The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Director:

Charles Laughton
(more)

Writers:

Davis Grubb (novel)
James Agee (screenplay)
(more)

Release Date:

24 November 1955 (Argentina)

Genre:

Drama | Film-Noir | Thriller

Tagline:

The wedding night, the anticipation, the kiss, the knife, BUT ABOVE ALL... THE SUSPENSE!

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

Money | Widow | Children | Preacher | Court

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Robert Mitchum	...	Harry Powell
Shelley Winters	...	Willa Harper
Lillian Gish	...	Rachel Cooper
James Gleason	...	Birdie Steptoe
Evelyn Varden	...	Icey Spoon
Peter Graves	...	Ben Harper
Don Beddoe	...	Walt Spoon
Billy Chapin	...	John Harper
Sally Jane Bruce	...	Pearl Harper
Gloria Castillo	...	Ruby (as Gloria Castilo)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Corey Allen	...	Young Man in Town (uncredited)
Paul Bryar	...	Bart the Hangman (uncredited)
Cheryl Callaway	...	Mary (uncredited)
Michael Chapin	...	Ruby's Boyfriend (uncredited)
Mary Ellen Clemons	...	Clary (uncredited)
Kathy Garver	...	Child (uncredited)
James Griffith	...	District Attorney (uncredited)
John Hamilton	...	Townsman Who Greets Rachel (uncredited)
Kay Lavelle	...	Miz Cunninghan (uncredited)
Gloria Pall	...	Burlesque Dancer (uncredited)
George Wallace	...	(uncredited)

Directed by
Charles Laughton
Robert Mitchum		(uncredited)

Writing credits
Davis Grubb		(novel)
James Agee		(screenplay)
Charles Laughton		screenplay contributor (uncredited)

Produced by
Paul Gregory	....	producer

Original Music by
Walter Schumann		(music by)

Cinematography by
Stanley Cortez		(photography by)

Film Editing by
Robert Golden

Casting by
Millie Gusse		(uncredited)

Art Direction by
Hilyard M. Brown		(as Hilyard Brown)

Set Decoration by
Alfred E. Spencer		(as Al Spencer)

Makeup Department
Don L. Cash	....	make-up (as Don Cash)
Kay Shea	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Ruby Rosenberg	....	production manager
Frank Parmenter	....	production manager: second unit (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Milton Carter	....	assistant director
Frank Parmenter	....	second unit director (uncredited)
Terry Sanders	....	second unit director (uncredited)
Jack Sonntag	....	first assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Joe LaBella	....	property man (as Joe La Bella)

Sound Department
Stanford Houghton	....	sound (as Stanford Naughton)

Special Effects by
Louis DeWitt	....	special photographic effects (as Louis De Witt)
Jack Rabin	....	special photographic effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Seymour Hoffberg	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
Harold E. Wellman	....	camera: second unit (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Jerry Bos	....	wardrobe
Evelyn Carruth	....	assistant wardrobe

Music Department
Arthur Morton	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Saul Bass	....	publicist (uncredited)
Robert Mitchum	....	director: children (uncredited)
Denis Sanders	....	unspecified assistant (uncredited)
Terry Sanders	....	unspecified assistant (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Paul Gregory Productions (presents)

Distributors

• United Artists (1955) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia Pictures Corporation (1955) (UK) (theatrical)
• United Artists (1956) (France) (theatrical)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1991) (USA) (VHS)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1994) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (1998) (USA) (VHS)
• BFI Films (1999) (UK) (theatrical) (re-release)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (2003) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• MGM Home Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Filmmuseum Distributie (2007) (Netherlands) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Adams Filmi (1955) (Finland) (theatrical) (banned)
• Chapel Distribution (1997) (Australia) (theatrical) (35mm print)
• Valio-Filmi (1959) (Finland) (theatrical) (cut)
• Criterion Collection, The (19??) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Warner Home Vídeo (19??) (Brazil) (VHS)

Also Known As:

La noche del cazador (Argentina) (Mexico) (Spain) [es]
Die Nacht des Jägers (Austria) (West Germany) [de]
La nuit du chasseur (Belgium: French title) (France) [fr]
A Sombra do Caçador (Portugal) [pt]
A vadász éjszakája (Hungary) [hu]
De jagersnacht (Belgium: Flemish title) [un]
I nyhta tou kynigou (Greece) (reissue title) [el]
La morte corre sul fiume (Italy) [it]
Noc mysliwego (Poland) [pl]
O Mensageiro do Diabo (Brazil) [pt]
O thanatopoinitis me to simadi (Greece) [el]
Pimeydessä vaeltava (Finland) [fi]
Räsynukke (Finland) [fi]
Trasdockan (Sweden) [sv]

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 (1959) (cut) | South Korea:15 (2003) | Brazil:14 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:14A (video rating) | Finland:(Banned) (1955) | Norway:16 | Portugal:M/12 | Sweden:15 | UK:12 | USA:Approved (certificate #17385) | West Germany:12 | UK:X (original rating)

Filming Locations:

CBS Studio Center - 4024 Radford Avenue, Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paul Gregory Productions

Trivia:

Robert Mitchum once stated that Charles Laughton was the best director he had ever worked for, ironic in that Laughton never directed another movie after The Night of the Hunter (1955) with Mitchum.

Goofs:

Continuity: On the riverside when Willa and Harry are talking, Willa's hands and purse are resting on the edge of her knees. In the next shot, however, her hands and purse are in her lap.

Quotes:

Rachel Cooper: Get your state troopers out here. I got something trapped in my barn.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003)

Soundtrack:

Dream, Little One, Dream

Sleep, Lit'le ones, sleep...

I still hear the lullaby singing sweetly in my head, like a hazy, haunting dream that won't go away.

From the opening scene of the beautiful Lillian Gish and her children, watching over the world in a starry sky, this movie just sinks you into a mesmeric fairy tale land. The camera takes us down in one sweeping move to a scene of children playing, a hot sunny day, and right to the feet of a murder victim. And that sweet music turns on us like a twisted nightmare as the scene chases after a car speeding along a country road to find one of movies worst villains.

Charles Laughton, in sadly his one and only stab at directing, created a masterpiece of horror with Night of the Hunter. The moments of sugar coated sweetness only make this movie even more disturbing as you wonder how the two can inhabit the same world.

Mitchum is terrifying. More-so in a town full of simple folk ready to match him up with the local widow who needs a father for her lit'le n's. Its like he's walked into the middle of a Frank Capra movie and he's going to do what he wants to.

This is not just a great horror movie, but an artist achievement to rival Welles' Kane. The river scene is one of many moments of pure visual splendor. And that sound track just keeps drifting alone, as if trying to coax you into slumber, till the singing madman of your nightmares comes over the hill, relentless. "Chil-dren, Come along now"

You don't watch this movie, it watches you. ...Hush, Lit'le ones, Hush.