| The Night of the Hunter | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Charles Laughton |
| Produced by | Paul Gregory |
| Written by | Davis Grubb (novel) James Agee Charles Laughton |
| Starring | Robert Mitchum Shelley Winters Lillian Gish |
| Music by | Walter Schumann |
| Cinematography | Stanley Cortez |
| Editing by | Robert Golden |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | September 29, 1955 |
| Running time | 93 min. |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $795,000 (estimated) |
The Night of the Hunter is a 1955 film noir, starring Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters, and the only film Charles Laughton ever directed.[1] The film is based on the novel of the same name by Davis Grubb, adapted for the screen by James Agee and Charles Laughton. 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. The film's lyric and expressionistic style sets it apart from almost all other Hollywood films of the 1940s and 50s, and has influenced later directors such as David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Terrence Malick, and the Coen Brothers.
In 1992, The Night of the Hunter was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.
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The film is set in West Virginia, along the Ohio River. The story takes place in the 1930s.
Ben Harper (Graves) is sentenced to hang for his part in a robbery in which two men were killed. Before he is caught he hides the stolen money, trusting only his children John (Chapin) and Pearl (Bruce)—about ten and five years old, respectively—with the money's location. Harry Powell (Mitchum), a self-appointed preacher with the word "LOVE" tattooed on the knuckles of his right hand and "HATE" on the knuckles of his left, shares a prison cell with Harper. He tries to get Harper to tell him the hiding place before his execution, but the only clue he gets is a Biblical quotation Harper mutters in his sleep: "And a child shall lead them."
Convinced that Harper told his children the secret, upon his release from prison, Powell woos and marries Harper's widow, Willa (Winters). He questions them, especially John, about the money whenever they are alone, but they distrust him and reveal nothing. Willa eventually finds out, so he kills her.
Powell finally learns the money's location from Pearl by threatening John, but the children escape with the money and find sanctuary with Rachel Cooper (Gish). Powell eventually finds them, but Rachel sees through his false persona. After a climactic standoff between Rachel and Powell, he is arrested by the police.
The film resulted from a collaboration between Charles Laughton and screenwriter James Agee. Laughton drew heavily on the harsh, angular look of German expressionist films of the 1920s, such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
The film's music, composed and arranged by Walter Schumann in close association with Laughton, features a combination of nostalgic and expressionistic orchestral passages. The film also includes two original songs by Schumann, "Lullaby" (sung by Kitty White, whom Schumann personally discovered in a nightclub) and the haunting "Pretty Fly" (originally sung by Sally Jane Bruce as Pearl, but later dubbed by an actress named Betty Benson). A recurring musical device involves the preacher making his presence known by singing the traditional hymn "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms". Mitchum also recorded the soundtrack version of the hymn.
In 1974, film archivist Robert Gitt Anthony Slide retrieved several boxes of photographs, sketches, memos and letters relating to the film from Laughton's widow Elsa Lanchester for the American Film Institute. She also gave the Institute over 80,000 feet of rushes and outtakes from the filming. In 1981, this material was sent to the UCLA Film and Television Archive where, for the next 20 years, they were edited into a two-and-half hour documentary that premiered in 2002, at UCLA's Festival of Preservation.
Stanley Cortez' striking cinematography has been much noted and imitated, and Mitchum's chilling and sinister performance has been especially praised. Nevertheless, Night of the Hunter was not a success with either audiences or critics at its initial release, which probably explains why Charles Laughton never directed another film.[1] Over time, Night of the Hunter acquired a cult following, in part thanks to frequent screenings on television, and came to be praised as a masterpiece and one of the finest examples of film noir.
The movie was filmed in black and white, and uses the styles and motifs of German Expressionism (weird shadows, distorted perspectives, unreal sets, odd camera angles) to portray a strange, simplified and disturbing mood, matching the fears of the children in the story.
Roger Ebert wrote of the film, "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 ... well after four decades."[2]
Night of the Hunter was rated #34 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills ranking, and #90 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments. In a 2007 listing of the 100 Most Beautiful Films, Cahiers du Cinema, the influential French film review, ranked Night of the Hunter No. 2.[3]
A 1991 made-for-television version of Night of The Hunter starred Richard Chamberlain as Powell.[4]
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