The Night Of The Hunter - An Avant-Garde Film Noir?

The Night of the Hunter certainly has a Film Noir plot - the creepy cellmate of a doomed-to-hang robber sets out to find the stash of loot the robber (Peter Graves) hid before he was caught, tricking the man's family into thinking he is a devout preacher while he searches for the money. Okay, that's a good start. But then director Charles Laughton, the illustrious actor, takes this film to a whole other universe!

The preacher/creep, played with relish by Robert Mitchum, works his sinister ways upon every female he meets, including the robber's wife, and a young orphan called Ruby (Gloria Castillo), but the robber's son, John (Billy Chapin) sees right through him and knows he's after the loot. He runs off with his little sister Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce) and the film takes on an eerie but hauntingly beautiful air, with so many unforgettable images and sounds. The kids' mom, poor Willa (Shelley Winters) winds up as one of those images. I can never quite get her death scene out of my head.

Once the kids find shelter from their constant tormentor with a kind old lady, Mrs. Cooper (the ever amazing Lillian Gish) the story shifts into an epic battle of good vs. evil. And you know who will win. 

As a child of the South, the theatrics involving religion in this film are nothing new to me. But it's refreshing to see them called out for the false narratives they are by a movie made in 1955! Maybe that's why it wasn't well-received back then - too truthful! The garish "believers" (Evelyn Varden and Don Beddoe) are almost too much to bear. But damn, I see people like them on my TV every morning in these so-called camp meetings, where the preachers beg for "seeds" (i.e. money) to pray to God to make the viewers wealthy beyond their dreams. Same BS, just a different approach.

Charles Laughton was a gifted director. I wish we could have seen more films from him. But, sadly, this is the only one.