Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #71: The Night of the Hunter

Cinema has given the world some very memorable villains, many of whom usually show up around Halloween armed with sharp instruments and scary masks. The villain in The Night of the Hunter (1955) has no scary mask but should still stand alongside Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger. This particular monster is a misogynist, a killer of women, and a manipulator. Depending on the filmmakers this sort of material could be just a cheap slasher movie. Instead, this is one of the most visually striking and powerful thrillers ever made.

Despite its quality, The Night of the Hunter is difficult to find. As far as I know it is not on any streaming service and it is not often shown on TV. Recently it did play on the Turner Classic Movies channel, which sadly I watched on my IPad. I say sadly because even though this movie is in black and white and has zero explosions, it should be seen on the big screen. Many scenes are so artistic they could be paintings, and the use of shadows and lightings is some of the best ever done. I have said this often lately: I really want to go back to seeing movies in cinemas. (Please get vaccinated.)

The story begins with a warning about wolves in sheep’s’ clothing. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) is one such wolf and his disguise is that of a righteous preacher. During the Great Depression in the southern United States, he is sent to jail for car theft. His cell mate Ben Harper (Peter Graves) talks in his sleep, which lets the reverend know this is a bank robber who gave $10,000 to his children before being arrested and sentenced to death. Ben knows evil when he sees it and stops himself from sharing any more details, but that is not enough to stop the wily Powell.

After his release from prison Powell ingratiates himself in the Ben’s community, conning them into believing he worked at the prison instead of being one of its residents. Mitchum is very charismatic as Powell, especially when he does a routine of explaining why he has the words Love and Hate tattooed on his fingers. He makes it sound like a biblical allegory, but it is obvious to the audience which hand he favours. Through more lies and manipulations, Howell marries Ben’s widow Willa (Shelley Winters) and murders her with a switchblade when she uncovers the truth.

This is when the movie becomes a dark fairy tale. With both parents gone, Powell sets his eyes on the children John (Billy Chapin) and much younger sister Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce) who know where the money is hidden. Hunting them through the house, Howell sounds like a mix between the Big Bad Wolf and the witch from Hansel and Gretel: “Chilll…dren?” The chase between Powell and the children has many masterful moments of tension, such as when the children flee by canoe and Powell is seconds away from catching them. While hiding in a barn they think they are finally safe, only to hear their hunter singing a religious hymn in the distance. John wonders, does this man ever sleep?

I was not surprised to learn Harry Powell is loosely based on a real killer, Harry Powers, who murdered women for their money. This is a very human monster who remains relevant to this day. Before murdering Willa, you could say he was gaslighting her by telling her lies about her husband and turning her against her children. Because of his status as a reverend, Powell also made her ashamed of her sexuality by convincing her women should only have sex for procreation and serve their husbands.

It is therefore extremely satisfying that Powell meets his match in a woman. Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish) is a formidable woman who takes in stray children without the help of any man. She is religious, but for her the Bible is a book to inspire others to be better. Also, she has a loaded shotgun in her house. When Powell comes looking for John and Pearl, Rachel is patient enough to spend the night in her rocking chair with her weapon in her lap, like a live-action version of the granny from Looney Tunes.

There is a sad story about the making of The Night of the Hunter. It was directed by Charles Laughton, who started out as an actor, moved on to direct plays, and then got his big-screen directorial debut with this movie. Unfortunately, his debut was not well-received by either audiences or critics and he never directed a movie again. Laughton died in 1962, never knowing his movie would be appreciated by new generations of film lovers. Let this be a lesson to any artists out there. Do not judge your art by first reactions. Let time be the judge.

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #147: Notorious

Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious (1946) has many of the master director’s signature elements: spies, lies, a handsome leading man, a domineering mother, and of course a MacGuffin. As it is set after World War II the villains are logically former Nazis, but the plot is so tense in many scenes that it remains an effective thriller to this day. It also bears a huge influence on John Woo’s Mission Impossible 2 , which retains plot elements and similar dialogue, but of course has more explosions than all of Hitchcock’s films put together. Notorious is so well-made it can be studies in film classes, which is exactly what I did while taking a course on Hollywood Cinema 1930-1960 during the summer of 2009 at the University of British Columbia. As this is Hitchcock we are talking about here, there are subtler things to analyze than explosions in Notorious , no offense to the skills of Mr. John Woo. Famously there is a kissing scene between stars Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman that seemingly las...

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #91: Return of the Jedi

If you want someone to give you death stares, tell a die-hard Star Wars fan the original trilogy is not perfect. I am however going to take a risk and write that if there is one major flaw with Return of the Jedi (1983) is a lack of imagination when it comes to the central plot. After the good guys blow up the Death Star in the first movie, the bad guys are almost done building a brand new one, which of course needs to be destroyed again in more or less the same way. Richard Marquand may be directing this time, but it was still George Lucas writing. Plot hole aside, as a kid you can’t help but have fun as the good guys join forces with a tribe of living teddy bears to get the job done. Like many people in their early 30s, I was introduced to the first Star Wars trilogy by my parents who had recorded the movies, commercials included, when they were showing one night on TV. Upon first viewing, a few things stick out in the mind of a young boy watching Return of the Jedi such as:...

Empire Magazine (2008) Greatest Movies List - #85: Blue Velvet

Exactly how do you describe a David Lynch movie? He is one of the few directors whose style is so distinctive that his last name has become an adjective. According to Urban Dictionary, the definition of Lynchian is: “having the same balance between the macabre and the mundane found in the works of filmmaker David Lynch.” To see a prime example of that adjective film lovers need look no further than Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986), which does indeed begin in the mundane before slowly sinking in macabre violence. My first introduction to the world of David Lynch was through his ground breaking, but unfortunately interrupted, early 1990s TV series Twin Peaks . This was one of the first television shows to grab viewers with a series-long mystery: who killed Laura Palmer? A mix of soap opera, police procedural, and the supernatural, it is a unique show that showed the darkness hidden in suburbia and remains influential to this day. Featuring Kyle MacLachlan as an FBI investigator with a l...

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