The Night of the Hunter
The Night of the Hunter
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1h 32m
Directed by Charles Laughton • 1955 • United States
Starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER—incredibly, the only film the great actor Charles Laughton ever directed—is truly a stand-alone masterwork. A horror movie with qualities of a Grimm fairy tale, it stars a sublimely sinister Robert Mitchum as a traveling preacher named Harry Powell (he of the tattooed knuckles), whose nefarious motives for marrying a fragile widow, played by Shelley Winters, are uncovered by her terrified young children. Graced by images of eerie beauty and a sneaky sense of humor, this ethereal, expressionistic American classic—also featuring the contributions of actress Lillian Gish and writer James Agee—is cinema’s most eccentric rendering of the battle between good and evil.
Restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc., with funding provided by Robert Sturm and The Film Foundation.
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THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER Commentary
Recorded in 2008, this commentary features THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER second-unit director Terry Sanders, film archivist Robert Gitt, film critic F. X. Feeney, and Preston Neal Jones, author of “Heaven and Hell to Play With: The Filming of THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER.”
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The Making of THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
This 2010 documentary traces the history of THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, from director Charles Laughton’s discovery of the Davis Grubb novel to the film’s poor reception in 1955 and later celebration. It features producer Paul Gregory, second-unit director Terry Sanders, and authors Preston Neal Jone...
