killing" (1956), with its multiplane staging (with props located between the characters and the camera), use similar ideas. However, his characters ARE different. In 1955, critics complained the film was self-consciously arty and too vague because of all the symbols. The resulting box office was so dismal that the depressed Laughton quit working on his second film, an adaptation of "The Naked and the Dead", and never dared direct another film. So he stands as one of the few directors whose batting average for masterpieces is 1.000. [filmfactsman]
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 31, 2012
"The Night of the Hunter" proves that classic thriller film has an illustrous effect to its viewers. Fundamentalist charlatan Rev. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) is looking for the money that his inmate revealed whiel he's detained. As the inmate said, he left it with his two young children. Robert Mitchum villain's characterization is notable. It is Lillian Gish's Rachel Cooper that is outstanding even she appears at only limited time. I'm waiting that this classic has a remake someday...
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted November 11, 2010
This undoubtedly is the scariest movie ever made. No grue, no gore, just an ordinary looking setting in which the developing terror rises and rises! I saw this when I was in high school. Scre-e-e-e-e-e-am!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted November 10, 2010
This movie has all the suspense, erie drama,mystery,good acting, good story telling,good direction,that one can ask for.....even in B&W...I can watch this movie over and over.M
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted October 1, 2010
I expected something great of this film and came away from it feeling that Laughton failed utterly in an apparent attempt to create an iconic masterpiece along the lines of Citizen Kane or The Grapes of Wrath. 'Hunter' is not literary, beautiful to look at, scary, well-acted or fun in any way. It's not surprising to learn that Laughton hated child actors because the kids in this film were absolutely wooden, as if they were miserable on the set. The adult performers don't fare much better; many of their lines are delivered as if in a first reading of the script with no director present. Lillian Gish is obviously meant to be the glue of "legitimacy" that keeps this hodge-podge of influences from Welles to Steinbeck, Faulkner, John Ford and Tennessee Williams lurching to a conclusion. Bob Mitchum reliably provides the juice -- perhaps it's understandable after all that Laughton gave short shrift everywhere else...
0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted October 1, 2010
When I was a young child I read Davis Grubb's book in Reader's Digest Condensed version and while it scared me silly, I greatly enjoyed it for the mental images it evoked and for its basic morality. I never saw Mitchum in this film until - believe it or not - only about five or six years ago and his portrayal of Harry Powell was truly amazing. I subsequently visited my public library and read the novel - in full - and brought back all the magic, wonder and fear I'd thrilled to when only a youngster. The film will enchant all who see it, I know.
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Posted October 1, 2010
Creepy atmosphere, wonderfully frightening in a very film-noir way. Wow.
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Posted October 1, 2010
This movie portrays a the classic good vs evil conflict. It provides realistic terror with out the aid of blood or computer generated monsters. The excellent direction and the acting make this possible. This is a classic ''scary movie''.
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Posted November 17, 2010
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Posted December 1, 2010
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Overview