night of the hunter.

The Night of the Hunter is the 1950’s noir classic that had become one of the most frightening films in history.  This story tells the tale of a father, who in an attempt to better the future of his children was imprisoned and killed. With his last words to his children he made them swear to never speak of the location money he had stolen and hidden from the world. While in prison he met a man, preacher Harry Powel, a psychotic religious fanatic who believes God has sent him on earth to take money from grieving widows. When he hears of the money hidden he decides he will do whatever it takes, even if that means kill, to get what he wants.

A recurring theme throughout the film is the struggle between good and evil, or how it was more plainly put in the movie, love and hate. On preach Powel’s knuckles he has “HATE” tattooed on his left hand and “LOVE” tattooed on his right and he tells the story of the battle of love and hate and how love always wins. 

A particular scene that shows that contrast is when the preacher is waiting outside of Mrs. Cooper’s house for her to go to sleep so he can sneak in and take the money but she is waiting in a rocking chair with a shotgun. The preacher begins to sing the recurring religious song that he often sings while he is waiting for something. Instead of ignoring it, Mrs. Cooper joins the singing. Her higher, softer voice contradicts his deep, rough tone. Thus creating a tension and a contrast between “good” and “bad” without dialogue. Also a huge difference between the two is their idea of children. The preacher has nothing but awful things to say about children, that they are essentially horrible creatures that need to be controlled. Mrs. Cooper on the other hand believes that children are God’s gift the mankind, to make the world a better place. This in itself shows the clear contrast between the two characters and what they stand for.

This film has all the classic components in making a fantastic scary movie, with the unnerving suspense, the plot twists, and the ominous music that plays whenever the villain enters the screen. Something however that sets this film aside from other scary movies is the black and white aspect; because of this the director was able to create shadows and contrasts that added to the eeriness of the story. One scene in particularly showed was an excellent example of this feature. 

It displayed John and Pearl hiding in a barn on the run from preacher Powell and in the distance you could make out a man on a horse wearing the same hat as preacher Powell, which makes us assume it is him. Then in a muffled sound we can hear him singing the unusual religious song that he had repeated continuously throughout the film.

This film captured my attention and kept me wanting to see what was going to happen. I became emotionally attached to the children and to Mrs. Cooper and was sufficiently disgusted by preacher Powel. I highly recommend this movie for whoever is looking for a classic with a thriller twist. 



Word Cited:

The Night of the Hunter. Dir. Charles Laughton. Prod. Paul Gregory. By James Agee. Perf. Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason, Evelyn Varden, and Peter Graves. United Artists, 1955.

Photos:Love and Hate. Digital image. Hope Lies. N.p., 23 Jan. 2014. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.