Night of The Hunter (1955)
Night of the Hunter is a movie directed by actor turned director Charles Laughton who played Dr. Moreau in Island of Lost Souls. Here Robert Mitchum plays a serial killer preacher and does it with great commitment. The main character is a young boy whose father ends up executed for killing to men during a bank robbery. The father hides the money in his young daughter’s doll and entrusts his children with the secret before being arrested. Shelley Winters does an amazing job as the children’s doomed mother who is desperate to be loved by someone after her husband’s death and that someone ends up being the hypocritical preacher who is after her late husband’s loot.
The movie is religious in tone, but also criticizes trusting anyone loudly claiming to be the lord’s faithful servant. Christianity in movies is usually a bit of a turn off for me personally, but for this movie I can tolerate it. The masses in the movie are portrayed as easily manipulated by a charming individual and then when the tide turns they become a raging mob that just want horrible revenge. When the preacher drops his act, he becomes an almost devil like, inhuman, howling and raging. His adversary is a strict but kind old woman who takes care of orphans. She tells biblical stories and is generally the positive example of a christian whereas the preacher is the negative. Also she is really tough.
What irks me a bit is that most women in the movie are portrayed as somehow more gullible to the preacher’s charms. Like the individual men in the movie are portrayed as generally more rational and wary of the guy. The problem with manipulative people is not their sex appeal, it’s that they’re generally good at twisting facts in their favour and being likable when it suits them. But I digress.
There is almost a fairytale like quality in the movie. A scene where the two children escape the preacher on a boat along the river is especially magical, but there are beautiful and haunting imagery all around the movie. It’s dreamlike and expressionist at times.
Among other movies of the era I’ve watched this seems much more focused on generating emotions in the audience than depicting what’s actually happening. I don’t mean simply that it is putting emotionally charged scenes on the screen to tug at your heart strings. I mean that it’s attempting to communicate emotions with the mise-en-scène, camera angles and cutting. And it’s very effective. It’s a shame Laughton didn’t direct anything after Night of the Hunter.
