The Night of the Hunter (film)

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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 United States
Language English
Budget $795,000 (estimated)

The Night of the Hunter is a 1955 noir film directed by Charles Laughton and starring Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters.[1] The film is based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Davis Grubb, adapted for the screen by James Agee and 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 other Hollywood films of the 1940s and 50s, and it has influenced later directors such as David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Terrence Malick, Harmony Korine, the Coen brothers, and Spike Lee.

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 its National Film Registry.

Contents

[edit] Cast

[edit] Plot

The film is set in 1930s West Virginia, along the Ohio River. Ben Harper (Peter 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 son John (Billy Chapin) with the money's location. Harper has a much younger daughter, Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce). Reverend Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), a serial killer and self-appointed preacher with the words "LOVE" and "HATE" tattooed on the knuckles of his right and left hands 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."

The Night of the Hunter lobby card

Convinced that Harper told his children the secret, Powell woos and marries Harper's widow, Willa (Shelley Winters). Willa is unaware of Powell's motives and is convinced that her marriage will lead to her salvation. Powell questions the children about the money whenever they are alone, but they distrust him and reveal nothing. John especially is suspicious and protective of his sister. One night Willa overhears her husband questioning the children and she realizes the truth. As she lies in bed that night in their attic bedroom with rafters reminiscent of the interior of a church, Powell leans over her and slits her throat.

Powell disposes of her body in the river. Powell finally learns the money's location from Pearl by threatening John, but the children escape with the money and travel down the river. They eventually find sanctuary with Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish), an elderly but tough woman who looks after stray children. Powell eventually tracks them down, but Rachel sees through his false persona. After a climactic standoff between Rachel and Powell in which she protects the children with a shotgun but sings hymns through the night with Powell, he is arrested by the police and is hanged before a baying crowd of townsfolk. The film ends with Rachel speaking directly to camera that "Children are man at his strongest. They abide."

[edit] Production

The film was a collaboration of Charles Laughton and screenwriter James Agee. Laughton drew on the harsh, angular look of German expressionist films of the 1920s.[2]

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 has two original songs by Schumann, "Lullaby" (sung by Kitty White, whom Schumann discovered in a nightclub) and "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.[3]

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.[4] 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.[5]

[edit] Response

Stanley Cortez' cinematography is noted and imitated, and Mitchum's performance is praised. Nevertheless, The 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]

The movie was filmed in black and white, and uses the styles and motifs of German Expressionism (weird shadows, stylized dialogue, distorted perspectives, surreal sets, and odd camera angles) to portray a strange, simplified and disturbing mood, reflecting the sinister character of Powell, the nightmarish fears of the children, and the sweetness of their savior Rachel.

Roger Ebert wrote, "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."[6]

The 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 ranked The Night of the Hunter No. 2.[7] It is among the top ten in the BFI list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14.

It ranked as the 71st greatest movie of all time on Empire Magazine's 500 greatest films list.[8]

In 1992, the United States Library of Congress deemed The Night of the Hunter to be "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected the film for preservation in its National Film Registry.

The Love and Hate tatoos was referenced in Richard O'Brien's Rocky Horror Picture Show (in the character Eddie) and in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (in the character Radio Raheem's rings). The latter film also recounts the accompanying story of the wrestling match between Love and Hate.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Burgess Meredith is credited as director of the movie The Man on the Eiffel Tower[1]. Laughton and Irving Allen also directed but are not credited.
  2. ^ The Night of the Hunter: Not Noir http://www.filmsnoir.net.
  3. ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000053/
  4. ^ Satola, Mark. Preview: A Rare Look Behind The Scenes Of The Night Of The Hunter
  5. ^ "Treasures from the UCLA Film and Television Archive"
  6. ^ Roger Ebert (November 24, 1996). "The Night of the Hunter (1955)". rogerebert.suntimes.com. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19961124/REVIEWS08/401010344/1023. 
  7. ^ "Cahiers du cinema: 100 most beautiful films in the world". 2008-11-04. http://www.cinemarealm.com:80/2007/11/04/cahiers-du-cinema-100-most-beautiful-films-in-the-world/. 
  8. ^ The 500 Greatest Films Of All Time - The Night of the Hunter Empire.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Callow, Simon: The Night of the Hunter, BFI Film Classics, BFI (British Film Institute) Publishing, 2000. 96 pages.
  • Couchman, Jeffrey: The Night of the Hunter: A Biography of a Film, Northwestern University Press, 2009. 264 pages.
  • Jones, Preston Neal: Heaven and Hell to Play With: The Filming of The Night of the Hunter, Limelight Editions, 2004. 400 pages.

[edit] External links

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