BEWARE THE WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING
★★★★★ (A Must-See)
Director: Charles Laughton
1955
Respected film magazine, Cahiers du cinéma, named The Night of the Hunter the second greatest movie after Citizen Kane, and they’re not wrong. For any cinephile, this terrifying film about a serial killer posing as a preacher is a religious experience; for screenwriters, it’s a source of envy, and has influenced everyone from Robert Altman to the Coen brothers. In fact, I consider this a horror film for the same reason I consider No Country for Old Men a horror film: The psychopathic villain is coming for you, and can’t be stopped. This isn’t the only similarity; Davis Grubb, the author of the novel The Night of the Hunter (1953), wrote in a style that Cormac McCarthy later became famous for.
The story takes place in a small, riverside village during the Great Depression, and everything looks dirty and desperate. People are out for Jesus or out to take advantage, and the visiting antagonist finds easy prey in the weak, who are willing to believe anything that explains their pain or gives them hope. But not everyone buys what he’s selling. Reverend Harry Powell (otherwise known as “Preacher”) may be one of the most devious villains of all time, but he’s outsmarted by two young children who are victims of their parents’ foolish mistakes. In the end, The Night of the Hunter is about childhood trauma, faith, and why a woman should never be dependent on a man.
The film starts out with a bank robber running back home with his stolen money. Shortly before he’s nabbed by police and sent to the gallows, he hides the loot with his two children, John and Pearl, with strict instructions not to tell anyone about it. We, the audience, don’t know where it is, and the boy and girl’s now single mother Willa doesn’t know it exists…but Reverend Harry Powell does. Preacher’s old cell buddy mentioned securing the $10,000 somewhere before facing the hangman, and now the false prophet makes his way across the plains—killing women he deems sullied in the eyes of the Lord along the way—to the deceased robber’s homestead.
Robert Mitchum’s charming villain is an unsettling presence; sexy and silk-voiced, his eyes constantly size people up to see if they are useful. His excuse for the “love” and “hate” tattoos on his knuckles doesn’t hold water, but we have an inkling he’s incapable of feeling anything but need. I think I read in No Country for Old Men that Anton Chigurh considered humans to be as dumb as livestock. Preacher is cut from the same cloth.
SPOILERS The movie is also a tale of three women. The first is Willa (Shelley Winters), who works at a small store while raising John and Pearl alone. This is one of Winters’ best performances. She plays Willa as a sweet simpleton, vulnerable to pressure from the second woman, Icey, who owns the store with her husband. Icey is the worst kind of hypocrite. She pushes Willa to marry Preacher because a woman cannot live without a husband, and in so many words, she tells ladies at a picnic to close their eyes and think of England during sex. Icey also encourages wives to be submissive to men, while in her own home, she’s bullying and bossing her meek husband around.
Willa is not strong enough to argue with Icey, and she’s not quick enough to figure out Preacher’s motives for love-bombing her. Without thinking too much about it, she marries him, essentially dooming her children. When I see in the news, kids harmed by obvious monsters who were welcomed into the home by their mothers, I’m reminded of Willa who gives us their side of the story in this film, though it doesn’t change my opinion much.
“I CONSIDER THIS A HORROR FILM FOR THE SAME REASON I CONSIDER NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN A HORROR FILM: THE PSYCHOPATHIC VILLAIN IS COMING FOR YOU AND CAN'T BE STOPPED."
But perhaps I’m judging Willa too harshly because in the early 20th century, she would have no choice but to couple up. Like any woman of her time, she goes into the marriage with hope and joy, only to have her dreams crushed on her honeymoon. Although Willa still doesn’t understand her new husband is going to kill her children for the money, she slowly accepts something is wrong—but she has no way of escaping the new man of the house. Where would she go?
John knows where to go: anywhere but here. He drags his little sister across the prairie and river as Preacher follows their every move, whistling to let them know he’s getting close. With these kids, he no longer has to pretend he’s a good person. Fortunately, John and Pearl find refuge at just the right place, and that takes me to the third woman: Rachel. If Preacher represents the evil in The Night of the Hunter, Rachel represents the good. The single old lady (played by Lillian Gish) doesn’t use the Bible as a weapon like Icey and Harry Powell, but as a teaching tool for the orphans she has taken into her home. Unlike Willa, Rachel is independent and tough and has a farm that grows enough food to help her make a good living. She’s figured it out. When Preacher shows up at her door, wanting his new son and daughter back, she’s the only person in the whole film who drills him for answers. Though Lillian Gish is one of my favorite actors, I’m not being biased when I say she’ll make you fall in love with her.
It’s a shame that director Charles Laughton didn’t make more movies because his ingenuity is on full display in The Night of the Hunter. Astonishing visuals and tricks not used since the days of silent film turn crisp shots into daguerreotypes as they blend with the sinister shadow placement. No one was making movies like this in the 50s and no one is making movies like it now.
And Billy Chapin’s (John) beyond-his-years performance doesn’t get enough credit. The child actor’s face is a beating heart, especially during the scenes when he’s trying to keep adults from finding out about the money in front of Preacher—who teases its existence to torture him. All the pain Chapin ever knew was transformed into John, a hunted boy carrying the weight of his father’s promise and his mother’s blindness. This kid, along with the others in Rachel’s flock, are slowly learning that in order to survive, we don’t have to be cynical, but we must question everything.
GENRES: Atmospheric, Feminist-Friendly, Serial Killer
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