Charles Laughton had a vast career in film.
He was Quasimodo in “Hunchback of Notre Dame.” He was in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Paradine Case.”
He was Capt. Bligh in “Mutiny on the Bounty.”
He was also a film director, well, for one film. It is called "Night of the Hunter."
It was greeted so poorly my critics, he never attempted to direct again, although thankfully he continued to make movies, his last being Otto Preminger’s “Advise and Consent,” which also starred Henry Fonda.
But I am here to tell you “Night of the Hunter” needs to be revisited.
It is a genuinely chilling picture, subtle, dark, scary, full of tension.
Laughton did everything right. Maybe the film wasn't right for 1955, but it would be for 2009.
It's a film essentially about children and their wisdom, which transcends that of adults.
The film opens with playing children coming across the body of a girl.
The scene switches to two children playing, their bleeding father staggering into the yard. Played by Peter Graves, who later starred in “Mission Impossible,” he orders his son, played by Billy Chapin, to hide money he has from a robbery. You can hear the sirens in the background.
The Graves character makes the boy and his young sister swear they will never tell where the money is hidden.
The Graves character goes to his death, but not before telling an apparent minister and fellow inmate in the prison, played by Robert Mitchum, about his haul.
Mitchum knows the mechanics of being a pious parson. He quotes scripture. But it is easy to see the man is pure evil. Mitchum's character, Harry Powell, is soon released for his auto-theft offense and heads to Graves’ character’s family.
There he meets the widow, played by a young Shelley Winters. Winters’ character is duped by the saintly sounding sadist, but the young boy isn't.
They marry but then Harry informs his new wife sex is for procreation and the two need to handle the children she already has.
The naïve Winters character meets a horrifying end after discovering what her new husband is like and the Mitchum character chases the children downriver.
Lillian Gish, the woman who invented the close-up and starred in 1915's “Birth of a Nation,” appears as a woman who takes care of orphaned children and takes the pair in.
Laughton's only effort as a director is near perfect. Billy Chapin is a natural actor as the wise-beyond-his years son who takes his little sister, played by Sally Jane Brue, on a race for survival. Chapin's sister, Lauren, played the youngest daughter on “Father Knows Best.”
But the most kudos go to Bob Mitchum. Now this is one scary guy. Nobody, but nobody, could play a frightening figure like Mitchum.
For a really scary night, watch this with the original “Cape Fear,” again starring Mitchum as the heavy.
This is prime film noir during the waning days of film noir. Check out Laughton's other talent, directing. You won't be able to shake this film from your mind.
NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
• Directed by Charles Laughton
• Written by Davis Grubb (novel) and James Agee (screenplay)
• Runtime: 92 minutes
• Not rated by too scary for young children
• 4 stars out of 4
WEEKENDER / Entertainment
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‘Night of the Hunter’ scary, suspenseful
Video Viper / ROBERT LEBZELTER
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