Review: The Night of the Hunter

Ben Harper (Peter Graves) robs a bank to try to feed his wife (Shelley Winters) and children (Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce) and ends up in prison for shooting two people in the process. In prison he blabs about the robbery to fellow con Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) a psychopath who sees himself as a preacher. Although he doesn’t know where Harper hid the money, Powell nonetheless ventures to the now executed man’s town. He romances Harper’s lonely and gullible widow, and although young Bruce seems to like him, Chapin becomes suspicious of the supposed preacher with ‘love’ and ‘hate’ tattooed on his knuckles. When tragedy strikes, the kids must venture on their own with the dangerous Rev. Harry Powell in pursuit of them. Lillian Gish plays Rachel Cooper, a Christian woman who takes in stray children.

 

This beguiling and unusual blend of biblically-tinged fable and crime/thriller from 1955 was the first, last, and only directorial effort from actor Charles Laughton. That’s a shame because he really knocked this one out of the park on his first try, even if box-office receipts were not high. At its centre is one of Robert Mitchum’s best and creepiest turns as the mixed-up, bible-quoting, woman-hating ex-con who calls himself Rev. Harry Powell. In “Cape Fear”, Mitchum was straight-up mean and bad, here he’s a mixed-up psychopath committing acts of evil and perverting the word of the Lord. Powell is a charismatic, fork-tongued, brutish charlatan who is clearly not in his right mind but pure evil nonetheless. The idea that this guy is talking to God and thinks God is going to help him in his misdeeds is outrageous even to an Agnostic Atheist like me.

 

As Rev. Powell’s polar opposite we have the genius casting of silent movie star Lillian Gish as Rachel Cooper, who has no time for his tale of ‘left hand, right hand’. Miss Cooper calls him out for what he is on sight. Radiating goodness yet innate strength, Gish is absolutely perfect. Her Miss Cooper might even seem like a forerunner to Mother Abigail from Stephen King’s “The Stand” to some of you (I wouldn’t be surprised if King is a fan of the film). Best known for playing loud, rather hefty women Shelley Winters nonetheless also excelled at playing lonely, gullible characters like the one she plays here (and “A Place in the Sun”). On her day, she was an absolutely terrific character actress and she’s on a very good day here playing a very sad, needy woman who picks the wrong guy. Meanwhile, young Billy Chapin and Sally Jane Bruce are terrific given what they’re tasked with here, it’s pretty mature subject matter they’re placed into.

 

Outside of the performances, the chief assets here are the thunderous, ominous music score by Walter Schumann (both the 1954 film “Dragnet” and the TV series of the same name) and the truly stunning B&W cinematography by Stanley Cortez (Orson Welles’ “The Magnificent Ambersons”). It really does contain some of the best use of light, shadow, and shot composition in cinema. As for the score, you’ll never listen to hymns the same way again after this film.

 

“Hansel and Gretel” meets “Cape Fear”, here’s a rare film that feels of its time, old-fashioned, and ahead of its time all at once. A terrific, Southern Gothic Grimm’s Fairy Tale of sorts, this is such an odd film to have come out in 1955. It clearly had to be made by someone like an Alfred Hitchcock or Charles Laughton, someone with the power and ego to somehow get it made. There had never been anything like it before and with the exception of Bill Paxton’s “Frailty” there’s never been anything like it since. Stunning to look at, creepy, unusual, and powerful. It will linger long in the memory once seen. What a shame Laughton never directed again, in particular he’s got an eye for creepy-yet-beautiful visuals. Based on a novel by Davis Grubb, the screenplay is by James Agee (“The African Queen”).

 

Rating: A-