Night of the Hunter

[stilltrucking]

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[e_dog]

What is this the latest Obama campaign video?

That lady wit the gun supposed ta be Hillary?

[stilltrucking]

The lady with the gun is Lillian Gish

"Children are man at his strongest. They abide. . . . The wind blows, and the rains are cold. Yet they abide. . . . They abide and they endure."


The film is based on the novel of the same name by Davis Grubb, adapted for the screen by James Agee and Charles Laughton. The novel and film draw on the true story of Harry Powers, hanged in 1932 for the murders of two widows and three children in Clarksburg, West Virginia. The film's lyric and expressionistic style sets it apart from almost all other Hollywood films of the 1940s and 50s, and has influenced later directors such as David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Jean Renoir, Terrence Malick, and the Coen Brothers.

In 1992, The Night of the Hunter was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.


Laughton drew heavily on the harsh, angular look of German expressionist films of the 1920s, such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_ ... ter_(film)

[stilltrucking]

It's hard to believe that the brilliant, poetic masterpiece The Night of the Hunter was Charles Laughton's sole directorial effort, and yet it is not so hard to understand: A picture this lyrical is hard to come by and certainly tough to top, by anyone. Laughton, a respected actor of stage and screen, famous for The Private Life of Henry VIII, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and other iconic performances, adapted Davis Grubb's novel (with film critic James Agee as screenwriter) into an expressionistic children's fairy tale/nightmare, utilizing dreamlike angled compositions (by cinematographer Stanley Cortez), chilling religious motifs, dark humor and disturbed perversity to full, elegiac effect. Casting Robert Mitchum was just one of Laughton's ingenious moves, giving the barrel-chested leading man his greatest, scariest performance -- electrifying the picture with a deep uneasiness and inspired weirdness. As the handsome and hatefully dangerous hymn singing "Preacher" who seduces vulnerable women only to take their money (as well as their lives), Mitchum's demented faux reverend Harry Powell hunts down the two children of poor Shelley Winters with big talk, questioning threats ("Where'd you hide the money Pearl?") and finally, just plain murderous intentions. From its most famous scene involving Mitchum's love and hate speech using tattooed knuckles, to Winters' beautiful yet horrifying watery grave, to the frightfully gorgeous way Mitchum sings ("Leaning on the everlasting arms"), especially with pure-hearted Lillian Gish, every inch of this picture is absolutely amazing.

http://sunsetgun.typepad.com/sunsetgun/ ... -to-b.html

[constantine]

i too am a fan of this great film. it had a fable-like quality to it. considering, as you pointed out, that it was laughton's only directorial effort it is even more impressive. in a way, it's quality is not surprising considering laughton's sensitvity as an actor. i do not cry easily, but the end sequence of the hunchback gets me every time.