The Night of the Hunter (film)

The Night of the Hunter
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Charles Laughton
Produced by	Paul Gregory
Screenplay by	James Agee Charles Laughton
Based on	The Night of the Hunter  by Davis Grubb
Starring	Robert Mitchum Shelley Winters Lillian Gish
Music by	Walter Schumann
Cinematography	Stanley Cortez
Editing by	Robert Golden
Studio	Paul Gregory Productions
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	July 26, 1955 (1955-07-26) (premiere) August 26, 1955 (1955-08-26) (LA) September 29, 1955 (1955-09-29) (NY)
Running time	93 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$795,000

The Night of the Hunter is a 1955 American thriller film directed by Charles Laughton and starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish. The film is based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Davis Grubb, adapted for the screen by James Agee and Laughton. Its plot focuses on a corrupt reverend-turned-serial killer who uses his charms to woo an unsuspecting widow and her two children 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.

The film's lyric and expressionistic style sets it apart from other Hollywood films of the 1940s and 1950s, and it has influenced later directors such as David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Terrence Malick, Jim Jarmusch, the Coen brothers, Rob Zombie, 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.

Plot

The film is set in 1930s West Virginia, along the Ohio River. Ben Harper 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, the film's protagonist, with the money's location. John has a much younger sister, Pearl. Reverend Harry Powell, a serial killer and self-appointed preacher with the two words "LOVE" and "HATE" tattooed across the knuckles of his right and left hands, shares a prison cell with Harper. He tries to get Harper to tell him where he hid the money before his execution, but the only clue he gets is a Bible verse Harper mutters in his sleep: "And a little child shall lead them."

Convinced that Harper told his children the secret, Powell woos and marries Harper's widow, Willa. Willa does not know her new husband's motive and believes her marriage will lead to her salvation. Powell asks the children about the money when they are alone, but they reveal nothing. John is suspicious of Powell 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, Powell leans over her and slits her throat.

Powell dumps Willa's body in the river. He finally learns the money's location from Pearl by threatening John. However, just after he finds out the location of the money, the children manage to flee with the money down the river by momentarily incapacitating Powell by John knocking him on the head. They eventually find sanctuary with Rachel Cooper, a tough old woman who looks after stray children. Powell eventually tracks them down, but Rachel sees through his false virtue. After a climactic standoff, in which Rachel protects the children with a shotgun but sings hymns through the night with Powell, he is arrested by the police, tried, and, apparently, convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Willa and for the crimes against the children. Towards the end of the film, Rachel declares that "children are man at his strongest. They abide." The film ends with her speaking directly to camera: "They abide and they endure."

Cast

• Robert Mitchum as Reverend Harry Powell
• Shelley Winters as Willa Harper
• Lillian Gish as Rachel Cooper
• Billy Chapin as John Harper
• Evelyn Varden as Icey Spoon
• Peter Graves as Ben Harper
• Sally Jane Bruce as Pearl Harper
• James Gleason as Birdie Steptoe
• Don Beddoe as Walt Spoon
• Gloria Castillo as Ruby

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.

The film's score, 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.

In 1974, film archivists Robert Gitt and 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. Lanchester 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.

Response

The Night of the Hunter was not a success with either audiences or critics at its initial release, and Laughton never directed another film. Nevertheless, the film has found a wider audience over the years, and Mitchum's performance, in particular, has been praised.

The film was shot in black and white in the styles and motifs of German Expressionism (bizarre shadows, stylized dialogue, distorted perspectives, surreal 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.

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."

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 cinéma ranked The Night of the Hunter No. 2. It is among the top ten in the BFI list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14. Powell was ranked #29 in the villains column in AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains.

It ranked as the 71st greatest film of all time on Empire Magazine's 500 greatest films list.

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.

Remakes

The film was remade in 1991 as a TV movie starring Richard Chamberlain.

See also

• Lillian Gish filmography
• Lonely hearts killer

References

• 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.
• Ziegler, Damien: La Nuit du chasseur, une esthétique cinématographique, Bazaar and co, 2008. 160 pages.

External links

• The Night of the Hunter at the Internet Movie Database
• The Night of the Hunter at Rotten Tomatoes
• Comprehensive analysis of the film by Tim Dirks at The Greatest Films
• Text and Texture: A comparative analysis of The Night of the Hunter, Cape Fear (1962) and Cape Fear (1991) by Harvey O'Brien, 1995
• Night of the Hunter at Film Noir of the Week by Bruce Crowther
• Article by Margaret Atwood: "Why I Love Night Of The Hunter", in The Guardian (UK), 1999
• Article by Simon Callow: "A magnificent and lonely masterpiece", in The Daily Telegraph (UK), 1999
• Review "Two Amazing Nights with The Night of the Hunter" by Peter Merholz, 2002
• Article in the Guardian by Robert Gitt: "The hidden hunter", about his project of restoring rare outtakes from the film, 2003
• Leonard's Journal – Behind the scenes with a master Film critic Leonard Maltin on Gitt's presentation of the extremely rare footage, 2002
• Bellaonline.com article: Charles Laughton Directs A Masterpiece