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The Night of the Hunter

8.1

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Crystal World (S)

Original title: The Night of the Hunter
Year: 1955
Running time: 93 min.
Country: United States
Director: Charles Laughton
Screenwriter: James Agee (Novel: David Grubb)
Music: Walter Schumann
Cinematography: Stanley Cortez (B&W)
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Billy Chapin, Sally Ann Bruce, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, Peter Graves, Evely Varden, James Gleason
Producer: United Artists
Genre: Mystery. Drama. Film noir. Thriller | Small Town Life (North-american). Southern Gothic. Childhood
Synopsis / Plot: A schizophrenic preacher (Robert Mitchum) - possibly the devil himself - relentlessly hunts two small children (Billy Chapin and Sally Jane Bruce) across the Depression-era Bible Belt to get at their dead fathers stolen fortune.

Critics' reviews

"One of the greatest of all American films (...) Laughton made a film like no other before or since"

Roger Ebert: Chicago Sun-Times
"One of the great movie horror tales, with one of the greatest of all movie villains"

Michael Wilmington: Chicago Tribune
"A clever and exceptionally effective job of catching the ugliness and terror of certain ignorant, small-town types (...) The toughness of the grain of the story goes soft and porous toward the end"

Bosley Crowther: The New York Times
"The irony is that it took a British director to give us the most magical filmed portrait of the dread and dream of the American pastoral."

Slate
"An enduring masterpiece—dark, deep, beautiful, aglow."

Dave Kehr: Chicago Reader
"[It] is so loaded with neurotic symbology that it can accommodate nearly any meaning any generation wishes to assign to it, and that's the source of its uneasy, primordial power (…) Rating: ★★★★½ (out of 5)"

Chuck Bowen: Slant
"This suspense thriller is a stunning piece of work, with the shadows of German expressionism and a compositional sense comparable to the work of George Stevens (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"

Peter Bradshaw: The Guardian
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Ranking Lists Position

31 My Favorite Noir Movies (128)
50 Movies with Amazing Cinematography (55)
86 My Favorite Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Movies (105)

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