The Night of the Hunter

The Night of the Hunter

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The Night of the Hunter

Billy Chapin, Don Beddoe, Evelyn Varden, Gloria Castillo, James Gleason

A religious fanatic marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real daddy hid $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.

Id: 11054145

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Recent Reviews


  • November 11, 2009
    A real classic of American cinema, The night of the Hunter is as beautiful as it is menacing and still to this day has some of the best visual scenes and compositions ever recorded. Brilliant!
  • June 30, 2009
    Heard about this for years before I got to see it. One of the few films that lives up to its reputation for me. Part crime drama, part fairy tale, part nightmare, two children are threatened by a preacher/serial killer who wants the ill-gotten money their father left with them be...( read more)fore his arrest and subsequent execution.Robert Mitchum will chill your spine as he charms the townsfolk while tormenting and pursuing these children as a predator would track prey. Even if the performances weren't good (and they are), the visuals alone -- Shelley Winters's body floating amongst the weeds in a lake, the children's boat floating on the river at night -- would spellbind you. Charles Laughton's only directorial effort. Poor reviews (WTF!?!?!) turned him against directing again. It makes one pine for what could have been had this been better received.
  • June 28, 2009
    This may be one of the most overlooked and under appreciated classics of all time. A box office flop when first released, this film was simply too far ahead of its own era.

    Told in a manner that is part film noir and part Gothic horror, the story steadily becomes more nightmari...( read more)sh and less anchored in reality as it progresses. Sets, over the course of the film, become more stage than screen (some of the backdrops are obviously one-dimensional). They're often silhouetted with unnatural back lighting, adding to the overall ominous feel of the picture. Other scenes, most notably Willa Harper (Shelley Winters) at the bottom of the lake, are shot with an awareness of cinematography that is nothing short of brilliance.



    Robert Mitchum is suburb as the villainous Harry Powell, rivaling his equally evil but dimensionally different character in Cape Fear. The Night of the Hunter ranks among my all-time top 100 films and should not be missed.
  • April 19, 2009
    it would have been interesting to see how laughtons career behind the camera would have turned out had he made more than this one film. the cinematography was clearly the films strength, and the moments of tension were built very effectively to create a noir that at moments felt...( read more) more like gothic horror than classic noir. a great film.
  • November 4, 2008
    A really good film with fantastic imagery and a tour-de-force performance by Robert Mitchum make this a classic. But it also has one of the worst endings ever with sugary-sweet sentimentality severely marring a tanscendant film-noir
  • December 24, 2009
    Charles Laughton directed this and Mitchum outdoes himself
  • December 22, 2009
    Masterpiece, it is a film without precedents, pioneer, and without any real equals. Harry Powell is one of the best psychos I've ever seen, It's a hound from hell. One of the best thrillers and film noir, with a wonderful photograpy.
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  • December 20, 2009
    Charles Laughton's only effort is a masterpiece.
  • December 17, 2009
    although it's a tremendously good movie, I felt it was lacking a certain amount of depth. the story and the characters felt very surface-y, and there weren't many details about much of anything or anyone. regardless, Robert Mitchum gives a terrific (albeit a tad shallow) perfor...( read more)mance and certain elements of Laughton's direction are truly chilling--like the scene where the young boy watches Mitchum on horseback silhouetted against the sunrise. the ending wasn't exactly satisfying, though, as it felt rushed and incomplete, not to mention a bit out of tone with the rest of the film. overall a terrific but flawed classic.
  • November 16, 2009
    Clássico brilhante, com várias cenas memoráveis, ótimas atuações e bela trilha sonora. Mas o ponto forte é a fotografia expressionista maravilhosa e as composições de cena e enquadramentos que são obras de arte. O filme lembra aquelas histórias assustadoras que as avós contam ao...( read more)s netos, tem um clima de sonho e pesadelo, de conto de fadas ao estilo João e Maria, com um vilão assustador em grande interpretação de Robert Mitchum. A ótima Lillian Gish torna o filme mais interessante ainda na parte final, mas é justamente na parte final que o filme fica doce demais e perde um pouco do impacto. Mesmo assim, um belíssimo suspense.

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