“The Night of the Hunter” is a thriller movie about a serial killer (posing as a minister) chasing a widow and her children to steal ten thousand dollars that her husband hid before he died. Charles Laughton did an amazing job as director, the only time he was at the helm of a motion picture in his long show business career. He was aided by an excellent screenplay by James Agee, adapted from David Grubb’s 1953 novel.
The talented cast includes Robert Mitchum as the supposed Rev. Powell, Shelly Winters as Willa Harper, Billy Chapin and Sally Jane Bruce as her children, as well as Lillian Gish, James Gleason, Evelyn Varden, Don Beddoe, Gloria Castillo, and Peter Graves, later to become famous as Jim Phelps in CBS’s “Mission: Impossible” (1967-1973, 1988-1990). The watchable “The Night of the Hunter” was not successful at the box office for Paul Gregory Productions and United Artists.
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
cinema
My Review
“The Night of the Hunter” is a thriller movie about a serial killer (posing as a minister) chasing a widow and her children to steal ten thousand dollars that her husband hid before he died. Charles Laughton did an amazing job as director, the only time he was at the helm of a motion picture in his long show business career. He was aided by an excellent screenplay by James Agee, adapted from David Grubb’s 1953 novel.
The talented cast includes Robert Mitchum as the supposed Rev. Powell, Shelly Winters as Willa Harper, Billy Chapin and Sally Jane Bruce as her children, as well as Lillian Gish, James Gleason, Evelyn Varden, Don Beddoe, Gloria Castillo, and Peter Graves, later to become famous as Jim Phelps in CBS’s “Mission: Impossible” (1967-1973, 1988-1990). The watchable “The Night of the Hunter” was not successful at the box office for Paul Gregory Productions and United Artists.