Ebert's GREAT MOVIES, Part 7: "The Night of the Hunter"

I just read Ebert's review.
I never saw this movie,
but now I regret it, or maybe I'm glad
b/c it certainly sounds SCARY.
CHILL---dren!!!

Hi,Mr.Wizard and all. I saw the movie. and I remember with clarity the deadpan coldness of Mitchum in his chillingly casual pursuit of those children. Mitchum's heavy eyelids, combined with that tune that he whistled, created a spine tingler. I wish that I could recall more details.

(Why can I never find a link to Eber't critique?)

I missed it also

Wait a minute there's something familiar abot that picture, and the mention of whistling and children, stirs up something. I don't know if I've seen parts of this film and forgotten, or just heard this somewhere. Some body help me.

Night of the Hunter was on a double-bill when I saw it in 1955. I was awe-struck. I went back to see it again two days later. I was fascinated by Mitchum's personification of evil. The children's river escape which showed the wild things so commonplace in the daylight, but so nightmarish to children when it's dark, in my opinion, was a work of art. I never noticed that the scenery was fake. It didn't matter. And the hymn singing duel between Lillian Gish and Robert Mitchum still gives me chills. Night of the Hunter is still one of my favorite psychological thrillers. As for my vote, I can't choose between Mitchum and Billy Chapin (he was superb, as was Lillian Gish).

Letty,
The link is right under the pixture of Mitchum.

LW, I saw this movie when it came out in 1955. It was quite an experience for me. This was at the time I was escaping from Christian Fundalmentalism. In those years the movies were considered sinful by the fundamentalists, and no truly saved person would attend. Certainly, Jesus would never go!

So, as I was struggling to throw off what I had come to think of as a suffocating religious experience, my wife and I went to see this movie. I think I may have heard from others like myself that Mitchum would give a new slant on how religion worked for some people. It was an eye opener. To see Mitchum in action with the love/hate talk with the children and the murder, and the chase sent me out onto the sidewalk wondering if art was really reflecting reality, and if so, what a world we lived in. For me at that time, it was a very powerful film.

I have always considered Mitchem to be one of our best actors. Few could be more quietly, and then explosively, threatening. Who could ever forget him in "Cape Fear." With that movie, the Robert De Nero version didn't even come close.

It seems to me that "The Night of the Hunter" did not come out in video for a long time. When it did I rented it and watched again. I think it is a masterpiece.

The film that made Mitchum a star, "Out of the Past" is still a powerful performance -- there's and underlining vulnerability in his tough guy image, like he knows someone is about to penetrate the facade. In "The Night of the Hunter," he's nearly an alter ego of Laughton but uses his own physical presence to highten the conflicted tension in the character. Not many actors have been able to potray a character with such a beguiling evilness.

Hazlitt,
...I would say unto the fundementalist; How could a guy that manufactures, and distributes drugs, to keep a wedding party jumpin',be above attending a movie?

This is puzzling, I read Ebert's review, and the tattoos, seem quite vivid, while other parts don't ring a bell. Perhaps it was a first date with a great catch. Or mayby.......

There was a sub-text in the film denouncing religion, no mistaking that (and Laughton felt very strongly about it). That we as human beings instigate evil without any outside help is a truism we should no longer deny. The work of the Devil -- balderdash. The film shows the manifistation of the ID in all its evil, insidious presence.
And I don't mean your Driver's License.

Booman<

Have another cup of holiday punch, my friend, and perhaps your memory will return.

Admittedly, I had forgotten about this movie. I have seen it only once, on "The Late, Late Show." I had also forgotten about dear old Charles Laughton who was a fine actor in his own right.

Robert Mitchum, yes, was powerful in this picture. I think he was in all his roles and never received the acclaim he deserved.

I had thought this thread would be about either "The Night of the Iguana"
or "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter." Both were good movies, but I think I'd better join you, Booman, around the punch bowl.

Lightwizard: I remember Mitchum singing "Bringing in the Sheaves" outside the home where the children were, while Lillian Gish defiantly sang another hymn, sitting in her rocking chair, rifle/shotgun on her lap, calmly waiting for him to invade the home. That scene gave me chills.

I'm curious as to when you first saw Night of the Hunter and what you thought of the cinematography, use of lighting, etc. I ask this because I wonder if the film had less of an impact when seen at a later date.

Careful of that punch bowl, WH! "Night of the Iguana?" That was Richard Burton so you've got me puzzled.

That scene of Mitchum singing the hymn was chilling to the bone.
The cinematography again was inspired by the German Expressionists -- high contrast which accentuated shadows and a strange, rather brash light that seemed to spill in from all directions or focused on scenes to give everyone an appearance of being in a Rembrandt painting. This is a Gothic horror masterpiece, no doubt about that, exposing fundamentalist religion under a harsh light which could explain its initial poor reponse at the box office (somehow I doubt that it was embraced by the Bible belt!)

Ah, Lightwizard, you express it so beautifully when you say "Like in a Rembrandt painting". The movie didn't get much exposure when it showed in Pa. which I thought was the reason for its quick demise. I had never thought about the religious aspect. (Actually, Lillian Gish's role was one of unselfish love for children in need).

The compostion of groups of people is also very reminiscent of Rembrandt. Rembrandt was one of Laughton's favorite painters.

And Charles Laughton played Rembrandt in the movie of the same title in 1936. I've read about it, but have never seen it.

WH,
... I never (hic) t-touch the shtuff.

Just thought I'd report that I saw Talk to Her (the new Almodovar movie) today, and was pleasantly surprised to note that it contains a reference to The Night of the Hunter: in a couple of scenes, the camera briefly passes over a book which is apparently a Spanish-language copy of the screenplay for The Night of the Hunter (the title is "Noche de Cazador", and there's a photo of Robert Mitchum -- I think it's the same photo that Lightwizard reproduced at the beginning of this thread -- on the cover).

The book is never overtly referred to in the movie, and I'm not sure what, if any, the connection between the two movies is supposed to be (apart from the fact that they're both very good movies), since the main character in Talk to Her is about as far from the Mitchum character in Night of the Hunter as possible. Any ideas?