Movie #110: The Night of the Hunter

Movie #: 110
Movie Title: The Night of the Hunter
Year Released: 1955

Director: Charles Laughton
Notable Cast: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce

Short Description: A religious fanatic marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real daddy hid $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery. (IMDB.com)


Rank on the Top 100 Lists (as of 1/7/2013)

AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: #71
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: #47



Date Watched: 6/1/2016

Grade: 1.5 out of 5 (Marginal)
Adjusted Grade: 2 out of 5 (Fair)

Rationale: Robert Mitchum absolutely pulls off creepy as Harry Powell when he’s stalking his step children because they know where the money is that he wants, but that’s as good as The Night of the Hunter gets. I never felt the movie was as suspenseful as it should have been and a few of the supporting actors were flat out bad with unconvincing acting. I noticed that this movie was remade in 1991 as a TV movie and that’s probably what this rendition should have been as well.