The Night of the Hunter

The Night of the Hunter (1955) begins with a preacher and a condemned man sharing a cell. Before he is executed the prisoner tells his son where the stolen money is. When the preacher is released he marries the man's widow and comes after the two children. From there the film becomes a journey down a river. Robert Mitchum plays Harry Powell with LOVE and HATE tattooed across his knuckles, and the sermon in which he explains them is the film's best known scene. That image was taken up again in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, where Radio Raheem wears rings with the same words and delivers a similar speech. This is the only film Charles Laughton directed. It failed both commercially and critically, he took that personally, and he never attempted another. Laughton's wife Elsa Lanchester turned down the role of Rachel Cooper and suggested the silent film legend Lillian Gish instead. Sceptical, Laughton went to New York to watch her films with Griffith. When Gish found out, he explained why: when he first went to the cinema people sat upright in their seats and leaned forward, and now they slumped, and he wanted them sitting up straight again. He did not hold auditions; he met actors and looked at their personalities. Several of them called it among the best professional experiences of their lives. It runs 93 minutes. Good for: black and white photography, fairy tale horror, and film history. Less good for: the storytelling is not realistic and some scenes are deliberately theatrical. The animal shots during the river section sit apart from everything else. The violence is not shown directly, but the danger to the children is constant and wearing.