The Night of the Hunter

 

                             

                 

          I have my dad to thank for this latest movie I decided to sit down and enjoy. The Night of the Hunter has been a film noir classic, that's been torturing me into watch though there were so many distractions in my life where I just delayed the opportunity to finally sit down and watch the movie from beginning to the final frame. And there are those certain film noir classics that literally put you on the edge of your seat till the very end, likewise the last film noir classic, that gave me the chills was Marylin Monroe performance in Don't Bother to Knock. Now after watching Robert Mitchum's performance in this movie as a scary fanatic preacher man, I'd say if you put him and Marylin Monroe's Nell in the same room together, I'd say you have a bunch of crazies in a nut house.

           The Rev. Harry Powel (Robert Mitchum) is a religious fanatic and a serial killer who targets women who use their sexuality to attract men. Serving time in prison for a car theft, he meets a condemned murderer Ben Harper (Peter Graves), who confesses hiding ten grand. Released from prison, Powell obsessed with the money stalks and marries into Harper's family. But little Harper (Billy Chaplin) sees through Powell's lies and deceit.

           The film itself is a complex genre of both film noir blend with thriller aspects along with fairy tale elements, the major element consisting of Mother Goose. And really one of the few film noir elements that really keeps it more gripping and more terrifying, is simply that kids are involved in the story, which reminds me again how terrified I was with Marylin Monroe's performance in the film Don't Bother to Knock in which she's almost close to killing a young girl. Furthermore, with this movie, it's a serial killer in the form of Robert Mitchum and he's literally going after a young boy and a young girl all because he wants the money their caring and even in scenes where he's literally going after these kids one scene in which he's going after them in a wide-angle lens is just terrifying. Though apologies for spoiling too much information but again just showing how great a film is, this is from beginning to the very end. The other thing in what makes this film amazing is that it blends a lot of the catholic aspects from fanaticism to following the true aspects of God and you have a great blend of both good and evil so, when you can have a discussion on what is right and what is wrong this movie does have that great blend of conversations that you can have with your family members, moreover something good to show to the hardcore Baptists because I would basically describe them as more fanaticism. There's really not a whole lot to say in terms of how great Mitchum's performance was because like I said again he play a great antagonist who preys on this small family and is so abusive and terrifying at the same time that you just have to hope for some reason he dies a horrible death but with the story it gives you a great reason to root for the kids at the very end, all because Mitchum is such a terrifying killing machine that there's no escape from him moreover your simply on the edge of your seat till the final show down.  Charles Laughton the director of the film deserves a ton of credit for the film being memorable, because he does a ton of great shots that leaves you memorized through the course of the movie from Mitchum being a creeper to him riding on a horse, I mean every shot looks almost like a haunting portrait that you can find at your local American Art museum and it's just incredible to see a first time director showing off his greatness despite this being his only movie. Speaking of being his only movie, the film I'm shocked to learn that this didn't do so well at the box office and Charles Laughton, who was depressed by the film's reception, didn't make another film again. Though I personally find it applauding the fact that this movie didn't do well at the box office, for which granted their times I question people’s logic when it comes to people thinking Mission Impossible 1,000 is great or Fast 20 is a great entertainment and doesn’t get me started on people still loving Adam Sandler. But people back in 1955 didn't think this movie was GREAT moreover didn't support this movie, though for granted now we look at this movie as one of the greatest movies ever made almost the time when Caddyshack didn't do so well and yet it's aged like fine wine. But I still don't see why people weren't compelled into seeing The Night of the Hunter, I just don't find any rational explanation of why this didn't do so, well almost like people preferring to watch the musical Oklahoma over this movie and I will put my foot down and say that The Night of the Hunter is a billion times better than Oklahoma, but then again this goes back to humanity not knowing what a good movie is so, no use in beating myself up over this I guess. I highly recommend watching this amazing great and scary thriller, for anyone to see, for a million reasons it has one of Robert Mitchum's greatest performance as well as the perfect boogie man. But more importantly this film inspired a lot of legendary filmmakers from Martin Scorsese, the Coen Brothers and Guillermo del Toro, that this film needs to be seen with open eyes, moreover, experience something that's a blend of both religion and people using religion to the extreme. Furthermore, the film is streaming on Amazon Prime and Tubi, both great streaming services I would certainly recommend to any fan of cinema.