Amazon.com Essentials:
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
