
The Night of the Hunter
3.9
(589)
Crime
Drama
Thriller
1955
93 min
-
In Depression-era West Virginia, a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children who know the whereabouts of a stash of money.
Starring:
Robert Mitchum
,
Billy Chapin
,
Sally Jane Bruce
,
Shelley Winters
,
Lillian Gish
,
James Gleason
,
Evelyn Varden
Crime
Drama
Thriller
Horror
AD
Community ReviewsSee all
"Arguably one of the best movies ever made, and I do not say that lightly. Like the similarly daring Citizen Kane (and its subsequent burying by Hearst), a growing American evangelical population could not tolerate even such mild critique of a corrupt manipulator posing as a priest, and the movie’s box office and Charles Laughton’s directing career were left in ashes. And yet it endures. Everyone’s acting (even the children) is stellar. The scenes of domestic and societal violence are terrifying. The textures are gorgeous, on par with Jack Clayton’s The Innocents. And the way it treats children as subjects is unique and uplifting- not inspiration p*rn or angelic, but something more real and human."
"most progressive film noir of the 50s ive seen. The movie is based on a true story of Harry Powers from Clarksburg Virginia ,hanged in 1932 for killing two widows and three children ,it never received good reviews during its release but decades later was selected for presentation in the US national film registry. Mitchum is superb here as a psychopathic & mentality disturbed killer . Shelley Winters was a child star that was undoubtably abused by this Hollywood system. She went to a private research facility called The New School founded in 1919 in New York City . The alumni is chock-full of some of Hollywood’s Finest, cofounder of Facebook Chris huges, Harry Belafonte ,Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan, Marlon Brando ,Tony Curtis Rod Steiger, Bea Arthur, Bradley Cooper ,Lorraine Hansberry and Norman Rockwell. I can’t help but feel that the people involved in making this we’re laughing at the innocene of the audience at the time who had no idea that Hollywood was full of pedophiles . Lillian Gish also a child star whose claim to fame was the first racist film in Hollywood birth of a nation. Charles Laughton of Mutiny On The Bounty directed. He was mentioned in Scotty Bower book Full Service as having a strange proclivity involving feces, lol Although i didn’t like the ending , i give this great film & 1st in my Halloween horror fest, a 9/10 ⭐️"
"Brilliantly done, and even more compelling because it's based on a true story."
E M
Eileen McHenry