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1955: The Night of the Hunter
Topic Started: Jul 29 2010, 07:02 AM (633 Views)
Laughing Gravy
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In this cross between a horrifying fairy tale and a cinematic nightmare, homicidal religious fanatic Robert Mitchum learns in prison from a condemned man about $10,000 in robbery money hidden in an old house in the Midwest. When Bob is released, he heads there, and sweeps the widow off her feet and first marries her, then kills her and terrorizes the children in pursuit of that money.

That description hardly does justice to this film, except for the “horrifying fairy tale” part. It’s the only credit as director for actor Charles Laughton, and he crafted a dark, demented tale that – while inspired by German expressionism – clearly influenced a number of future filmmakers, not least of all Tim Burton.

Mitchum’s iconic demon preacher has “HATE” tattooed on one hand and “LOVE” on the other, and even people who have never seen this film know about that, I think. The story doesn’t matter here, much, although Lillian Gish – as the woman who takes in the children when they have nowhere else to go – has some delightful dialog and her simple but tenacious faith serves as a strong counterpoint to the warped ravings of Mitchum. "When you're little, you have more endurance than God is ever to grant you again. Children are man at his strongest. They abide,” she say to no one in particular (besides us). This film is 93 minutes worth of images, dark and light, good and evil, innocence and dementia. When the children escape down the river in the darkness in a skiff, it’s way off in the distance, as Laughton and ace cinematographer Stanley Cortez (The Magnificent Ambersons) show close-ups of frogs, spider webs, and a giant crescent moon. Some sequences, such as Mitchum chasing the children in the basement, are so terrifying that the normal reaction is to laugh to relieve the tension. The sets are so obviously studio mockups, the photography is unreal, chilling songs and hymns pop up out of nowhere, strange images abide (check out Preacher Bob on the horse in silhouette; the reason it looks like a midget on a pony is because it IS a midget on a pony) and the characters you think are going to be helpful to the children turn out to be useless, while that nice, half-crazy little old lady turns out to have steel in her gut. This is a fun-house ride of a spook show, just like Psycho five years later. Laughton, incidentally, hated kids, and Mitchum had to direct them in their sequences. James Agee, noted critic, is credited with the screenplay; tradition tells us that Laughton tore up his draft and wrote the film himself, but a perusal of the script, which has turned up, shows that is not true – although Agee wrote a screenplay about twice this length, and it had to be severely edited.

We view The Night of the Hunter now as Norman Rockwell meets Norman Bates, but in 1955, audiences and critics had no idea how to take this movie; was it serious, or a dark, unfunny joke? Was it well-made and impressionistic, or cheap and ill-crafted? (The anachronisms of this film, which is set in the 1930s, fairly leap off the screen.) It failed at the box-office, but I doubt that anybody who saw it ever forgot it. Roger Ebert calls it one of the greatest of all American films, “compelling, beautiful, and frightening.” I agree, and Robert Mitchum’s deranged preacher is one of the great (and nightmarish) characters in screen history, a “spawn of the devil’s own strumpet.”
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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The Batman
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Great movie, great review, couldn't agree more.


The Simpsons did a great homage to it in the episode that is actually a parody of CAPE FEAR, when Sideshow Bob (playing the Max Cady character) has the words "Love" and "Hate" tattooed on his knuckles.

Of course, being only three-fingered characters in the Simpsons world, the words were spelled out "Luv" and "Hät".

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You nailed this one, Mr. G. In a movie with many unforgettable images, the one that always grabbed me was Shelley Winters, drowned, with the water billowing her hair about. Really strange stuff for 1955 -- certainly not the squeaky-clean Betty Furness beaming at her new refrigerator.
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Laughing Gravy
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That's the iconic shot in the picture, but I didn't want to spoil it for anybody. *L* I also want to give shout-outs to James Gleason and Peter Graves as well as Miss Winters, all of whom give memorable performances in this terrific film.

The MGM DVD, by the way, is not recommended - it's full-screen, although the print is beautiful. The trailer is a hoot, by the way... it makes it look like this is a Desire Under the Elms-type sex drama.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Guess I'll wait for the Blu-Ray. The film has a large cult following, so it won't be long.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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Laughing Gravy
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I don't think MGM has a good track record for releasing vintage films on Blu-ray.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Fantomas
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I used to believe the story about Laughton hating kids and being unable to direct them too; but a few years ago, many hours of outtakes from NIGHT OF THE HUNTER became available (Laughton kept the cameras rolling between takes and we can hear him speaking to the actors). He gives a lot of direction and line readings to the children and is very patient with them. There are many articles about the program in which Robert Gitt presents and explains this footage. Here's one of them:

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/aug/08/entertainment/et-hunter8

There's also a book about it, HEAVEN AND HELL TO PLAY WITH. A while ago there was an announcement of a forthcoming special two-DVD edition of the film with excerpts from the outtakes, but it never appeared.
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Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer
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Mr Weimer, I find it hard to believe you've never seen this film nor THE GRAPES OF WRATH! 2 of the greats.
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Laughing Gravy
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Well, I've seen 'em BOTH now, ain't I?
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Laughing Gravy
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This was last night's feature; it went over very well with the FNF crowd, as I knew it would. Most hadn't seen it before.

Our shorts were a good group; first, Bosko hosted a night of movies in "Bosko's Picture Show" (1933), which included the Marx Brothers and Laurel & Hardy; then, Dick Rich and his Syncho-Symphonists regaled us with "Chloe" and other ditties in our Vitaphone short (Mr. Rich looked just like Paul Whiteman, which he joked about); we learned that, believe it or not, people freeze to death in some of the hottest regions in the world. Don't believe it? Ask Bob! It was Ripley's Believe it or Not #12. Then, Betty Boop, KoKo, and Bimbo met Satchmo in "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You" (1932), which looks amazingly wonderful on Blu-ray.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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The Batman
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Laughing Gravy
Jul 29 2010, 09:10 AM

The MGM DVD, by the way, is not recommended - it's full-screen, although the print is beautiful. The trailer is a hoot, by the way... it makes it look like this is a Desire Under the Elms-type sex drama.


Though I am sure it has been noted elsewhere around here, I thought this thread should mention there is now a stunning Blu-Ray version of NIGHT OF THE HUNTER available from Criterion, which is a considerable upgrade from the MGM release.

Here's what you get (from the Amazon listing):

New, restored high-definition digital transfer. Audio commentary featuring assistant director Terry Sanders, film critic F. X. Feeney, archivist Robert Gitt, and author Preston Neal Jones. Charles Laughton Directs “The Night of the Hunter,”a two-and-a-half-hour archival treasure trove of outtakes from the film. New documentary featuring interviews with producer Paul Gregory, Sanders, Jones, and author Jeffrey Couchman. New video interview with Simon Callow, author of Charles Laughton: A Difficult Actor Clip from the The Ed Sullivan Show, in which cast members perform live a scene that was deleted from the film. Fifteen-minute episode of the BBC show “Moving Pictures” about the film. New video conversation between Gitt and film critic Leonard Maltin about Charles Laughton Directs “The Night of the Hunter” Archival interview with cinematographer Stanley Cortez, Gallery of sketches by author Davis Grubb, Original theatrical trailer, PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critics Terrence Rafferty and Michael Sragow.


Edited by The Batman, Jun 28 2014, 09:48 AM.
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Laughing Gravy
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And that's what we watched, and it's one of the most stunning BDs I've ever seen. Gorgeous.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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The Batman
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I figured, I remember you mentioning it on another thread, I thought you'd want the listeners at home to be reminded about it. A must-have.


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JazzGuyy
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It's a movie I've loved since I first saw it many years ago. I've seen it at 4 or 5 times since. Mitchum is the personification of evil. Maybe his best performance.

Too bad Laughton never directed anything else. He clearly had a perspective of his own and a real talent for direction.
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panzer the great & terrible
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It's a must-have. Just ordered it.
Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious...
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