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The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Topic Started: Apr 8 2014, 01:51 AM (328 Views)
Vanessa
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D: Charles Laughton
Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, Evelyn Varden, Peter Graves, James Gleason, Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce.

Atmospheric allegory of innocence, evil, and hypocrisy, with psychotic religious fanatic Mitchum chasing homeless children for money stolen by their father. Mitchum is marvelously menacing, matched by Gish as wise matron who takes in the kids. Starkly directed by Laughton; his only film behind the camera. Screenplay credited to James Agee, from the Davis Grubb novel. Remade as a TVM in 1991 with Richard Chamberlain.
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Vanessa
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I hadn't seen this since I was a child, when it absolutely terrified me. Watching it again, it was a pretty reasonable film to be afraid of. Harry Powers is a very creepy guy. It is an absolutely gorgeous film. The look and design of the film is absolutely timeless. The allegorical elements work for me, but I don't think that they'd necessarily be appreciated by everyone.

It still irritates me that Pearl is such an idiot. I didn't actually start yelling at the screen like I did when I was a kid, but I was more than a little tempted.
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Kitty
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Killer's Nemesis
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Not heard of this one. Seems okay. Will try to look out for it.
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Gorefest180
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Hero
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Sounds alright.
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Vanessa
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This is going to be on at 2:00pm EST today on TCM. I wish they would have shown it before Christmas, but this is close enough.
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Vanessa
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Doug
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I have this movie on blu-ray and I love it. Great Southern Gothic movie.
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Lon Of The Dead
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Amazing movie, at least from a design standpoint. It's art directed to within an inch of its life, heavily influenced by early 20th century German expressionism, loaded with all manner of Jungian imagery and nightmarish setpieces. Mitchum is superb as the sleazy and murderous Reverend Powell. You're not allowed to call yourself a film buff if you've not seen it. Sorry. Them's the rules.
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Kevin R.
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It's hard to imagine that this was a flop back in the day. I've never seen it, but I really want to change that.
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My blog: Kevin's Review Catalogue
All reviews, A-Z
Latest review: Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
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MacReadyOrNot
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I don't know what is about this film, but I've seen it twice now and I'm still not a huge fan of it. The direction is great and the acting is fine, there are just nitpicky things about it, I guess. Like Robert Mitchum's whimper/wail when he runs away after Lillian Gish shoots at him. Plus, I didn't care for the Christmas epilogue that much. It still should be seen by film buffs, as Lon said, just don't get your hopes up. If you love it, that's great. I wish I did. All the same, beautiful cinematography. If this didn't pan as it did way back when maybe Charles Laughton would have directed more movies. What a shame. Our loss.
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Edited by MacReadyOrNot, Jun 19 2016, 12:39 AM.
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MacReadyOrNot
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I much prefer Radio Raheem's version of the "right hand, left hand" speech in Do the Right Thing than in this. Personal taste, is all. But Robert Mitchum does a damn fine job at delivering those lines too.
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Baby Firefly
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This was pretty meanspirited which is something I wasn't really expecting from this. Of course, that meanness was blended well with some 'heartwarming' aspects but I didn't really mind since having things turn out in a super bleak, gutwrenching way would've probably left a sour taste in my mouth. The characters really didn't deserve a terrible ending anyway (though Pearl probably deserved a slap in the face or two, preferably by her brother who she kind of made things worse for for the entire fucking movie).

Like others have mentioned, it's incredibly gorgeous. Almost every single scene was a visual treat and it managed to make even shots of random animals and people sitting in chairs on front porches striking. The look of the film is probably my favorite thing about it, honestly. Seeing Shelley Winters in a 1950s Horror film was also really cool. She did a pretty good job here though her character had too many weak moments and didn't really have THAT much to do.
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The underwater shots were gorgeous as well but that probably goes without saying.

I wasn't too fond of some of the singing bits. I'd probably cut some of those out. The one where the older woman was singing a bit at the end was somewhat effective since it made the scene feel like it was building up to something epic and/or terrible that never ended up happening but I still wasn't TOO fond of it.

The villain is honestly one of the scariest and most hateable that I've seen lately which says quite a bit. That performance deserves nothing but praise as far as I'm concerned. He was pretty much everything I want from a villain of that sort.
The pacing was a bit off at times. It DID drag pretty badly sometimes but I was never totally bored and I'd even chalk my occasional yawn up to me not starting this until 3:30a.m. at the end of a day after getting only five hours of sleep in the forty-eight hours before it. (lol) I wouldn't mind watching this again. My grandma saw it a while ago and loved it too. Robby thought it was decent and agreed with me that it was really pretty and had a great villain but I don't think he liked it as much as I did.


I really, really don't like Pearl. The one teen girl toward the end was rather stupid too but at least I felt bad for her. I liked the main boy. The old woman toward the end was probably my favorite. And the mom<3.

7/10 quality, 6.5/10 entertainment.
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