Towards the end of his stories career, world renowned actor Charles Laughton turned to directing, leading stage productions of Caine Mutiny Court Marshall and Don Juan in Hell, receiving critical acclaim. It was then only natural that Laughton should move into film direction, and did so with 1955's Night of the Hunter. The film suffered from poor contemporary reviews, and Laughton never directed another film.
It is fairly easy to see why Night of the Hunter was critically panned at the time. In a word, the film is just bizarre, featuring heavily stylized performances, unusual pacing, and direct addresses of the camera. But for these reasons, Laughton's film acts as an important milestone in American cinema, and widely influenced future filmmakers, notably David Lynch.
At the core, the film is a story of good and evil, but Laughton's script, which he co-wrote with David Agee, presents the story like a fable, where Robert Mitchum's corrupt preacher is not just evil, but represents evil at a whole, while Lillian Gish's Mrs. Cooper stands for an ultimate good. Mitchum is spectacular as the singing, tattooed, ever-present con-man claiming to be a man of God (and seems to genuinely believe he is a man of God), who feels his mission is to murder "loose" widows and make off with their money. He arrives at the Harper household shortly after the father's execution for robbery, and Powell sets himself to find the money he believes the dead man hid with his children.
The stark photography aids the black-and-white morality the fable-like film creates, with high contrast throughout and heavy use of shadows and motivated lighting. Powell lives in the shadows it seems, and when the children flee, he searches for them and their money day and night. But ultimately, evil has no chance in the world of the film. Powell seems to be completely incompetent, and is unable to do harm with any opposition from good characters. He trips over glass jars, gets his fingers slammed in the door, is unable to swim, and ultimately, Gish's Mrs. Cooper accidentally shoots him when both are startled by a cat. When he's shot, Powell shrieks like Daffy Duck, showing that in the end, he's just an animal, capable of harm but easy to defeat if one is aware of him. Cooper calls the police, saying that an animal is trapped in her barn. When they leisurely arrive several hours later, Powell is still in the barn, at this point too cowardly to even attempt an escape.
Despite his quick disposal, the audience truly believes Powell is a serious threat. When he arrives at Mrs. Cooper's house near the end of the film, singing his favorite hymn, it's once again blood-curdling. At that moment, he seems so intimidating and icy, one forgets how useless he was chasing the children just minutes earlier. However, one does not forget his psychological manipulation of the widow, Willa (Shelly Winters), and the Spoons, a naive, yet kind couple that befriended the Harpers.
Willa at first seems uninterested in Powell, as she mourns her husband's death, but soon she believes that Powell is the key to her salvation and freedom from sin. She quickly marries Powell, and on the first night attempts to sleep with him, though Powell chastises her, and eventually indoctrinates her into his fanatical mindset. In a brillant sequence, Willa and Powell preach at a church lit by torches. One torch always engulfs the left hand corner of the screen, seemingly unmoving from shot to shot. Willa eventually learns that Powell is after her husband's money, but does not seem overly concerned. Nevertheless, Powell acts quickly, and slits her throat as she lies in bed, disinterested in her surroundings.
The Spoons support Powell tirelessly, giving him the unconditional benefit of the doubt. After he murders Willa, Powell cries to the Spoons, who mock Willas's "loose morals," and remain completely unsuspicious, even when Powell insists that there is no way WIlla could possibly return, and when Powell disappears. Yet at the film's end, when Powell is convicted and set to be executed, the Spoons lead an angry mob, with literal pitchforks, to the prison to lynch Powell. At this moment, the Spoons are both outraged and embarrassed that Powell operated directly under their noses. Yet they do not mention their guilt of inaction, only demonize the preacher and lead a crowd in pitying the Harper children,
The film also has several interesting points to make on religion. Religion is seen at both its best and its worst though Powell and Cooper. Powell is simply a fanatic who has lost all sight of the religion's true meaning. He does not commit to any religion, and seems to create one which aids his own needs, to the point where he believes that his personal lord sends him to widows. John Harper, the dead man's son who constantly clashes with Powell, is repulsed by Powell's fanaticism, and is the only character who can see through his nonsense immediately. Mrs. Cooper, on the other hand, is certainly Christian and routinely reads the children stories from the bible. When she first attempts to read to the children about Moses, John leaves the room in disgust, but slowly turns his head towards Mrs. Cooper in order to hear the story.
The beliefs of Powell and Cooper come head to head during the films climax, where the two sing their own versions of "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms." Cooper's specifically mentions Jesus, something Powell has failed to do the entire film. Sure, he mentions "the Lord" regularly, but the reference is so unspecific and vague, it could mean anything. Powell's true religion is simply a self-serving one.
Some of the film's abstract themes and techniques have heavily influenced other filmmakers. The Coen Brothers, notably their early films (but one could easily make a case tying Night of the Hunter to their masterpiece No Country for Old Men), utilized heavily stylized performances to depict larger themes, like the demonic biker in Raising Arizona. The film allegorically uses nature to reflect the themes of the film, which has evolved to be a staple in the filmography of Terrence Malick David Lynch used many of the film techniques, notably borrowing the film's opening, where Cooper adresses the audience in the cosmos, for the ultimate scene in The Elephant Man.
Night of the Hunter, while being widely influential, is completely capable of standing on its own merits as a poetic film acting very much as a modernized fairy tale, where children triumph, good exposes evil as weak and even silly, and evil is punished. Through the years, the film has gained significant praise, reversing the early poor reviews. However, it is certainly easy to understand why 1955 audiences would have been taken aback, even repulsed, by the film's odd delivery and style.
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