- The Night of the Hunter (film)
Infobox Film
name = The Night of the Hunter
caption =
director =Charles Laughton
producer = Paul Gregory
writer =Davis Grubb (novel)James Agee Charles Laughton
starring =Robert Mitchum Shelley Winters Lillian Gish
music =Walter Schumann
cinematography =Stanley Cortez
editing =Robert Golden
distributor =United Artists
released =September 29 ,1955
runtime = 93 min.
country =USA
language = English
budget = $795,000 (estimated)
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id = 1:35305
imdb_id = 0048424"The Night of the Hunter" is a 1955
film noir , starringRobert Mitchum andShelley Winters , and the only filmCharles Laughton ever directed. Burgess Meredith is credited as director of the movie "The Man on the Eiffel Tower" [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041628/fullcredits#directors] . Charles Laughton and Irving Allen also directed but are not credited.] The film is based on the novel of the same name byDavis Grubb , adapted for the screen byJames Agee and Charles Laughton. The novel and film draw on the true story of Harry Powers, hanged in 1932 for the murders of two widows and three children inClarksburg, West Virginia . The film's lyric andexpressionistic style sets it apart from almost all otherHollywood film s of the 1940s and 50s, and has influenced later directors such asDavid Lynch ,Martin Scorsese ,Terrence Malick , and theCoen Brothers .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 theirNational Film Registry .Cast
*
Robert Mitchum : Harry Powell
*Shelley Winters : Willa Harper
*Billy Chapin : John Harper
*Sally Jane Bruce : Pearl Harper
*Lillian Gish : Rachel Cooper
*James Gleason : Birdie Steptoe
*Evelyn Varden : Icey Spoon
*Peter Graves : Ben Harper
*Don Beddoe : Walt Spoon
*Gloria Castillo : RubyPlot
The film is set in
West Virginia , along theOhio River . The story takes place in the late 1930s; the film magazine that Ruby has bought features "Gone with the Wind" on the front cover.Ben Harper (
Peter Graves ) is sentenced to hang for his part in arobbery in which two men were killed. Before he is caught he hides the stolen money, trusting only his children John (Billy Chapin ) and Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce )—about ten and five years old, respectively—with the money's location. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum ), a self-appointed preacher with the word "LOVE"tattoo ed on the knuckles of his right hand and "HATE" on the knuckles of his left, shares a prison cell with Harper. He tries to get Harper to tell him the hiding place before his execution, but the only clue he gets is a Biblical quotation Harper mutters in his sleep: "And a child shall lead them."Convinced that Harper told his children the secret, upon his release from prison, Powell woos and marries Harper's widow, Willa (
Shelley Winters ). He questions them, especially John, about the money whenever they are alone, but they distrust him and reveal nothing. Willa eventually finds out, so he kills her.Powell finally learns the money's location from Pearl by threatening John, but the children escape with the cash and find sanctuary with Rachel Cooper (
Lillian Gish ). Powell eventually finds them, but Rachel sees through his false persona. After a climactic standoff between Rachel and Powell, he is arrested by the police.Making of the film
The film resulted from a collaboration between
Charles Laughton andscreenwriter James Agee . Laughton drew heavily on the harsh, angular look of German expressionist films of the 1920s, such as "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari".The film's music, composed and arranged by
Walter Schumann in close association with Laughton, features a combination of nostalgic and expressionisticorchestra l passages. The film also includes two originalsong s by Schumann, "Lullaby" (sung byKitty White , whom Schumann personally discovered in a nightclub) and the haunting "Pretty Fly" (originally sung bySally 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 traditionalhymn "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms". Mitchum also recorded the soundtrack version of the hymn.In 1974, film archivist Robert Gitt Anthony Slide retrieved several boxes of photographs, sketches, memos and letters relating to the film from Laughton's widow
Elsa Lanchester for theAmerican Film Institute . She also gave the Institute over 80,000 feet of rushes and outtakes from the filming. In 1981, this material was sent to theUCLA 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.Themes/Motifs
*Love/Hate — The struggle between Good and Evil, most memorably in the scene where Powell tells the story behind his tattooed knuckles.
*Faith in God — Powell's twisted belief in God is part of why he kills people (in the name of the Lord). He also pretends to be a preacher and preaches theGospel , a further claimed connection with God. Conversely, Rachel lives by the Bible, and quotes it.
*Perverse Sexuality — Powell's knife has phallic connotations, and the pain and death he inflicts with it substitute for sexual fulfillment. His marriage to Willa, for example, is never consummated — instead, he cuts her throat.Response
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