The Night of the Hunter (film)

The Night of the Hunter
The Night of the Hunter
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Charles Laughton
Screenplay by	James Agee
Based on	The Night of the Hunter; 1953 novel; by Davis Grubb
Produced by	Paul Gregory
Starring	Robert Mitchum; Shelley Winters; Lillian Gish; James Gleason; Evelyn Varden; Peter Graves; Don Beddoe; Gloria Castillo; Billy Chapin; Sally Jane Bruce
Cinematography	Stanley Cortez
Edited by	Robert Golden
Music by	Walter Schumann
Production; company	Paul Gregory Productions
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	July 26, 1955;
Running time	92 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$600,000

The Night of the Hunter is a 1955 American film noir thriller directed by Charles Laughton and starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish. The screenplay by James Agee was based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Davis Grubb. The plot involves a serial killer (Mitchum) who poses as a preacher and pursues two children in an attempt to get his hands on $10,000 of stolen cash hidden by their late father.

The novel and film draw on the true story of Harry Powers, who was hanged in 1932 for the murder of two widows and three children in Clarksburg, West Virginia. The film's lyrical and expressionistic style, borrowing techniques from silent film, sets it apart from other Hollywood films of the 1940s and 1950s, and it has influenced such later directors as Rainer Werner Fassbinder,^[1] Robert Altman,^[2] Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese,^[3] the Coen brothers and Guillermo del Toro.

Despite receiving negative reviews upon its original release, it has been positively re-evaluated in later decades and is now considered one of the greatest films ever made. It was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1992.^[4]^[5] The influential French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma selected The Night of the Hunter in 2008 as the second-best film of all time, behind Citizen Kane.^[6] The negative reaction to its premiere made it Charles Laughton's only feature film as director.

^ Töteberg, Michael; Lensing (1992). The Anarchy of the Imagination: Interviews, Essays, Notes, Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 106. ISBN 0801843693.
^ Goodman, Joan (23 November 1996). "Directing dangerously". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on February 26, 2016. Retrieved September 8, 2018.
^ Ventura, Elbert (2010-11-09). "Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter, revisited". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2021-12-27.
^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
^ Marx, Andy; Wharton, Dennis (December 4, 1992). "Diverse pix mix picked". Variety. Retrieved July 28, 2020.
^ "100 plus beaux films du monde". Cahiers du Cinéma (in French). Archived from the original on May 1, 2008.

[1] Töteberg, Michael; Lensing (1992). The Anarchy of the Imagination: Interviews, Essays, Notes, Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 106. ISBN 0801843693.

[2] Goodman, Joan (23 November 1996). "Directing dangerously". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on February 26, 2016. Retrieved September 8, 2018.

[3] Ventura, Elbert (2010-11-09). "Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter, revisited". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2021-12-27.

[4] "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 6, 2020.

[5] Marx, Andy; Wharton, Dennis (December 4, 1992). "Diverse pix mix picked". Variety. Retrieved July 28, 2020.

[cahiers-du-cinéma-6] "100 plus beaux films du monde". Cahiers du Cinéma (in French). Archived from the original on May 1, 2008.

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