While Robert Mitchum has deservedly been recognized for his portrayal as the psychopathic killer and con man in The Night of the Hunter, the great Charles Laughton, revered for his acting career, has been criminally denied the kudos and honors he should have received for directing the film.
Set sometime during the Great Depression, a man (Peter Graves) scurries home after a botched bank robbery and has just enough time to hand over the loot to his young son John and daughter Pearl with explicit instructions not to even tell their mother where the money is hidden before being arrested and hauled to jail. While paired in a cell with “Reverend” Harry Powell (Mitchum), he is smart enough to deter all attempts by his mate to learn the fate of the money right up to his execution.
Undeterred, Powell makes a beeline for the hometown of his departed mate and with his altruistic preaching charms quickly makes his way into the lives of the newly widowed Willa (Shelley Winters) and the kindly townsfolk . It soon becomes clear that the kids know where the money is stashed and that Willa is blissfully ignorant of its whereabouts. John, suspicious from the beginning, knows what Powell is up to but worries that his naive younger sister will fail to obey their father’s last instructions. When Willa, now married to Powell, is murdered when she accidentally learns of his true intentions leaving the kids to make a last ditch getaway via a downriver trek .
With some good luck for a change the kids are rescued by a Rachel Cooper (former silent film star Lillian Gish) running an ad-hoc orphanage and for a while all is good. But Powell is determined as much in his god fearing ways as his money loving ways and this time he will make sure the kids don’t give him the slip.
This cautionary tale of a sheep in wolf’s clothing is notably exceptional on a few fronts beginning with unique filming techniques that renders the film to being a near fantasy. The film begins with visions of children’s faces dancing as Cooper/Gish poetically recites biblical verses, a common thread throughout the movie. Shots of skyward and superimposed stars, cutout silhouettes and overhead views, a novelty given the era in which it was made, are all standout cinematographic effects that still stand the test of time. Not a bible thumper myself, I’m sure I’m missing out on the significance of a menagerie of animals and reptiles appearing along the screen as the kids propelled their boat down the river, but the images evoke an eerie feeling regardless. Speaking of bodies of water there is one scene with a underwater dead body that gave me some honest shivers, but I won’t spoil it other than to say it was both jarring and yet fitting the circumstances of the overall theme.
Mitchum as Powell is no faux preacher but a true God fearing man, often discoursing with the lord when alone, imbues those beliefs in his own sociopath monochromatic world of absolutes as symbolized by the words “Love” and “Hate” tattooed across the fingers of each hand, and which he is prone to use as displays of that struggle whilst hand wrangling as he preaches.
Not that I was keeping score or anything but there are a few other sins from the Good Book broken here. If you haven’t seen this one already I heartily recommend you to “Repent Thyself” and give it a good watch.
Lazarus' Lair 