The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Actor Charles Laughton’s only film as director, starring Robert Mitchum as an implacable child-hunting preacher, still leaves an indelible mark.

It’s a tragedy for film history that Charles Laughton’s sole directorial effort was such a critical and commercial disaster that he never made another. An adaptation of Davis Grubb’s novel, the film is refined to a lucid allegory. Evil, in the form of fake preacher Robert Mitchum, is visited upon a woman and two innocent children until they’re rescued by Good, in the form of frail Lillian Gish. In its intensely visual treatment of the story it harks back to the great silent films, thanks to former Orson Welles collaborator Stanley Cortez’s marvellously expressive black-and-white cinematography.

As the former criminal convinced that his executed cellmate’s loot is in the possession of his widow (Shelley Winters) – whom he marries purely in order to get his hands on it – Mitchum was never better: charismatic and charming, vicious and violent, his symbolic ‘duel’ between two sets of tattooed knuckles (‘LOVE’ and ‘HATE’) provided American cinema with one of its indelible images.

“A mystical slice of Americana noir, this fable about the innate unreliability of adults and the tragic spectrum of human nature sticks in the memory like a stone in the craw. ‘It’s a hard world for the little things.’” Gemma Files

“The Night of the Hunter knows just how unsettling the perversion of innocence can be, building on this premise to create a poisoned fairytale. With his only film, Laughton set out to film fear, and he succeeded.” Pedro Adrián Zuluaga

“Robert Mitchum was the master of the languid gaze, a couldn’tcare- less attitude that, in Laughton’s hands, made the allure of evil totally understandable. Shelley Winters’ Willa might have been a foolish woman for falling under the spell of the preacher with ‘love’ and ‘hate’ tattooed on his knuckles, but he offered her something otherwise unimaginable in her small Depression-era West Virginian town. Laughton’s masterpiece was immediately dismissed by audience and critics alike: its visual compositions led it to be suspected of artistry, while its refusal to conform to genre was box-office death. The dreamlike sequences of the children’s escape down the river viewed through an enormous spider’s web contrasted with the angular shadows of the light falling into their room, and all pathways lead to Lillian Gish’s final appearance, cradling a gun on the veranda as she waits, singing hymns, for Mitchum to come for his prey.” Ruth Barton

“Laughton’s career-length frustrations at cinema’s expressive limitations are here redeemed. A journey through the heart of darkness, in which heart and dark have equal weight – just as in Laughton’s acting.” James Swanton

1955 USA
Directed by
Charles Laughton
Produced by
Paul Gregory
Written by
James Agee
Featuring
Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish
Running time
92 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for The Night of the Hunter

Critics

Mark Asch
USA
Philippe Azoury
France
Ruth Barton
Ireland
Marco de Blois
Canada
Chris Boeckmann
USA
Anna Bogutskaya
UK
Stephen Bourne
UK
Ernest Chan Chi-wa
Hong Kong
Jake Cunningham
UK
James Curtis
USA
Nick De Semlyen
UK
Miguel Dias
Portugal
Jon Dieringer
USA
Mark Duguid
UK
John Ewing
USA
Gemma Files
Canada
Nora Fiore
USA
Beatrice Fiorentino
Italy
Rosie Fletcher
UK
Charles Gant
UK
Marie Anne Guerin
France
Robert Hanks
UK
Annika Haupts
Germany
Tom Huddleston
UK
Thierry Jobin
Switzerland
Helmi Kajaste
Finland
Natalia Keogan
USA
Rainer Knepperges
Germany
Jan Langlo
Norway
Dietrich Leder
Germany
Kristen Lopez
USA
Jan Lumholdt
Sweden
Lee Marshall
UK/Italy
Katie McCabe
UK
Neil McGlone
UK
Katherine McLaughlin
UK
Craig McLean
UK
Thierry Méranger
France
Kim Morgan
USA
Anna Möttölä
Finland
Mike Muncer
UK
James Naremore
USA
Dario Oliveira
Portugal
Michael Omasta
Austria
Hynek Pallas
Sweden
Jugoslav Pantelić
Serbia
Alex Ramon
Poland/UK
Tytti Rantanen
Finland
Tobias Rydén Sjöstrand
Sweden
Jennifer Sabine
Australia
Sheila Schvarzman
Brazil
Adam Scovell
UK
Jourdain Searles
US
David Somerset
UK
Alison Strauss
UK
James Swanton
UK
Yonca Talu
France
Kristina Tarasova
UK
Scott Tobias
USA
Pete Tombs
UK
Stephen Volk
UK
Marjan Vujovic
Serbia
Thirza Wakefield
UK
Sam Wasson
USA
Adam Woodward
UK
Pedro Adrián Zuluaga
Colombia

Directors

Hope Dickson Leach
UK
John Hillcoat
Australia
Isaac Julien
Francis Lee
UK
Bertrand Mandico
France
Martin Mcdonagh
Ireland
Carol Morley
UK
Léa Mysius
France
Chris Shepherd
United Kingdom
Goran Stolevski
Australia
Ming Liang Tsai
Taiwan
Nora Twomey
Clement Virgo
Canada
Sergio Wolf
Argentina

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