Cinema
The Night of the Hunter
Charles Laughton · 1955
Synopsis
West Virginia, on the banks of the Ohio, during the Depression. Ben Harper kills two men while stealing ten thousand dollars and, before being arrested, makes his two children, John and Pearl, promise to keep the hiding place secret. He is hanged. His cellmate, Harry Powell, a false preacher who has the English words for love and hate tattooed on his fingers and who kills widows, wins the trust of the town on his release and marries Willa, the widow. John guesses what he is looking for.
Context
The film adapts a novel by Davis Grubb. To prepare for it, Laughton had American silent films screened for him, among them those of Griffith, and the river scenes were shot in the studio. Critics were divided and the public stayed away; Laughton was removed from the adaptation of a Norman Mailer novel that he was to direct next, and never directed another film. In 2008 the Cahiers du cinéma ranked it second among the greatest films of all time.
Who it is for
A ninety-two-minute film, in black and white, in which Robert Mitchum plays the preacher and Shelley Winters the widow.
Prizes and reception
Shunned by the public on its release, it entered the National Film Registry in 1992, and ranked twenty-fifth in the Sight and Sound poll in 2022.
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