"night of the hunter"

I think the film has inspired even better films: Badlands for example. And that haunting "Two little children..." song was used in a recent French movie, The Devils.

Why didn't Laughton direct again?

Having finally picked NOTH up and seen it -- The Haunting (original Robert Wise version) is far more the flat out scarier, but NOTH is definitely unsettling, and as noted its cinematography is grand.

Sure is, and it's a great transfer, so I think. Damn skimpy on anything extra, though, which is a shame -- the original trailer, some brief notes in the booklet, that's about it.

"this time it'll be a privilege!" [tips hat joyfully)

the owl and the rabbit

this is oz the movie!!

Thrillers that end on a note of unexpected and unabashed optimism (NotH, Femme Fatale) = even more shocking?

Prima fissy - i dont think it's funny at all - i can't understand that.

Would make a great thread.

those kids are awful.

He wouldn't have done what Laughton did with the material. What would Welles have done with any material. This is a straw man argument.

the woman in the water, of course, the woman in the water.

when mitchum is abt to kill the woman, the shot switches from a close-up view to a shot of the full room, which because at night is bordered in black. i suppose i can't really articulate why this shot is so remarkable.

and one i hated:

the reprise of the 'don't! DON'T!' when mitchum is arrested: this was painful enough the first time round, the boy's first don't too reticent and insincere, his second much too stilted and annoying: and it's acted the same way both times. blech.

i really love the singing all throughout this film too: is that really r. mitchum's voice?

haha oz the movie! i don't see it but i want to!

are welles and laughton similar? when were they around? what's 'touch of evil' like? at all similar?

Maybe partly because the scene is so obviously shot on a sound stage and he not only doesnt attempt to hide the unreality of the thing but actually accentuates it. I suppose thats pretty radical for its time.

anyway memory sux, i got it on tape so maybe tomorrow

Two points - set design and river sequence alone make this a keeper.

and which do i watch most

As for the river sequence, the pure Moses/Homer/Aesop/Brothers Grimm gels there perfectly. It's like a cohesion and perversion of every twisted bit of children's literature. Which also goes to show how perverse the genre is enough that (in my view) censorship is a moot point when we let children read things like that which are just as grotesque. (Which to me is fine - it's the censorship that I'm patronizing.)

(another good thread idea.)

Passion of Joan of Arc got some soft support, Sunrise (my personal guess) nearly came out on top, but in the end we had settled on Night of the Hunter. Now I have to open the question back up among my chums.

There, now destroy that one you ciniphile-nihilist fuckers!

I want to mention another scene from the movie that always sticks in my mind- the boy watching his father (played by Mission Impossible's Peter Graves) get arrested. I couldn't tell you offhand why it works so well, I guess I'll have to go back and watch it again.

http://www.amazon.com/Night-Hunter-Walter-Schumann/dp/B000009NX6

just listened to this & it's pretty great. it's not strictly a soundtrack it's laughton narrating the story of the film over an orchestral background from Walter Schumann with some recordings from the film integrated into the tale.

Once upon a time there was a pretty fly....
he had a pretty wife, this pretty fly...
but one day she flew away, flew awaaaayyyy...

Just saw it, fucking brilliant of course. There's a sprightliness, a mischief in the direction that imbues the film with its timeless, childlike spirit. It's shot completely unlike any other film I've seen. Things come and go with abruptness, without need for rumination. We are subjected to a child's experience.

Three best shots:

1) When we cut to the mother's fiery confession. Like some sort of terrifying Satanic ritual it springs off the screen and envelops us.

2) When the boat comes to rest ashore, little children asleep inside, the camera pans upwards, not to reveal the hunter, but instead to reveal the lovely, hyper-real starlight tableau created with such resonance by the film-makers.

3) John placing the apple on Mrs. Cooper's lap. It's an abiding image of fertility and protection, and done with superb subtlety.

I suspect it to be in black and white, and therefore shit.

(strokes goatee beard)

dude i have seen nothing from you but shitty trolling

You're not reading between the lines.

http://incolor.inebraska.com/sumaree/nebraskafilm/images/foo9.jpg

http://artwells.com/gallery/spacelook.gif

Anyone else notice how the mom's confession in front of a congregation is staged very similarly to the Plainview's confession in There Will Be Blood? I remember noticing that when I saw it, and thinking it was intentional.

Just got to see it remastered at the theater. Pretty great. More technical flaws than I remembered, but killer (no pun intended) performances from many.

More technical flaws than I remembered

if there was ever a film where technical flaws were part of the charm...

Anyone else notice how the mom's confession in front of a congregation is staged very similarly to the Plainview's confession in There Will Be Blood? I remember noticing that when I saw it, and thinking it was intentional.

― Cunga, Monday, July 19, 2010 8:43 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

not possible - night of the hunter came out first iirc

you're thinking of the night of the hunter rmake starring ryan phillipe and tara reid, surely?

and stifler from american pie

oh wait there was a tv remake starring richard chamberlain in the 90s or 80s

sequel starring mark wahlberg

Coming soon as a Criterion, which makes it a banner upcoming year for the company, what with this, "Broadcast News," "Thin Red Line" and "Sweet Smell of Success." Hope nothing falls through.

No mention yet of the extreme long-shot of the preacher in silhouette on horseback. Second to the underwater scene in dropping my jaw when I first saw it.

Coming soon as a Criterion, which makes it a banner upcoming year for the company, what with this, "Broadcast News," "Thin Red Line" and "Sweet Smell of Success." Hope nothing falls through.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, July 20, 2010 10:11 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

ya plus days of heaven BD... leopard BD... was playtime BD this year too? they on a roll.

Don't forget Bigger Than Life!

^^^^^^fucking superb movie

<3 James Mason

not possible - night of the hunter came out first iirc

Sorry, I meant that PTA was recalling the original "Night of the Hunter."

my favorite movie

good choice tbh

i put that "pretty fly" song on all my mixtapes back when i was small

otoh, the philadelphia story

i put that "pretty fly" song on all my mixtapes back when i was small

For a second I thought you were talking about "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" and was confused.

me too^

it's called "pearl's dream", i think.

pretty fly for an insect

the ost is actually laughton narrating the story with musical accompaniment & interludes and is pretty great.

there's a link to a d/l on this blog

http://my.opera.com/VegaTheTerrible/blog/2008/01/13/night-of-the-hunter-ost

For a second I thought you were talking about "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" and was confused.

― Cunga, Tuesday, 20 July 2010 23:20 (8 minutes ago)

i read that

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000282PO.jpg

I watched the Criterion last night, and there's no doubt it's a superbly crafted religious-fable-meets-Big Bad Wolf film, but something about it still bugs me. Mostly Lillian Gish.

I'd forgotten that Shelley is only onscreen for maybe ten minutes; I wonder if her agent approved.

I also prefer about ten Mitchum performances to this one, even though he's indelible.

Like that all the animals-in-the-foreground shots pay off with the owl attacking the bunny.

Haven't watched the extras yet, but I presume the helicopter shots were Stanley Cortez's idea?

nice going assholes!
― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, January 1, 2004 7:33 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Still think people who don't like this movie are assholes, for the record.

and one (scene) i hated:

the reprise of the 'don't! DON'T!' when mitchum is arrested: this was painful enough the first time round, the boy's first don't too reticent and insincere, his second much too stilted and annoying: and it's acted the same way both times. blech.

I think, despite the woodenish style the boy had like nearly all child actors of that era, the reprise scene was really the emotional climax and worked beautifully.

Winters is on screen about as long as I can usually stand her.

I haven't seen the film in years and never check it out of the library because it's always there. When I first saw it about twenty years ago, I hadn't seen Gish's other films, so I allowed myself to get spooked and transfixed by her unusual screen presence. Whatever she does, I couldn't take my eyes off her.

she's like a daguerrotype you find in your grandma's dresser or something.

I like that we don't find out why she "lost the love of her son." (Do we?) She's a bit too neatly drawn as the opposite of the harridan who worships Mitchum and does the monologue about how womwn shouldn't marru for sex. Bad Biddy, Angel Biddy.

also "spawn of the devil's own strumpet" is one of my fave things to call kids.

Well, yeah, but from the framing to the script the film is supposed to have the contours of an allegory or a children's bedtime story. I accept it on those terms.

It's important to note that Agee's prose often depicted The Common People in this way.

We don't learn really, no, but it's pretty clear he couldn't stand her being his mother.

yes (no elaboration necessary)

Kind of unusual role for James Gleason as the fisherman lush; he was usually playing boxing managers and the like by the '40s/50s.

I can still hear Mitchum saying "Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillllldreeeeeeeennnn...."

Supposedly he loved working for Laughton on this.

Winters is on screen about as long as I can usually stand her.

One of my favourite movies ever - I watched it for the first time when I was 11 or so and it definitely shaped my taste. My father (big Robert Mitchum fan) approved.
Lillian Gish was at the same time motherly and scary, the elder woman at the groceries' store terrified me.

Lillian Gish was at the same time motherly and scary

Which is sooooo key (one of many, to be exact) to the film's richness.

the reprise of the 'don't! DON'T!' when mitchum is arrested: this was painful enough the first time round, the boy's first don't too reticent and insincere, his second much too stilted and annoying: and it's acted the same way both times. blech.

Acting. Pshaw. Acting is so 2010. Concern for "good acting" has blinded many a viewer to genius cinema. And the condemnations are never insightful, pivoting on some bogus, received notion of verisimilitude. Yawn.

And yeah, if you told me this was the greatest film of all time, I wouldn't argue with you for a second.

For me, this is Stanley Cortez's (Ambersons) film--images and passages that are stunning. The riverboat section seems to come out of nowhere; it's like the film stops for a few minutes so they can make film history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFzTBPy7nl8&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

i love this film so much i can barely bring myself to defend it. i dunno, i'm sure there are things to criticize about it, but none of the criticisms on this thread really ring true for me -- or if they do, i don't see them as flaws. like, the kids undeniably act 'poorly' and woodenly, but somehow that works for me as part of the texture of the film. i sure don't think that more 'realistic' kids would have made the film better.

yeah this is not a Rossellini film.

... and couldn't they have made more realistic sets?!

My kid could have made a better spiderweb.

I wouldn't call the little girl wooden at all--she's other-wordly.

yeah, I'm looking fwd to the doc supplements to see if Cholly had her hypnotized.

Seem to remember that somebody other than he directed the kids, but I'll have to look it up tonight.

I thought I read that Mitchum directed them...? Laughton couldn't stand them.

Pretty sure that's been disproven... from the iMdB:

"Robert Mitchum's autobiography contains many spurious accounts of the making of the film; one, for example, concerns director Charles Laughton, and how he supposedly found the script by James Agee totally unacceptable, rewriting it himself. This has been disproved by the discovery of Agee's 293-page first draft, back in 2004, which is, scene-for-scene, the film that Laughton directed.... Laughton is said to have had no great love for children, and so despised directing them in this film that Robert Mitchum found himself directing the children in several scenes. In reality, Laughton obsessed over ever facet of his first feature, including getting the performances of every actor (even the children) right; this would lead to him dismissing one actor, in particular, after all of his scenes had already been shot and starting again with another in the part."

also, look up Eric's review of the Criterion re the 2nd disc, which shows Laughton at work via outtakes etc.

And yeah, if you told me this was the greatest film of all time, I wouldn't argue with you for a second.

OTM

i love this film so much i can barely bring myself to defend it.

OTM

that is Mitchum singing... burt a midget on the long shot of the horse on the horizon.

Burt, a midget, stand-in for Robert Mitchum

Agee's 293-page first draft, back in 2004, which is, scene-for-scene, the film that Laughton directed

That seems awfully long!

xpost Burt's right up there with Alan Smithee and the Wilhelm scream in movie lore.

There goes Burt again... don't he never sleep?

http://www.sheilaomalley.com/archives/NightHunter04.jpg

He actually used to post on ILX as burt_stanton, true story.

it did seem like it was plague time for little ones

Acting. Pshaw. Acting is so 2010. Concern for "good acting" has blinded many a viewer to genius cinema. And the condemnations are never insightful, pivoting on some bogus, received notion of verisimilitude. Yawn.

rah!

A couple of years after watching Night of the Hunter, I read this Brothers Grimm's tale, and got the same powerful punch in the stomach:

There was once a little girl who was obstinate and inquisitive, and when her parents told her to do anything, she did not obey them, so how could she fare well? One day she said to her parents, "I have heard so much of Frau Trude, I will go to her some day. People say that everything about her does look so strange, and that there are such odd things in her house, that I have become quite curious!" Her parents absolutely forbade her, and said, "Frau Trude is a bad woman, who does wicked things, and if thou goest to her; thou art no longer our child." But the maiden did not let herself be turned aside by her parent's prohibition, and still went to Frau Trude. And when she got to her, Frau Trude said, "Why art thou so pale?" "Ah," she replied, and her whole body trembled, "I have been so terrified at what I have seen." "What hast thou seen?" "I saw a black man on your steps." "That was a collier." "Then I saw a green man." "That was a huntsman." "After that I saw a blood-red man." "That was a butcher." "Ah, Frau Trude, I was terrified; I looked through the window and saw not you, but, as I verily believe, the devil himself with a head of fire." "Oho!" said she, "then thou hast seen the witch in her proper costume. I have been waiting for thee, and wanting thee a long time already; thou shalt give me some light." Then she changed the girl into a block of wood, and threw it into the fire. And when it was in full blaze she sat down close to it, and warmed herself by it, and said, "That shines bright for once in a way."

Laughton to Winters in the murder-scene outtakes: “Doesn’t matter about the lines; just smile, Shelley, and be seraphic.”

http://littleblogtoo.blogspot.com/2008/08/hunting-down-laughtons-haunting-night.html

on TCM tomorrow night (6/15) at 8pm

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyffearYSg1qcay1ao1_500.gif

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyf612nLEX1qcay1ao1_500.gif

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lydwdwHkzX1qcay1ao1_500.gif

so, Gish fires one shot at Mitchum and he goes squawking into the barn like a cartoon rooster? mysteriously unsatisfying climax, and someone on the Criterion commentary says as much.

That whole sequence is perfectly filmed.

just disappointingly conceived?

Not really disappointing by my estimation.

I regard this as one of the two or three closest things to a perfect movie.

Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillllldreeennnn.....

I MUST see this movie again! Soon.....

I've never really done too much hard thinking about it, but the ending certainly seems deliberate in its effect--Gish's character is certainly as archetypal as Mitchum's in that respect...

Just found the book Night of the Hunter on a bargain table and read it; it's actually very good and it turns out the movie is a REALLY faithful adaptation.

This is true and was trying to remember it when somebody said something similar on the thread about The Maltese Falcon.

I watched this three days ago. I can't stop thinking about it...

"Once upon a time there was a pret-ty fly... She flew away, away, awayyy..."

Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiildreeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnn

Watched it recently too. The sail-boat + pearl signing scene so beautiful

leeeeeeaaaaning

The religious sensibilities of Harry Powell vs. Rachel Cooper one of the more interesting parts of the movie to me. Both operate with a similar form of zeal. It is a very strange story where religious fanaticism is criticised throughout the film, even when Rachel is originally introduced, and then we get a complete turn around where Rachel’s fanaticism channeled into a strict moral sense of the world is the saving grace of the Children. The John and Moses scene shows the malleability of Rachel’s zeal to the protection of those around her. Powell’s zeal manifests solely in his self-interest. Does the zeal enable/catalyse their temperaments? I get some would say Harry Powell’s “religion” is a scam, and from an outsiders perspective this is obvious, but I don’t think it’s a scam for him. It’s a weapon that he believes in. He simply never breaks the act, and the first scene of him driving sets us up to know this is who he is to himself. The movie reveals zeal to be a blank canvas only in the last act. I think it is really smart to do so

xp and the leaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaning duet is the crescendo of all that!^^ Harry disappears when the light of Ruby comes into the scene. Rachel has an exterior object in her zeal, she sings “leaning on Jesus” while Harry merely sings “leaning”, no definitive object to ground his zeal. It’s as if Ruby is correcting his zeal when she comes in with her part: “you missed the most important lyric!”

Anyways, I loved this movie

I teach it every semester and it freaks out my students; it fits no preconceived notions of narrative.

Why are they all yelling “Bluebeard” at him during the courtroom scene?

Must have had a Bluebeard in the original colour

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluebeard?

Bluebeard" (French: Barbe bleue, [baʁb(ə) blø]) is a French folktale, the most famous surviving version of which was written by Charles Perrault and first published by Barbin in Paris in 1697 in Histoires ou contes du temps passé. The tale tells the story of a wealthy man in the habit of murdering his wives and the attempts of the present one to avoid the fate of her predecessors.

It's the best depiction of the early 20th century rural America I've read about: kind and neighborly and ready to lynch you at a moment's notice.

The soundtrack with Laughton narrating is a total trip

https://open.spotify.com/track/7m5eep5h1CTw387aawZR91?si=E8S64x4nQDa_xJHGmClIgA

It's beem days now and I am obsessed with this film

I thought I’d clicked on the Minions thread and was surprised and confused for a while

Owned the Criterion Bluray for a while but just now saw it for the first time theatrically thanks to a one-off Alamo screening (possibly because the film does end with Christmas, who knows). Anyway, what a treat to see that way.

This is one of my favorite movies. Any other old flicks that are sorta like this?

I know I said on another thread that I haven't seen any old movies. But I've seen the best ones, and this is probably the best one.

This is one of my favorite movies. Any other old flicks that are sorta like this?

Maybe a bit of a stretch but I would like to recommend Curse of the Cat People. #onethread

Carnival of Souls, maybe?

It's been a while since I saw it but Shadow Of A Doubt might fit

Ah, I should watch this again. I've seen it just once and it blew my mind.

I might try and lobby a rewatch to my partner tomorrow. God, will she like it? I hope so...

I know I said on another thread that I haven't seen any old movies. But I've seen the best ones, and this is probably the best one.

― Jonk Raven (dog latin)

No, there aren't really. Laughton came up with something unique in tone and texture.

It's sort of a one-off, road not taken. Laughton never got to direct another film.

I really slept on this one since I generally don't watch movies this old unless they're from Europe. But wow, so amazing, when the kids take off in the boat and the girl starts singing, I remember it at least has someone else actually doing the singing maybe? probably? so it has this otherworldy quality to it. Gonna make a wild guess that David Lynch was a fan of that part too.

A fave moment is when she fires the gun into the dark and he lets out a yelp like a Looney Tunes character.

Our local indie theater is showing an old 16mm print of this next week, I’m gonna go. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it on a screen bigger than a TV.

That Looney Tunes moment discomfited my students when I showed it this fall; they weren't sure if they were supposed to laugh. I said, "Laugh!"

I notice that people are either too ready to laugh old movies, or are afraid to.

An "old school" movie for students is anything before 2010.

I watched this once with a group of people, one of who was treating it as a straight comedy and laughing hysterically all the way through. It was really annoying.

This is one of my favorite movies. Any other old flicks that are sorta like this?

I've been trying to think of anything and no, not really. Plenty of noir films saturated with an impending sense of doom though. I'd guess Fritz Lang's M was an influence on Laughton, more so than something like The Grapes of Wrath.

Visually, I was thinking of some Murnau, like Sunrise. But the tone of this movie is so strange.

The best I can do here is second James Redd's endorsement of Curse of the Cat People.

There’s a scene in this where Mitchum lets out one of the most visceral screams ever recorded