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Film: The Night of the Hunter
Director: Charles Laughton
Country: UK / USA
Released: July 1955
Runtime: 92 minutes
Genre: Horror
Studio: United Artists
Influenced: Joe Dante, Tobe Hooper, Spike Lee, Guillermo del Toro, Jennifer Kent
Love and hate, fairy tale and nightmare. The Night of the Hunter is a unique, heady combination of horror, film noir and folk tale. A southern gothic story with echoes of German expressionism directed by a RADA-trained and Oscar-winning British actor, Charles Laughton. A truly strange brew of a film. There was something so idiosyncratic about the movie that United Artists didn't know how to market it to audiences and so subsequently the film flopped, curtailing Laughton's directing career in its infancy. Ever since, the film's cult status has grown and grown.
Based on the novel of the same name by Davis Grubb, the film's screenplay was written by James Agee and heavily edited by Laughton, to tell the story of a charming but dangerous con man, Reverend Harry Powell (played by Robert Mitchum), who marries and tries to murder a widow, Willa Harper (played by Shelley Winters), to get her money. The film follows Willa's two children, John and Pearl, as they try to evade Powell and his pursuit of the stolen money. Reverend Powell is one of the great cinema villains, and Mitchum would later play an equally scary role as Max Cady in Cape Fear (1962).
One of the film's strangest scenes, referred to by the film's composer Walter Schumann as "Willa's Waltz", occurs midway through the movie and once seen, can never be forgotten. Film critic Adam Scovell describes it perfectly in this article. Director of photography, Stanley Cortez, who also shot Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), was key to the film's black & white aesthetic and eerie use of light and shadow, such as the way he surrounds Willa's head on the pillow with a halo of light, foreshadowing that her death is imminent. The film noir stylings and use of silhouettes also help to create a suspenseful atmosphere, particularly in the scenes where Powell is stalking the children.
Laughton studied the films of D.W. Griffith in the creation process, using techniques such as cross-editing to add to the drama of the chase scenes. One of the film's biggest innovations is its revolutionary use of music and sound editing. At one point, Laughton cleverly stops the music and allows a notable period of silence to preface Mitchum's lone voice in the distance, adding to the chilling horror of the film. There's also a homage to Nosferatu (1922) in the way Mitchum has arms outstretched like a vampire as he chases the children up the cellar stairs. This is followed by a moment of Home Alone style comedy as he gets his fingers trapped in the door.
As well as as Mitchum, silent cinema star Lilian Gish plays a key role in the film as Rachel Cooper, a strong-willed and compassionate woman who takes in John and Pearl after they flee from Powell. Cooper is a pivotal character in the film, not only because she helps the children, but also because she embodies the film's themes of maternal protection and feminine strength. Her on-screen presence brings a sense of calm to the film's chaotic world, and she is not afraid to stand up to Powell and his manipulation tactics. The "Lean on, Jesus" singing scene on the porch near the end of the film is a great cinematic moment.
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