Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7777 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-01-25
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Format: Black & White
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 93 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
In the entire history of American movies, The Night of the Hunter stands out as the rarest and most exotic of specimens. It is, to say the least, a masterpiece--and not just because it was the only movie directed by flamboyant actor Charles Laughton or the only produced solo screenplay by the legendary critic James Agee (who also cowrote The African Queen). The truth is, nobody has ever made anything approaching its phantasmagoric, overheated style in which German expressionism, religious hysteria, fairy-tale fantasy (of the Grimm-est variety), and stalker movie are brought together in a furious boil. Like a nightmarish premonition of stalker movies to come, Night of the Hunter tells the suspenseful tale of a demented preacher (Robert Mitchum, in a performance that prefigures his memorable villain in Cape Fear), who torments a boy and his little sister--even marries their mixed-up mother (Shelley Winters)--because he's certain the kids know where their late bank-robber father hid a stash of stolen money. So dramatic, primal, and unforgettable are its images--the preacher's shadow looming over the children in their bedroom, the magical boat ride down a river whose banks teem with fantastic wildlife, those tattoos of LOVE and HATE on the unholy man's knuckles, the golden locks of a drowned woman waving in the current along with the indigenous plant life in her watery grave--that they're still haunting audiences (and filmmakers) today. --Jim Emerson

Customer Reviews

Great Classic
This is a tuly excellent classic movie. My entire family enjoyed it! Great dramatic performances from Robert Mitchum and Shelly Winters. I am so glad that movies like this are still in circulation , I just can't stomach much of what is on the silver screen today! This movie is a keeper!

Night Of The Psychopathic Religious Fanatic
NIGHT OF THE HUNTER is an excellent film. Set in depression era West Virginia it is based on an prize winning novel of the same name that was inspired by a real life murderer who lived in that area. The surreal beginning and the fluffy ending in a cozy cottage at Christmas seem like the stuff of fairy tales but in between all is pure nightmare.

Robert Mitchum is both chilling and spellbinding as a criminal/preacher who marries the gullible widow of an executed cellmate in hopes he can force her two young children to tell him where their dad hid the proceeds from his final bank robbery. Shelly Winters plays the doomed widow well and in a manner very reminiscent of her performance in A PLACE IN THE SUN. Silent screen beauty Lillian Gish has the third starring role as a brusque but saintly, elderly foster mother who ultimately becomes a savior. The two child actors playing John and Pearl do amazing jobs and have lots of screen time in which they prove they can do more than look scared. The rest of the cast of supporting actors all bring a certain creepy small town flavor to their assorted roles.

The movie is heavily laden with symbols some of which are a bit obvious but fit the overall style of the film. The story wavers a bit during a trial and mob scene late in the film but redeems itself again by the movie's fable like closing scene. Vocal music is used to good effect several times throughout the movie though I was not fond of the overdone instrumental music that seemed to be the murderous preacher's theme. This movie is genuinely unsettling despite the reassuring ending and should appeal to most fans of psychological horror.

Love and Hate do battle
A family man steals money after a robbery and hides it with his kids without their mother knowing. He makes them promise not to tell. In jail he reveals to a self appointed evangelical Minster Powell (Robert Mitchum) that he still has the loot before he is hanged. The Minister marries into the family after wooing the widow to try to get the kids to reveal the whereabouts of the money. He even resorts to murder. Eventually the kids escape and he chases after them for a final showdown in the home of an elderly foster carer.

The Night of the Hunter is basically a vehicle to watch Robert Mitchum play a very scary psycho. There is a classic scene where Powell wrestles with his own hands to tell a biblical story of the struggle between love and hate. Watching the widow deteriorate while at his command is also shocking. Overall this is powerful storytelling through and through and Mitchum turns into one the darkest of characters ever to loom upon the silver screen.