Night of the Hunter - Guest Review from Chris Cummings

Based on a novel by Davis Grubb and directed by Yorkshire born actor and director Charles Laughton, who appeared in motion pictures such as Spartacus, Captain Kidd and The Paradine Case, The Night of the Hunter is a classic film that both represents its era yet also manages to be ahead of its time in many ways.

Starring the legendary Robert Mitchum in the iconic role of Harry Powell and Shelley Winters as Willa Harper, the film deals with death, religion, family, greed and abuse in ways that are terrifying yet somewhat tame by today’s standard. Mitchum offers up a character that personifies greed and deception, a preacher with darkness behind his gaze yet an ability to manipulate those around him.



The story begins with Ben Harper, a father unable to provide for his family during the great depression, who robs $10,000 from a bank, killing two people in the process. Harper is arrested, but prior to that he is able to convince his young son and daughter to keep the $10,000 dollars safe and not tell anybody where it is. Ben is sentenced to death but before he meets his sentence he meets a man named Harry Powell (Mitchum) who manages to get some information from Ben regarding his family. Leaving prison, Powell makes his way to the home of Harper’s family and goes about attempting to find out where the money is hidden whilst worming his way into the lives of Harper’s grieving wife and children.

There is a poetic and musical edge to “Night of the Hunter” that runs alongside the story and provides a haunting lullaby to the aggressive and influential nature of Harry Powell as he breaks his way into the lives of Ben Harper’s family, and proceeds to try to corrupt the children and find the money that Ben had stolen. The music offers a strange and almost macabre contrast to what is happening on the screen, creating a wonderful tension and atmosphere. Scenes, such as the one in which the Harper children are floating along a river in a bedraggled boat, are truly beautiful and still look magical today.

With wonderful editing and characterisation, the film manages to bring warm and joyous moments to the forefront in-between the moments in which we are being looked down upon with gritted teeth by Mutchum’s Powell. It is a fairly simple film that manages to be truly sinister due to the unrelenting nature of Powell’s pursuit of John and Pearl, as well as their valuable little rag doll that hangs from the young girls’ hand.

Almost sixty years following its initial release and after being lauded as one of the most terrifying films ever made, it is easy to see why such a reputation has befallen the film. With a tension that was undoubtedly inspired by the likes of Hitchcock’s early work, and inspirational of much of the suspenseful horror that followed, The Night of the Hunter is a classic piece of cinema and a film that deserves credit for its influential way of telling a story, and a timeless and astonishing performance from Robert Mitchum and the rest of the excellent cast.

Chris Cummings is editor-in-chief of The Cinephiliacs, a site for movie fans, by movie fans, which features contributions from a host of writers