Thoughts in the Night
I caught up with The Night of the Hunter over on the indispensable Turner Classic Movies. Directed by Charles Laughton and starring Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters, it has become a classic, some say a noir classic, although it’s only stylistically a noir; what it really is has been the subject of some debate.
A psychopathic “preacher” Harry Powell (Mitchum) comes to an idyllic Ohio River town in search of cash. He has a history of murdering women for their money, and believes that he’s called by God to do so. He’s got “LOVE” and “HATE” tattooed on his hands, and a switchblade in his pocket that’s a not-too-subtle symbol of his phallic dysfunction. He marries the wife of an executed bank robber in hopes of recovering the stolen loot; when he finds out her two children knows where it is, he slits her throat and begins to stalk the kids.
Mitchum as Harry Powell
Although the story is straightforward, the way it is told is most definitely not, and that’s the key to understanding Night: it is an adult tale told from a child’s point of view. Not POV in the technical, movie-type sense that we film snobs use to impress the gullible, but as in being filtered through a child’s sensibility. The opening clues us in: Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish), superimposed over a background of stars, tells a bedtime story from the Bible. It’s about being wary of false prophets, and she speaks it directly into the camera, including us in the circle of children that appears by her side.
She is warning us about what is to come, and it isn’t long before we find out: Harry Powell is coming to town, and he’s evil. Exaggeratedly, over the top evil; so evil that even a child can see it. We can see it, the children he encounters onscreen can see it, but inexplicably — from a child’s point of view, anyway — the adults can’t. All the adults are wrapped up in their adult things, their sewing bees, their gossip, and all the actors play them as stereotypes: Shelley Winters, as the children’s mom Willa, is an over-the-top religious; her employer Icey Spoon (Evelyn Varden) a man-hating busy-body. When Powell comes to town, the older child John (Billy Chapin) sees immediately what the score is; none of the adults do.
This child’s-eye, black-and-white view of the world is perfectly complimented by Stanley Cortez’ noirish photography and the sets that draw much from German Expressionism. The exaggerated angles, the impossible houses, all are seen as if by a child, scared of the dark, frightened by the bogey-man.
And oh, what a bogey-man Mitchum is. Oily, slick and with more than a little dark, mordant humor, oozing evil from every pore; I’m not a big Mitchum aficionado, but surely this is his finest performance. He wears preacher-black, carries that swithblade and sings a melodic, Christian tune: “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.” When the children first encounter him, his shadow is thrown, huge and black, against their nighttime window. An impossible angle, given the cutaway to Mitchum outside their house, but that is beside the point. Or perhaps it is precisely the point: this film is not about logic, it’s not about reality. It is about the archetypes of childhood, the stuff of childhood dreams.
When John and his sister Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce) escape on the river in a skiff, the tale takes on more overt, dreamlike qualities. Traveling by night, they pass by a succession of creatures: rabbits, tortoises, frogs. Via forced perspective, they are made to loom over the children and their boat, literally watching over them, keeping them safe. The houses on the banks are exaggerated cut-outs, characterizations of the children’s longing for normalcy. When they decide to chance it and spend a night on dry land, holing up in a barn, they see Powell in silhouette, on horseback. With the terrible logic of dreams, he is unstoppable, appearing out of nowhere, finding them wherever they run.
After their long nights of running, they wake up (literally) on a day-lit riverbank, and we are immediately horrified — it’s on land, after all, that Harry Powell lurks. But it’s not Harry who finds them: it’s Rachel, his antithesis, his opposite. She is everything that he isn’t: caring, kind and genuinely Christian. And as she takes John and Pearl under her wings, she takes us there too, again speaking words of wisdom directly to us on the other side of the screen.
Harry on their trail
When The Night of the Hunter opened in 1955, neither the critics or the public knew what to make of it. It was a resounding flop, and (so the story goes) Laughton was so demoralized that he never directed another. It’s too bad: he had a unique vision, honed by years of acting and theater production. One can see the effects of the latter in Hunter, especially in the river flight scenes, where theatrical unreality melds with expressionist design to evoke a unique dream-state.
If there is a weak spot in the film, it is in the performances of the children. It is reported that Laughton disliked them and found them impossible to deal with, and that Mitchum himself had to step in and direct them. Perhaps in part because of this, their performances seem stiff and unnatural.
It really doesn’t matter: Night of the Hunter is a thrilling and important film. It is daring and experimental at a time when such characteristics were hardly in demand in our film industry. It defies classification, crossing and transcending genre boundaries. Above all is the towering performance of Robert Mitchum, the perfect meeting of actor and character. He gleefully inhabits his character, holding nothing back, giving his all to the enterprise of playing what Laughton described as a “diabolical shit.” The result is a unique, one-of-a-kind picture, one that has been much quoted, much imitated, but ultimately, never equaled.
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First, let me say, I love this movie.
Now, saying that, I can tell you I hated the ending. Is that ridiculous?
Maybe it’s cause I’m of a younger generation. A group of violence hungry vandals, but didn’t Mitchem seem pretty weak at the end of this film?
I mean, the whole movie, he’s this brooding evil character, literally terrifying. Then, all it takes to thwart him is a 10000-year-old Lillian Gish with a shotgun? C’mon…..
If the climax of this film had the same frightening brilliance as the first 4/5th’s of this picture it would have undoubtedly become one of my favorite movies of all time.
I know I’m in the minority here, but I much prefer OUT OF THE PAST when dealing with Mitchum pictures.
Hi! Rick, Thank~you!…for your most “excellant” review of one on my favorite film(s) that is considered a Film noir, Drama, Thriller…and…like you said,
…”It defies classification, crossing and transcending genre boundaries. Above all is the towering performance of Robert Mitchum, the perfect meeting of actor and character. He gleefully inhabits his character, holding nothing back, giving his all to the enterprise…”
… (Even Mitchum Knew it!)
Because I really like the photograph of Mitchum wrestling with his hands…and what words are spelled out on his knuckles? (Rick, I have linked the photograph below, but I am not sure if you will be able to open the link?)
“Night of ther Hunter”
From a novel by David Grubb, and the screenplay by James Agee (with an uncredited Charles Laughton). The skillful B&W cinematography of Stanley Cortez and the musical score by Walter Shumann.
I must admit actor/director Charles Laughton “tiptoed” in ‘Welles” and “noir” territory with his use of German Expressionism, high contrast lighting, deep shadows and the use of distorted angles of reality when it came to the set design.
I really enjoy watching Laughton, “underated” little gem!…that is when it was first released, but as everyone know(s) today it is considered a “classic film” in the first order!
Thank~you! Rick,
dcd
Rick, I am not sure if the link will open?
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1413519360/tt0048424
dcd
Joe, I think it goes to the black-and-white, fairy-tale nature of the film. Gish’s character is pure good; Mitchum’s is pure evil.
Given that they are archetypes more than characters, there were only two possible ways the film could end: evil wins over good, good over evil. Given the tenor of the times, and perhaps the production code, it was not going to be the former.
dcd,
Thanks for the link to the photo of Mitchum’s hand-wrestling with himself. It did indeed open.
Laughton indeed tiptoed in Welles’ garden — or perhaps stomped around in it — but a lot of other directors at the time did so too. And Welles stepped in a lot of others who’d gone before, as well … particularly, as you point out, the expressionists.
Rick, you just explained what I meant when I said, “even Mitchum knew it…” but didn’t clarify in my post!
“Given that they are archetypes more than characters, there were only two possible ways the film could end: evil wins over good, good over evil. Given the tenor of the times, and perhaps the production code, it was not going to be the former.”… (Even Mitchum Knew it!)
Mitchum wrestling with his hands…and what words are spelled out on his knuckles? The words Love and Hate!
Tks,
Good and evil, love and hate. As you point out, there is no middle ground.
Of course, the roots of the style Welles helped appropriate lie in the silents of Murnau (”Nosferatu” and “Faust,” others like “), Lang (Metropolis, M), and Dreyer (”The Passion of Joan of Arc,” “Vampyr”).
I have no qualms about Mitchum loosing in the end. My problem with the film is how he is defeated.
He is stalking them from outside. A wolf in the waiting.
Then, all it takes is a flash of the shotgun and a little buck shot and he literally RUNS AWAY LIKE A FRIGHTENED LITTLE GIRL into a barn.
I mean, this guy is a hardened criminal. He’s tough. Why not have Gish and the children be more threatened. Hiding in the house.
This picture sets up what could have been a wonderfully horrifying set piece.
A dark home. Shadows all around and The Preacher stalking his prey.
I get what you’re saying, it’s a little too easy. Perhaps you’re right, although again in a fairy tale, told from the children’s perspective, it may be that his easy defeat is supposed to be as incomprehensible, or as magical, perhaps, as anything else in the film.
Good thoughts, Joe.
Okay Rick. That’s pretty good spin.
I’ll buy it because the rest of the movie is damn wonderful!
Ummmm … spin. I love spin …
From now on, I’ll just call this “The Spin Room”
I didn’t want to make a big stink at my former place of employment, but I admit I was shocked that the film was given short shrift. This is a masterpiece, rightly acknowledged by Pauline as one of the most frightening films of all-time, even though it’s really not a noir by any stretch; as you say it defies classification. Your review is exceptional Rick (without going into details) as are the comments by Joe Campanella, both of which rightly accentuate the visual look and feel of the, and of Mr. Mitchum’s extraordinary performance and Charles Laughton’s utterly brilliant direction.
Thanks, Sam … I’d never seen the film before it was on TCM the other day, and after I saw it, I realized that I disagreed strongly with the reviewer over there, and that perhaps he didn’t get it. So I posted this as kind of a rebuttal.
You know I’ve written this movie up a couple of times, once when I was doing my old Oscar posts (I picked it as the best of the year) and once when I wrote a piece on Evelyn Varden, simply amazing as Icey Spoon. She provides one of my favorite moments in the movie when speaking of her conjugal relations with her husband to the picnic crowd and describing how “I just lay there and think about my canning.”
Hi! Rick,
While searching the web…I came across a blog devoted to the “one” and “only” Mr. Charles Laughton!…How very apropos, considering this was your first time viewing the film “Night of the Hunter” over there on TCM and writing a very detailed review about the film “Night of the Hunter yesterday.”
Here goes the link…
http://rootingforlaghton.blogspot.com/
(I wonder how often they (the creator(s) of the blog) “update” the information about him?)
Extra…Extra…Classicflix, announced the soon to be release of a two-disk Collector’s edition of “The Night of the Hunter” in September 2008. but it has been….
“Night of the Hunter Collector’s edition DVD? Hmmm…
Well, this might be interesting news: recently, Classicflix announced the release by MGM, of a two-disk Collector’s edition of “The Night of the Hunter” in September 2008. Apparently, this edition has been temporarily postponed.
I do hope, as Clark does in his blog, that this delay means that MGM is taking the necessary time to deliver us the DVD this truly great film deserves… the DVD we are all dreaming about!. You name it: comments by experts, the film taken from the very best possible copy, with the fascinating out-takes of the shooting, with Walt’s Schummann’s soundtrack (Soundtrack solo version plus Laughton reading alonside version would be cool!), etc… Many of us have already seen the film on screen, TV, VHS tape or MGM’s own previous release, yes, we have this already: Now… now we want something better!”
RFL
Oops!…I am so sorry! Rick,…here is the correct blog website…
http://rootingforlaughton.blogspot.com/
The Dame,
Jonathan, that is a great line, all right. I like her befuddled husband getting into the peach schnapps or whatever it is … if I were married to Icey Spoon (what an apropos name!) I’d be a-drinkin’ something a bit more strong.
DCD,
That’s a great link. thank you.
And thanks for the tip about the new collectors edition of the film I might just have to add it to my collection …
Rick,
I must admit that I haven’t viewed the film “The Night of the Hunter” for a while, but after the discussion here on your blog, I guess I will have to wait until TCM reair “The Night of the Hunter” again!…(I would really “hate” to purchase the MGM copy that is already out there on the market, even though I would “love” to watch this film again!) that is if the powers- that- be are planning to release a two-disk Collector’s edition of “The Night of the Hunter.”
A unknown fact (by me!) and my opinion….
“Pommer first approached Fritz Lang to direct this film, but he was committed to work on Die Spinnen (The Spiders),so Pommer gave directorial duties to Robert Wiene.”
I wasn’t aware of the fact, that Director Fritz Lang, was asked to direct the film “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.”
Rick said, “Of course, the roots of the style Welles helped appropriate lie in the silents of Murnau (”Nosferatu” and “Faust,” others like “), Lang (Metropolis, M), and Dreyer (”The Passion of Joan of Arc,” “Vampyr”).
Right you are!…Rick,
“Critics worldwide have praised the film (another silent film as I am sure that you already know!) (”Dr.Caligari”) for its Expressionist style, complete with wild, distorted set design. Caligari has been cited as an influence on film noir, one of the earliest horror films, and “a model for directors for many decades.” Oh! yeah!…including Welles’ (Rick, the latter 4 words are my words and not Wiki’s)
(Wiki info(rmation)
And the description (above) of Dr. Caligari, set reminds me of the 1st and 4th B&W photographs that you posted from Laughton’s “The Night of the Hunter.” ) To me the 1st photograph is “breathtaking”… Just look at how Laughton used contrast, between (black and white) or dark and light in that shot!…I must admit that I just “discovered” German Expressionist films earlier this year.(and have been doing some research on GE films, because of the their “influence” on films that are considered noir.)
tks,
I’m just now myself beginning to understand style and etc., German Expressionism is one of the more easy styles to get, probably because it’s one of the more overt.
Great look at a terrific film, Rick. I guess I’m not exactly a Mitchum aficionado either, he’s not the first name that comes to mind when I think of my favorite actors anyway, but I can’t think of a role where I didn’t like him.
He excelled at the dark edged characters.
Thanks, Craig.
Just now saw Mitchum in “Out of the Past” … I liked it a lot, but he was much more the old standard, sleepy Mitchum than in this one. There seems to be something about “Hunter” that brought out something different in him.
Hi! Rick,
I see that you linked [Director/actor Charles Laughton's website.]
According to the creator of the blog…name Gloria, she
“Dwells in an arriki-town beside Barcelona. Obviously interested in Charles Laughton! Yet it is true that there are more things in life: tiger-nut milk, Hideko Takamine(?) or downhill races on ball-bearing wheel carts, just to name three items…” (I wonder if she (Gloria) is being sarcastic about the other activities in her life?)
For some “unknown” reason, I have a feeling that she isn’t being “sarcastic” about the other activities in her life!)
…and I see that she still have time to keep Director/actor Charles Laughton, website up to date!…
Cool!
Yes, there is that … she has the time to keep a website up that not a lot of folks would. As great an actor/director as Laughton is, it seems a little weird.
Hi there, this is Gloria from “Rooting for Laughton”. Thanks for the visit and the appreciations.
About the “updates” well, it’s a way to mean that something has been added-corrected in the post. And even though Charles is no longer among the living, new items of news keep coming, and sometimes one reads a book which gives a new insight on some film, etc…
As for other things, well… Yes, there’s a bit of self-deprecating sarcasm in one’s self-presentation
(even though all the other things mentioned are true, LOL) But well, when one lives in an Arriki-Town, humour is a good tool for survival, he.
(Hideko Takamine is one of the greatest film actresses of Japan: check her in Mikio Naruse’s “Floating Clouds” or “When A Woman Ascends The Stairs” if you have the chance)
Hi, Gloria, good to see you over here at the Creek. Anybody who loves movies much as you is always welcome.
A little sarcasm is good for the soul, I always say …
[...] in films noir — thanks, Evan! — that caused me to see the both of them, even though Night of the Hunter is anything but a [...]