The night of the hunter
A self-styled preacher marries and murders the widow of an executed convict with whom he once shared a cell. He then terrorizes her two young children to force them to tell him the whereabouts of the $10,000 he knows their father hid before his imprisonment."The Night of the Hunter -- incredibly, the only film the great actor Charles Laughton ever directed -- is truly a stand-alone masterwork. A horror movie with qualities of a Grimm fairy tale, it stars a sublimely sinister Robert Mitchum as a traveling preacher named Harry Powell (he of the tattooed knuckles), whose nefarious motives for marrying a fragile widow, played by Shelley Winters, are uncovered by her terrified young children. Graced by images of eerie beauty and a sneaky sense of humor, this ethereal, expressionistic American classic -- also featuring the contributions of actress Lillian Gish and writer James Agee -- is cinema's most eccentric rendering of the battle between good and evil.
Available Copies by Location
Location | |
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Community Centre | Available |
Browse Related Items
Subject |
Grubb, Davis, 1919-1980 > Film adaptations. Night of the hunter (Motion picture) Stalkers > Drama. Siblings > Drama. Ex-convicts > Drama. Murder > Drama. Impostors and imposture > Drama. |
Genre |
Thrillers (Motion pictures) Film adaptations. Film noir. Feature films. Detective and mystery films. Fiction films. Video recordings for the hearing impaired. Drama. |
- ISBN: 9781604653502
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Physical Description
videodisc
2 videodiscs (93 min.) : sound, black and white ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 booklet (28 pages : illustrations ; 19 cm). - Edition Two-DVD special edition.
- Publisher [New York, NY] : Criterion Collection, [2010]
Content descriptions
General Note: | From the novel by Davis Grubb. Originally produced as a motion picture in 1955. Wide screen (1.66:1). Digital restoration by UCLA Film & Television Archive. Publisher location from publisher website: The Criterion Collection, 215 Park Avenue South, Fifth Floor, New York, NY 10003. GMD: videodisc. |
Formatted Contents Note: | Disc 1. Feature -- Special features: Commentary with second-unit director Terry Sanders, film archivist Robert Gitt, film critic F.X. Feeney and author Preston Neal Jones. 'The making of The night of the hunter' documentary; 'Moving pictures' documentary; 'Stanley Cortez' interview; 'Simon Callow on Charles Laughton' interview; 'The Ed Sullivan Show' excerpt from the September 25, 1955 episode; Davis Grubb sketches ; Disc 2. Charles Laughton directs 'The night of the hunter, ' a two and a half hour compilation of outtakes and behind the scenes footage -- Introduction by Robert Gitt and Leonard Maltin ; Booklet: 'Holy terror, ' essay by Terrence Rafferty -- 'Downriver and heavenward with James Agee, ' essay by Michael Sragow. |
Creation/Production Credits Note: | Music by Walter Schumann ; photography by Stanley Cortez ; art direction by Hilyard Brown ; film editor, Robert Golden ; set decoration, Al Spencer ; wardrobe, Jerry Bos ; sound, Stanford Naughton ; special photographic effects, Jack Rabin, Louis DeWitt. |
Participant or Performer Note: | Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason, Evelyn Varden, Peter Graves, Don Beddoe, Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce, Gloria Castilo. |
Target Audience Note: | Not rated. |
System Details Note: | DVD; region 1, NTSC; widescreen (1.66:1) presentation; Dolby digital mono. |
Language Note: | In English with optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH). |
Awards Note: | Named to the National Film Registry in 1992 by the Library of Congress. |