The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Director:

Charles Laughton
(more)

Writers:

Davis Grubb (novel)
James Agee (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

24 November 1955 (Argentina)

Genre:

Drama | Film-Noir | Thriller

Tagline:

The wedding night, the anticipation, the kiss, the knife, BUT ABOVE ALL... THE SUSPENSE!

Plot:

A religious fanatic marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real daddy hid $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.

Plot Keywords:

Henpecked Husband | Oedipus Complex | Ex Convict | Misogyny | Good Versus Evil

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Robert Mitchum	...	Harry Powell
Shelley Winters	...	Willa Harper
Lillian Gish	...	Rachel Cooper
James Gleason	...	Birdie Steptoe
Evelyn Varden	...	Icey Spoon
Peter Graves	...	Ben Harper
Don Beddoe	...	Walt Spoon
Billy Chapin	...	John Harper
Sally Jane Bruce	...	Pearl Harper
Gloria Castillo	...	Ruby (as Gloria Castilo)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
George Wallace
Corey Allen	...	Macijah Blake, young man in town (uncredited)
Paul Bryar	...	Bart, prison guard (uncredited)
Cheryl Callaway	...	Mary (uncredited)
Michael Chapin	...	Ruby's boyfriend (uncredited)
Mary Ellen Clemons	...	Clary (uncredited)
Kathy Garver	...	Child (uncredited)
John Hamilton	...	Townsman who greets Rachel (uncredited)
Gloria Pall	...	Dancer (uncredited)

Directed by
Charles Laughton
Robert Mitchum		(uncredited)

Writing credits
Davis Grubb		(novel)
James Agee		(screenplay)
Charles Laughton		uncredited

Produced by
Paul Gregory	....	producer

Original Music by
Walter Schumann

Cinematography by
Stanley Cortez		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Robert Golden

Art Direction by
Hilyard M. Brown		(as Hilyard Brown)

Set Decoration by
Alfred E. Spencer		(as Al Spencer)

Makeup Department
Don L. Cash	....	makeup artist (as Don Cash)
Kay Shea	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Ruby Rosenberg	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Milton Carter	....	assistant director
Frank Parmenter	....	second unit director (uncredited)
Terry Sanders	....	second unit director (uncredited)
Jack Sonntag	....	first assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Joe LaBella	....	property master (as Joe La Bella)

Sound Department
Stanford Houghton	....	sound (as Stanford Naughton)

Special Effects by
Louis DeWitt	....	special photographic effects (as Louis De Witt)
Jack Rabin	....	special photographic effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Seymour Hoffberg	....	assistant camera (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Jerry Bos	....	wardrobe
Evelyn Carruth	....	assistant wardrobe

Music Department
Arthur Morton	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Robert Mitchum	....	director: children (uncredited)
Denis Sanders	....	unspecified assistant (uncredited)
Terry Sanders	....	unspecified assistant (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Paul Gregory Productions

Distributors

• United Artists (1955) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia Pictures Corporation (1955) (UK) (theatrical)
• United Artists (1956) (France) (theatrical)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1994) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1998) (USA) (VHS)
• BFI Films (1999) (UK) (theatrical) (re-release)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (2003) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Filmmuseum Distributie (2007) (Netherlands) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Criterion Collection, The (19??) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• MGM Home Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Vídeo (19??) (Brazil) (VHS)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 (1959) (cut) | South Korea:15 (2003) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:14A (video rating) | Finland:(Banned) (1955) | Norway:16 | Portugal:M/12 | Sweden:15 | UK:12 | USA:Approved (certificate #17385) | West Germany:12 | UK:X (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Moundsville, West Virginia, USA

Company:

Paul Gregory Productions

Trivia:

Charles Laughton originally offered the role of Harry Powell to Gary Cooper, who turned it down as being possibly detrimental to his career.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Harry and Willa are talking on the riverside, he has his arms crossed, with his left hand touching his right arm and his right hand holding the hat leaned on his left folded leg. Between shots he appears with his left hand leaning on his leg and his right hand free holding the hat.

Quotes:

Rev. Harry Powell: [when he notices John staring at the words "love" and "hate" tattooed across his knuckles] Ah, little lad, you're staring at my fingers. Would you like me to tell you the little story of right-hand/left-hand? The story of good and evil? H-A-T-E! It was with this left hand that old brother Cain struck the blow that laid his brother low. L-O-V-E...

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Private Screenings: Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell" (1996)

Soundtrack:

Hing, Hang, Hung

Sleep, Lit'le ones, sleep...

I still hear the lullaby singing sweetly in my head, like a hazy, haunting dream that won't go away.

From the opening scene of the beautiful Lillian Gish and her children, watching over the world in a starry sky, this movie just sinks you into a mesmeric fairy tale land. The camera takes us down in one sweeping move to a scene of children playing, a hot sunny day, and right to the feet of a murder victim. And that sweet music turns on us like a twisted nightmare as the scene chases after a car speeding along a country road to find one of movies worst villains.

Charles Laughton, in sadly 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.