The Quarantine Stream: Robert Mitchum Terrifies In ‘The Night Of The Hunter’
By Ben Pearson/May 30, 2020 11:00 am EST
I love this movie for many reasons, chief among them Mitchum’s towering, intimidating performance as the psychopath at the center of the story, but also for Stanley Cortez’s impeccable cinematography. This movie lives in shadows, and darkness seems to creep into the frame from every corner, mirroring the dangers of the outside world which the widow’s children are slowly learning exist. The two kids are the real main characters here, loyal to their father’s memory and wary of the seemingly perfect preacher who sweeps their mother off her feet. There are moments when Mitchum’s character gets frustrated and lets his goody-two-shoes facade drop in front of the children, and you get the sense that he will murder them without hesitation if it would result in him getting his hands on the hidden ten grand he’s after.
The whole film is moody, atmospheric, and feels like the vision of a top-tier master filmmaker. And hey, just because this is the only movie that actor Charles Laughton, famous for his roles in Witness for the Prosecution and Mutiny on the Bounty, ever directed, that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t a master. The movie wasn’t a hit upon release, which apparently caused Laughton to never try again. But there are moments in this movie that could go toe to toe with the greatest and most memorable moments ever committed to cinema: everything from the film’s distinctive look (occasionally abstract and heightened, but never too heightened) to the stellar lead performances and the ever-present feeling of cold dread make it a stone-cold classic.
