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 screenplay by James Agee was based on the 1953 novel of the same title by Davis Grubb. I want them to sit up straight again. The Night of the Hunter Grubb had studied art in college, so he offered to draw sketches as a form of inspiration. However, she soon starts to have her doubts. The book was a national bestseller and a finalist for the 1955 National Book Award. [7], The film's score, composed and arranged by Walter Schumann in close association with Laughton, features a combination of nostalgic and expressionistic orchestral passages. About The Night of the Hunter. Willa overhears Powell threatening Pearl to reveal the money, but Willa is deluded that Powell married her to redeem her soul. A religious fanatic marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real daddy hid the $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery. Get a sneak peek of the new version of this page. Powell then proceeds to threaten John and Pearl before learning the money is hidden inside Pearl's doll. I had previously caught a snatch of it while channel surfing cable TV, and saw enough in about 30 seconds to realise that this was worth watching through if I got the chance.I could barely speak at the end of the film. Now he must return to the big city world of danger, corruption, double crosses and duplicitous dames. , 1993 (dl) [7] According to Paul Gregory, "absolutely no money was spent on promotion...United Artists didn't have the muscle, desire, or intelligence to handle the picture. The attention to detail in every single aspect makes for one of the best cinematic experiences I've ever had. Two young children, Pearl and John Harper, are being raised alone by their mother in Cresap’s Landing, Ohio. [10] Laughton contacted Grubb, and the two of them instantly got along very well. It boils down to a man of evil fighting a woman of purity. [37], Rather than shooting with traditional takes, Laughton had the crew only slate at the beginning of each reel of film and let the camera roll continuously until the reel ran out. The police take Powell to safety, but the professional executioner promises to see Powell again soon. Due to the film's visual style and themes, it is also often categorized as a film noir. He is the equivalent of a Holy War on Earth between the left hand of hate and the right hand of love and turns out exactly as illustrated by Harry Powell throughout the film with love conquering hatred. The bestselling, National Book Award–finalist novel that inspired Charles Laughton’s expressionist horror classic starring Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters. [26] In the end Laughton chose Shelley Winters because he felt she had a vulnerable quality and was more of a serious actor than a movie star; she committed to the role only two weeks before filming began. [29] A doubtful Laughton went to New York for the purpose of watching films in which Gish starred. [40] According to Lillian Gish, Laughton was very unsure of himself on set as this was his first time directing a film, and when someone would give him a suggestion he would start talking about fears that his whole vision was wrong. [11], At first Grubb was being considered to write the screenplay himself, but the studio wanted to hire someone with experience writing for films. Battu et cassé et poursuivi de la tanière. It was only while watching the film, enthralled but also deeply unsettled, that I fully realized just how insidiously terrifying the stories of our childhoods are. [57], To promote the film, the Los Angeles Herald-Express serialized the film's script throughout April 1955. Powerful but unethical Broadway columnist J.J. Hunsecker coerces unscrupulous press agent Sidney Falco into breaking up his sister's romance with a jazz musician. And, on one level, you can see why it generated such Laughton took this commercial failure of his first film personally, and never attempted to make another film. (1955). Mark Callaghan, the lead singer for the Australian band The Riptides, parodied Mitchum's character in the music video for the 1982 track, Hearts And Flowers. [2], Selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1992, it is now considered one of the greatest films of all time. Many "great movies'' are by great directors, but Laughton directed only this one film, which was a critical and commercial failure long overshadowed by his acting career. It is a magnificent film. The Night of the Hunter August 31, 2009 A homicidal preacher (Robert Mitchum) marries a convict's widow in hopes of finding the dead man's missing fortune in The Night of the Hunter (1955), co-starring Lillian Gish and Shelley Winters. [82], The film was remade in 1991 as a TV movie starring Richard Chamberlain. Lanchester also gave the Institute over 80,000 feet of rushes and outtakes from the filming. “The Night of the Hunter” is as good as all the praise heaped upon it would indicate, if not even better. He lit this scene with a halo of light surrounding Willa's head on the pillow, foreshadowing that her death is imminent. It’s a shame Charles Laughton only directed a single movie, because this movie is one of the quickest paced movies from the 50s I’ve seen. MathijsM’s review published on Letterboxd: 86/100. “That was a stepping stone into the more gratuitous genre horror. 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