The Night Of The Hunter [DVD] [1955]

In the entire history of American movies, The Night of the Hunter stands out as the rarest and most exotic of specimens. It is, to say the least, a masterpiece–and not just because it was the only movie directed by flamboyant actor Charles Laughton or the only produced solo screenplay by the legendary critic James Agee (who also co-wrote The African Queen). The truth is, nobody has ever made anything approaching its phantasmagoric, overheated style in which German expressionism, religious hysteria, fairy-tale fantasy (of the Grimm-est variety), and stalker movie are brought together in a furious boil. Like a nightmarish premonition of stalker movies to come, Night of the Hunter tells the suspenseful tale of a demented preacher (Robert Mitchum, in a performance that prefigures his memorable villain in Cape Fear), who torments a boy and his little sister–even marries their mixed-up mother (Shelley Winters)–because he’s certain the kids know where their late bank-robber father hid a stash of stolen money. So dramatic, primal, and unforgettable are its images–the preacher’s shadow looming over the children in their bedroom, the magical boat ride down a river whose banks teem with fantastic wildlife, those tattoos of LOVE and HATE on the unholy man’s knuckles, the golden locks of a drowned woman waving in the current along with the indigenous plant life in her watery grave–that they’re still haunting audiences (and filmmakers) today. –Jim Emerson, Amazon.com

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