A monochrome masterpiece, pure cinematic alchemy and just about every other superlative that spells genius.
Comment
09/24/07
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
98 %
Reviews Counted: 40 Fresh: 39 Rotten:1 Average Rating: 8.8/10
Consensus:
Featuring Robert Mitchum's formidable performance as child-hunting preacher, The Night of the Hunter is a disturbing look at good and evil.
Rated: 12A
Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins
Theatrical Release: 02-04-1999
Synopsis: In this eerie meditation on good and evil, a schizophrenic preacher--possibly the devil himself--relentlessly hunts two small children across the Depression-era Bible Belt to get at their dead father's stolen fortune. In Robert Mitchum's career-defining role as Preacher Harry Powell,... [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, Peter Graves, Evelyn Varden
Director: Charles Laughton
Producer: Paul Gregory
Screenwriter: James Agee
Story: David Grubb
Composer: Walter Schumann
Producer: Paul Gregory
Screenwriter: James Agee
Story: David Grubb
Composer: Walter Schumann
Reviews
Top Critic
An overlooked gem in the history of American film, this creepy curio incorporates elements of horror, noir, thriller and fairy tale.
09/24/07
Top Critic
There's the absolute authority of Mitchum's performance -- easy, charming, infinitely sinister.
01/26/06
Top Critic
Ultimately the source of its style and power is mysterious -- it is a film without precedents, and without any real equals
08/28/07
This start for Gregory as producer and Laughton as director is rich in promise but the completed product, bewitching at times, loses sustained drive via too many offbeat touches that have a misty effect.
08/28/07
Top Critic
Corny, yes; pretentious, sure; overwrought, definitely -- but every frame of it is thrilling.
04/21/07
All this has been crisply compacted into clear screen drama by the late James Agee and it is put forth under the direction of Mr. Laughton in stark, rigid visual terms.
03/25/06
Top Critic
[Powell's] glibly superficial moralizing is epitomized by an infantile hand-play… [Gish's character] provides an undistorted counterpoint to Powell's diseased religiosity.
10/17/05
Charles Laughton's only directorial effort is a work of inspired brilliance.
05/21/04
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