This start for Gregory as producer and Laughton as director is rich in promise but the completed product, bewitching at times, loses sustained drive via too many offbeat touches that have a misty effect.
2 Comments
08/28/07
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
98
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:41
Fresh:40
Rotten:1
Average Rating:8.7/10
Consensus: Featuring Robert Mitchum's formidable performance as child-hunting preacher, The Night of the Hunter is a disturbing look at good and evil.
Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: In this eerie meditation on good and evil, a schizophrenic preacher--possibly the devil himself--relentlessly hunts two small children across the Depression-era Bible Belt to get at their dead... [More]
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, Peter Graves
Director: Charles Laughton
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Reviews for The Night of the Hunter
A unique, terrifying masterpiece.
01/01/00
There's the absolute authority of Mitchum's performance -- easy, charming, infinitely sinister.
01/26/06
An overlooked gem in the history of American film, this creepy curio incorporates elements of horror, noir, thriller and fairy tale.
09/24/07
It is a garish, unbelievable but fairly exciting nightmare.
10/07/08
In the pantheon of great screen villains, none is quite so despicable as Harry Powell, the heavy-lidded serial-killer-turned-preacher played by Robert Mitchum in Charles Laughton's classic thriller.
12/02/01
All this has been crisply compacted into clear screen drama by the late James Agee and it is put forth under the direction of Mr. Laughton in stark, rigid visual terms.
03/25/06
No review available.
08/22/03
Robert Mitchum is perfectly cast as the sinister reverend who's had 25 wives, done away with them all, and looking for the next widow that the good Lord will provide.
08/30/02
No review available.
11/12/03
No review available.
10/08/05
No review available.
02/11/05
Ultimately the source of its style and power is mysterious -- it is a film without precedents, and without any real equals
08/28/07
Top CriticCharles Laughton's only directorial effort is a work of inspired brilliance.
05/21/04
Very disturbing.
11/11/02
Charles Laughton's Night of the Hunter is the character actor's now-classic jab at godliness gone awry.
09/20/01
Laughton creates terrific tension between Mitchum and his prey, turning the preacher into a bloodthirsty wolf and Willa's children into tender lambs.
01/01/00
Top CriticNo review available.
06/19/05
No review available.
02/13/05
One of the most legitimately scary thrillers ever made.
03/21/05
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