The Night Of The Hunter (1955)

5 / 5 Jan '09
Tagline: The wedding night, the anticipation, the kiss, the knife, BUT ABOVE ALL...THE SUSPENSE!
Directed by: Charles Laughton
Written by: Davis Grubb, James Agee
Actors include: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish
Genre: Thriller, Drama, Film-Noir
Length: 93 minutes
Banned: Finland
Country: USA

Review:
Wow...well I'm not huge into Film-Noir, in fact this is probably the first of it's kind that I absolutely loved. Sometimes when I watch these classic films I'm disappointed, but this was everything I hoped for and then some. We meet the evil Robert Mitchum who poses as a Preacher, the first time we meet him we learn of his love of killing. He has the iconic "Love" and "Hate" tattooed on his knuckles of course. He ends up in jail for a short period of time where he meets a family man with a wife and two young children, a boy and a girl. This man was jailed for stealing $10,000 which he hid, and only his children know where. He's hung for his crime, and Mitchum takes the information he has to move in on the widow so he can try and find the money. Of course the kids do their best to keep their secret hid but he knows they are up to something. I don't want to give more away but it's beautifully shot, the shadows are genuinely creepy as it Mitchum as he stalks children singing hymns, it's really unnerving. There are so many intense scenes, and yet it's kind of an adventure film in places! This has a little bit of everything in it, but most of all it is one of the darkest and most evil of thrillers that I could ever imagine, and the acting is phenomenal. I can't recommend this one more highly, the only slight let down is the ending, it could have been more evil!