The Essentials - The Night of the Hunter
SYNOPSIS
In the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930s in the rural South, Ben Harper has
committed murder while robbing a bank to get enough money to keep his family from being
hungry and homeless. Awaiting hanging, Harper shares a cell with Harry Powell, a
deranged, self-appointed preacher with the words LOVE and HATE tattooed on his knuckles.
Harry, temporarily in the pen for car theft, tries to get Harper to tell him where he hid
the cash, but all he learns is the location of Harper's family. When he's released from
jail, Harry goes to the town and seduces Harper's widow, Willa, into marriage, despite
the suspicions of her young son, John. Although John's little sister Pearl also adores
and trusts the preacher, John reminds her they swore to their father never to reveal the
hiding place of the stolen money. The Reverend Powell soon reveals his true intentions
and begins tormenting the kids in an effort to learn their secret. When the nave Willa
discovers her husband threatening John and Pearl, Harry kills her and dumps her body in
the river. The children escape with the money hidden in Pearl's doll, and Harry takes
off after them.
Director: Charles Laughton
Producer: Paul Gregory
S
creenplay: James Agee, Charles Laughton (uncredited), based on the novel by Davis
Grubb
Cinematography: Stanley Cortez
Editor: Robert Golden
Art Direction:
Hilyard Brown
Music: Walter Schumann
Cast: Robert Mitchum (Rev. Harry Powell),
Shelley Winters (Willa Harper), Lillian Gish (Rachel Cooper), James Gleason (Birdie
Steptoe), Evelyn Varden (Icey Spoon), Billy Chapin (John Harper), Jane Bruce (Pearl
Harper), Peter Graves (Ben Harper), Don Beddoe (Walt Spoon).
BW-93m.
Why
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER is Essential
A simple recount of the story of
The
Night of the Hunter cannot do justice to this unique film, often considered one of
the most extraordinary contributions to American cinema. Directing a movie for the first
and only time, British actor Charles Laughton creates a poetic and unusual parable of
greed, corruption, and redemption in a visual and rhythmic style that consciously echoes
both German Expressionism and the films of cinema pioneer D.W. Griffith. Aided by former
Griffith star and muse Lillian Gish, stunning imagery from renowned cinematographer
Stanley Cortez, and evocative music by Walter Schumann, Laughton transformed Davis
Grubb's novel into the closest thing to a gothic fairy tale ever put on film. All the
classic elements of that form are there - dead parents, a wicked guardian, children in
peril, a secret that must be guarded at all cost, a magical journey through a world
populated by animals and shadows, the longing for the peace and safety of home, and a
fairy godmother figure (Gish) who brings a resolution to the story and redemption for the
children.
"It's really a nightmarish sort of Mother Goose tale we were telling,"
Laughton said. "We tried to surround the children with creatures they might have
observed, and that might have seemed part of a dream. It was, in a way, a dream for
them."
Laughton worked with James Agee on the screenplay for
The Night of the
Hunter but the famous author of
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men had a severe
drinking problem (he died the same year) and the screenplay he delivered was a mammoth script by Hollywood standards that Laughton had to whittle down to an acceptable length. Luckily,
Laughton had a more positive experience with his second-unit directors, Terry and Denis
Sanders, whose documentary film,
A Time Out of War (1954) won an Oscar, and
cinematographer, Stanley Cortez. The latter once remarked: "Apart from
The Magnificent
Ambersons, the most exciting experience I have had in the cinema was with Charles
Laughton on
Night of the Hunter..every day I consider something new about light,
that incredible thing that can't be described. Of the directors I've worked with, only
two have understood it: Orson Welles and Charles Laughton."
Although critical
reaction was generally favorable, the film was a commercial flop on its release, and it's
not hard to understand why. One of the strangest movies in American film history, it was
a total anomaly in the midst of the 1950s. It was an adult story told through the eyes of
children, an almost Biblical tale steeped in barely suppressed sex and violence with
elements of pure horror and touches of macabre humor. Yet images from the movie remain
in the mind's eye long after viewing it - the preacher pursuing the children up the
cellar stairs like the Frankenstein monster; the dead mother in her car at the bottom of
the river, her long blond hair swaying in the current with the underwater vegetation; the
deliberately unrealistic look of the journey down river with animals dominating the
forefront of the image as they seem to watch the strange figures adrift in their boat;
the unexpected and terrifying appearance of the preacher on his stolen horse silhouetted
on the horizon; the face of Gish appearing in a starry sky in the film's finale.
For all these poetic and almost ethereal qualities, film scholars have noted the intense
physicality of
The Night of the Hunter, not only in its juxtaposition of light and
shadow but in the harsh emptiness of the depressed rural towns against the eerie
nighttime river landscape. The film may also be seen as a child-like vision of the
confusing and contradictory nature of sex and the trap inherent in denying it or burying
it under false religiosity. The children's widowed young mother, trapped in a
small-minded gossip-ridden town, is easy prey for the repressed and tortured preacher
with his condemnation of lust (even as his pocket knife bursts with fury through his
clothes at the first stirring of desire). She is so swayed by what she believes is true
religious fervor, she willingly accepts both sexual rejection by the preacher and her own
murder as salvation. On the other hand there is the benevolent Rachel, who spouts Bible
verses about compassion and forgiveness and does not condemn. She wants to protect her
blossoming young ward Ruby from making mistakes she'll regret, but she also presents the
girl with an eye-catching brooch that acknowledges her need to feel attractive and adult.
The most honestly religious or spiritual voice in the movie, she looks on the
temptations and realities of the physical world with a gentle bemusement.
Much
of the film's power, however, is due to the incredible central performance of Robert
Mitchum. Making full use of his tough-guy image and sleepy-eyed sexuality while equally
playing against it, the persona he and Laughton create for the preacher is that of a
brutal coward and a repressed psychotic. Many observers - Mitchum included - consider
this his most complex and rich performance. One thing is certain, however - he's one of
the most terrifying characters in cinema, worthy of taking his place beside any of the
monsters lurking under the beds or in the minds of children scared and bewildered by the
world around them.
The Night of the Hunter had to wait several decades
before it took its rightful place alongside other revered works of the American cinema
like John Ford's
The Searchers (1956) and Alfred Hitchcock's
Vertigo
(1958). It was the sole directorial effort of actor Charles Laughton and he took the
film's commercial failure very hard, abandoning any future plans to direct another
film.
by Rob Nixon & Jeff Stafford
The Essentials - The Night of the Hunter
SYNOPSIS
In the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930s in the rural South, Ben Harper has
committed murder while robbing a bank to get enough money to keep his family from being
hungry and homeless. Awaiting hanging, Harper shares a cell with Harry Powell, a
deranged, self-appointed preacher with the words LOVE and HATE tattooed on his knuckles.
Harry, temporarily in the pen for car theft, tries to get Harper to tell him where he hid
the cash, but all he learns is the location of Harper's family. When he's released from
jail, Harry goes to the town and seduces Harper's widow, Willa, into marriage, despite
the suspicions of her young son, John. Although John's little sister Pearl also adores
and trusts the preacher, John reminds her they swore to their father never to reveal the
hiding place of the stolen money. The Reverend Powell soon reveals his true intentions
and begins tormenting the kids in an effort to learn their secret. When the nave Willa
discovers her husband threatening John and Pearl, Harry kills her and dumps her body in
the river. The children escape with the money hidden in Pearl's doll, and Harry takes
off after them.
Director: Charles Laughton
Producer: Paul Gregory
S
creenplay: James Agee, Charles Laughton (uncredited), based on the novel by Davis
Grubb
Cinematography: Stanley Cortez
Editor: Robert Golden
Art Direction:
Hilyard Brown
Music: Walter Schumann
Cast: Robert Mitchum (Rev. Harry Powell),
Shelley Winters (Willa Harper), Lillian Gish (Rachel Cooper), James Gleason (Birdie
Steptoe), Evelyn Varden (Icey Spoon), Billy Chapin (John Harper), Jane Bruce (Pearl
Harper), Peter Graves (Ben Harper), Don Beddoe (Walt Spoon).
BW-93m. Why
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER is Essential
A simple recount of the story of The
Night of the Hunter cannot do justice to this unique film, often considered one of
the most extraordinary contributions to American cinema. Directing a movie for the first
and only time, British actor Charles Laughton creates a poetic and unusual parable of
greed, corruption, and redemption in a visual and rhythmic style that consciously echoes
both German Expressionism and the films of cinema pioneer D.W. Griffith. Aided by former
Griffith star and muse Lillian Gish, stunning imagery from renowned cinematographer
Stanley Cortez, and evocative music by Walter Schumann, Laughton transformed Davis
Grubb's novel into the closest thing to a gothic fairy tale ever put on film. All the
classic elements of that form are there - dead parents, a wicked guardian, children in
peril, a secret that must be guarded at all cost, a magical journey through a world
populated by animals and shadows, the longing for the peace and safety of home, and a
fairy godmother figure (Gish) who brings a resolution to the story and redemption for the
children.
"It's really a nightmarish sort of Mother Goose tale we were telling,"
Laughton said. "We tried to surround the children with creatures they might have
observed, and that might have seemed part of a dream. It was, in a way, a dream for
them."
Laughton worked with James Agee on the screenplay for The Night of the
Hunter but the famous author of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men had a severe
drinking problem (he died the same year) and the screenplay he delivered was a mammoth script by Hollywood standards that Laughton had to whittle down to an acceptable length. Luckily,
Laughton had a more positive experience with his second-unit directors, Terry and Denis
Sanders, whose documentary film, A Time Out of War (1954) won an Oscar, and
cinematographer, Stanley Cortez. The latter once remarked: "Apart from The Magnificent
Ambersons, the most exciting experience I have had in the cinema was with Charles
Laughton on Night of the Hunter..every day I consider something new about light,
that incredible thing that can't be described. Of the directors I've worked with, only
two have understood it: Orson Welles and Charles Laughton."
Although critical
reaction was generally favorable, the film was a commercial flop on its release, and it's
not hard to understand why. One of the strangest movies in American film history, it was
a total anomaly in the midst of the 1950s. It was an adult story told through the eyes of
children, an almost Biblical tale steeped in barely suppressed sex and violence with
elements of pure horror and touches of macabre humor. Yet images from the movie remain
in the mind's eye long after viewing it - the preacher pursuing the children up the
cellar stairs like the Frankenstein monster; the dead mother in her car at the bottom of
the river, her long blond hair swaying in the current with the underwater vegetation; the
deliberately unrealistic look of the journey down river with animals dominating the
forefront of the image as they seem to watch the strange figures adrift in their boat;
the unexpected and terrifying appearance of the preacher on his stolen horse silhouetted
on the horizon; the face of Gish appearing in a starry sky in the film's finale.
For all these poetic and almost ethereal qualities, film scholars have noted the intense
physicality of The Night of the Hunter, not only in its juxtaposition of light and
shadow but in the harsh emptiness of the depressed rural towns against the eerie
nighttime river landscape. The film may also be seen as a child-like vision of the
confusing and contradictory nature of sex and the trap inherent in denying it or burying
it under false religiosity. The children's widowed young mother, trapped in a
small-minded gossip-ridden town, is easy prey for the repressed and tortured preacher
with his condemnation of lust (even as his pocket knife bursts with fury through his
clothes at the first stirring of desire). She is so swayed by what she believes is true
religious fervor, she willingly accepts both sexual rejection by the preacher and her own
murder as salvation. On the other hand there is the benevolent Rachel, who spouts Bible
verses about compassion and forgiveness and does not condemn. She wants to protect her
blossoming young ward Ruby from making mistakes she'll regret, but she also presents the
girl with an eye-catching brooch that acknowledges her need to feel attractive and adult.
The most honestly religious or spiritual voice in the movie, she looks on the
temptations and realities of the physical world with a gentle bemusement.
Much
of the film's power, however, is due to the incredible central performance of Robert
Mitchum. Making full use of his tough-guy image and sleepy-eyed sexuality while equally
playing against it, the persona he and Laughton create for the preacher is that of a
brutal coward and a repressed psychotic. Many observers - Mitchum included - consider
this his most complex and rich performance. One thing is certain, however - he's one of
the most terrifying characters in cinema, worthy of taking his place beside any of the
monsters lurking under the beds or in the minds of children scared and bewildered by the
world around them.
The Night of the Hunter had to wait several decades
before it took its rightful place alongside other revered works of the American cinema
like John Ford's The Searchers (1956) and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo
(1958). It was the sole directorial effort of actor Charles Laughton and he took the
film's commercial failure very hard, abandoning any future plans to direct another
film.
by Rob Nixon & Jeff Stafford
Pop Culture 101 - The Night of the Hunter
An unsuccessful TV remake of
The Night of the Hunter was made in 1991 with Richard Chamberlain as Harry, Diana Scarwid as Willa, and Mary Nell Santacroce as Rachel.
Scenes from
The Night of the Hunter were featured in
Visions of Light (1992), a documentary about cinematography.
Charles Laughton later made a recording of excerpts from the book on which the movie was based, accompanied by music from the film's soundtrack.
The image of Shelley Winters as Willa, underwater with her long hair flowing in the current, brings to mind her character in
The Poseidon Adventure (1972), who boasted that as a champion swimmer she could hold her breath longer than anyone.
Other filmed versions of works by David Grubb include
Fools Parade (1971) starring James Stewart and Kurt Russell and a story for
Darkroom, a horror anthology series produced for television in 1981.
by Rob Nixon
Pop Culture 101 - The Night of the Hunter
An unsuccessful TV remake of The Night of the Hunter was made in 1991 with Richard Chamberlain as Harry, Diana Scarwid as Willa, and Mary Nell Santacroce as Rachel.
Scenes from The Night of the Hunter were featured in Visions of Light (1992), a documentary about cinematography.
Charles Laughton later made a recording of excerpts from the book on which the movie was based, accompanied by music from the film's soundtrack.
The image of Shelley Winters as Willa, underwater with her long hair flowing in the current, brings to mind her character in The Poseidon Adventure (1972), who boasted that as a champion swimmer she could hold her breath longer than anyone.
Other filmed versions of works by David Grubb include Fools Parade (1971) starring James Stewart and Kurt Russell and a story for Darkroom, a horror anthology series produced for television in 1981.
by Rob Nixon
Trivia - The Night of the Hunter - Trivia & Fun Facts About THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
A few
months before filming began on
The Night of the Hunter, Laurence Olivier learned
about the film and campaigned heavily to play Preacher Powell, even though Mitchum was
already cast in the role. Laughton was quite upset by the situation but United Artists
agreed that Mitchum's name was more bankable than Olivier's when it came to ticket
sales.
Initially, Laughton had asked his wife, Elsa Lanchester, to play Miz
Cooper but she didn't want to do it, the main reason being that it would put her in a
"hypersensitive" situation with her husband.
Betty Grable was Laughton's first
choice to play Willa, the role that eventually went to Shelley Winters. Teresa Wright was
also considered for the part as well.
The Night of the Hunter was actor
Charles Laughton's only directorial effort. Starting out on the British stage in 1926,
he had been acting in film since 1928 and came to Hollywood in the early '30s. A portly,
homely man with very particular idiosyncrasies and affectations, he was an unlikely
candidate for movie stardom. Nevertheless he gave several unforgettable performances in
popular and acclaimed American and British films of the decade, among them the imperious
father in The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), the fish-out-of-water valet in
the comedy Ruggles of Red Gap (1935), Inspector Javert in Les Miserables
(1935), and the title roles in Rembrandt (1936) and The Hunchback of Notre
Dame (1939). He was nominated for an Oscar® as Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the
Bounty (1935) and won Best Actor as the British monarch in The Private Life of
Henry VIII (1933). He also portrayed the reluctant Roman Emperor in Joseph von
Sternberg's aborted I, Claudius (1937), one of the most legendary of all "lost
films." Laughton continued acting into his sixties in such pictures as The
Canterville GhostThe Paradine Case (1947), as Henry VIII
again in Young Bess (1953), Spartacus (1960), and his final movie,
Advise and Consent (1962). He received another Best Actor Oscar® nomination
as the irrepressible barrister in Billy Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution
(1957), in which he appeared with his wife of many years (although he was known to be
homosexual), Elsa Lanchester.
Eager to continue the collaboration begun with
Laughton on The Night of the Hunter, producer Paul Gregory bought the film rights
to Norman Mailer's war novel, The Naked and the Dead. Laughton was at first eager
to do it; he worked with Stanley Cortez on ideas for cinematography and sent him to
Hawaii to scout locations. He hired the Sanders brothers to help him develop a script.
But after six months, it became apparent Laughton was drawing the process out too long
for undetermined reasons. Nevertheless, Norman Mailer wrote later about what he learned
from him: "He gave me, in fact, a marvelous brief education in the problems of a movie
director, as he would explain to me, sometimes patiently, sometimes at the edge of his
monumental impatience, how certain scenes which worked in the book just weren't feasible
for the movie." The story was eventually brought to the screen in 1958 - the only other
movie Paul Gregory ever produced - with Raoul Walsh directing.
Cinematographer
Stanley Cortez is the brother of actor Ricardo Cortez, who started out in the 1920s as a
Valentino-like Latin Lover. Stanley Cortez's Oscar®-nominated photography for Orson
Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) solidified his reputation as a masterful
black-and-white cinematographer. Among his other work is Since You Went Away
(1944), The Three Faces of Eve (1957), and Samuel Fuller's Shock Corridor
(1963). He won the Film Critics of America award in 1942 for The Magnificent
Ambersons and a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of
Cinematographers in 1990.
When Robert Mitchum first learned that Shelley Winters
had won the part of Willa Harper, he said, "She looks and sounds as much like a wasted
West Virginia girl as I do. The only bit she'll do convincingly is to float in the water
with her throat cut."
Billy Chapin is the brother of TV child star Lauren Chapin
(Father Knows Best).
James Gleason (Uncle Birdie) appeared with Charles
Laughton in the film Tales of Manhattan (1942).
Laughton's uncredited
assistants on the picture, Terry and Dennis Sanders, had only one short film to their
credit before working on this - A Time Out of War (1954). They went on to film
careers of their own, with Terry producing many of his brother's pictures, most of which
were B-movies like Crime and Punishment USA (1959) and War Hunt (1962).
Dennis Sanders' most notable work was the concert documentary, Elvis: That's the Way
It Is (1970).
To promote the movie, Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters did a
guest shot on The Ed Sullivan Show in the spring of 1955. Winters recounted in
her autobiography how the stress of doing live television caused Mitchum to drink and
caused her to become "shrill and numb." The two got into costume - with Mitchum
displaying the words "love" and "hate" on his hands - and performed their scene quite
badly. Winters said she stuttered and lapsed into "Brooklynese," while Mitchum spoke so
quietly their microphones had to be cranked up so loud "millions of viewers across the
U.S. could hear our stomachs rumble." During the scene, according to Winters, Mitchum
held up the wrong hand to illustrate a point about love and hate, and the audience
laughed.
The children's father was played by Peter Graves, brother of James
(star of TV's Gunsmoke series) Arness and perhaps best known for his role as Jim
Phelps on the TV series Mission: Impossible and as Capt. Oveur in the comedy
Airplane! (1980).
Lillian Gish is probably best known for her films with
D.W. Griffith, the pioneer of American cinema - The Birth of a Nation (1915),
Intolerance (1916), Orphans of the Storm (1921). Before appearing in
The Night of the Hunter, she hadn't made a film since Portrait of Jennie
(1948). Her remarkable career stretched from 1912 to her last film, The Whales of
August (1987).
FAMOUS QUOTES from THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
MOVIE TAGLINE: "The wedding night, the anticipation, the kiss, the knife, but above
allÉthe suspense!"
RACHEL COOPER (Lillian Gish): "Beware of false prophets
which come to you in sheep's clothing. But inwardly they are ravenous wolves."
HARRY POWELL (Robert Mitchum): "Now what's it to be, Lord, another widow? How many's it
been? Six? Twelve?"
HARRY POWELL: "Lord, I am tired. Sometimes I wonder if
you really understand. Not that you mind the killings. Your book is full of killings.
But there are things you hate, Lord. Perfume-smelling things. Lacey things. Things
with curly hair."
BEN HARPER (Peter Graves): "I robbed that bank cause I got
tired of seeing children roaming the woodlands without food. Children roaming the
highways in this here Depression. Children sleeping in old abandoned car bodies and junk
heaps. And I promised myself I'd never see the day when my young'uns would want."
HARRY POWELL: "I come not with peace, but with a sword."
BEN HARPER:
"What religion you profess, preacher?"
HARRY POWELL: "The religion the Almighty and
me worked out betwixt us."
HARRY POWELL: "H-A-T-E. It was with this left hand
that ol' brother Cain struck the blow that laid his brother low. L-O-V-E. You see these
fingers, dear hearts, these fingers has veins that run straight to the soul of man, the
right hand, friends, the hand of love. Now watch and I'll show you the story of life.
These fingers, dear hearts, is always warrin' and tuggin', one agin the other. Now watch
Ôem. Ol' brother left hand, left hand Hate's a fighter and it looks like Love's a goner.
But wait a minute, wait a minute! Hot dog! Love's a winnin', yessiree. It's Love that
won and ol' left hand's down for the count!"
ICEY SPOON: "When you been married
to a man 40 years, you know all that don't amount to a hill o' beans. I been married to
my Walt that long and I swear, in all that time I just lie there thinkin' about my
cannin'. A woman's a fool to marry for that. That's something for a man. The good Lord
never meant for a decent woman to want that, not really want it. It's all just a fake
and a pipe dream."
WILLA HARPER (Shelley Winters): "I feel clean now. My whole
body's just a quiverin' with cleanness."
HARRY POWELL: "You thought, Willa, that
the minute you walked through that door I'd start pawin' at you in that abominable way
men are supposed to do on their weddin' night. É Look at yourself. What do you see,
girl? You see the body of a woman, the temple of creation and motherhood. You see the
flesh of Eve that man since Adam has profaned. That body was meant for begettin'
children. It was not meant for the lust of men. You want more children, Willa?"
W
ILLA HARPER: "IÉno."
HARRY POWELL: "It's the business of this marriage to mind those
two you have now, not to beget more."
WILLA HARPER: "Help me to be clean, so I
can be what Harry wants me to be."
HARRY POWELL: "Don't touch my knife. That
makes me mad, that makes me very mad."
RACHEL COOPER: "She'll be losin' her mind
to a tricky mouth and a full moon, and like as not I'll be saddled with the
consequences."
RACHEL COOPER: "I'm a strong tree with branches for many birds.
I'm good for somethin' in this world and I know it, too."
RACHEL COOPER: "It's a
hard world for little things."
Compiled by Rob Nixon
Trivia - The Night of the Hunter - Trivia & Fun Facts About THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
A few
months before filming began on The Night of the Hunter, Laurence Olivier learned
about the film and campaigned heavily to play Preacher Powell, even though Mitchum was
already cast in the role. Laughton was quite upset by the situation but United Artists
agreed that Mitchum's name was more bankable than Olivier's when it came to ticket
sales.
The Big Idea - The Night of the Hunter
Davis
Grubb's novel
The Night of the Hunter was on the best-seller lists early in 1954
when producer Paul Gregory snapped it up. Gregory immediately saw it as the perfect
project for actor Charles Laughton's directorial debut. The two men had worked together
on stage projects, and Gregory, who had never produced a motion picture before, felt the
theater and screen performances given by the often difficult and conflicted actor were
"killing" him and that he needed to turn his talents to directing.
From the very
beginning, it was decided by both men that Robert Mitchum would play the murderous
preacher. Gregory thought the actor's unique and "quicksilver" personality was ideal for
the role, the way he kept people off balance with his unpredictability - "a little
scary," the producer said. "This character I want you to play is a diabolical sh*t,"
Laughton told Mitchum to which the actor replied, "Present." With Mitchum's name
attached to the project, United Artists agreed to put up the small $700,000
budget
To adapt the novel, they hired Southern-born James Agee, a poet and
journalist who made a name for himself providing the text for Walker Evans' photos in the
highly acclaimed Depression chronicle,
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941). In
1939, Agee wrote a treatment for a film based on Andre Malraux's
Man's Fate.
Although it was never produced, it began Agee's long and deep interest in film, and he
became one of cinema's most passionate and intelligent critics, first for
Time,
then
The Nation. Laughton and Gregory hired Agee largely on the strength of his
screenplay for John Huston's highly successful
The African Queen (1951). What
they apparently did not know was that, by the mid-1950s, the writer was a difficult and
quickly degenerating alcoholic. "The credits say Jim Agee wrote
The Night of the
Hunter, but he was rolling around on the floor drunk most of the time," Gregory later
wrote. "He turned in a screenplay four times thicker than the book. Eventually Charles
took on Dennis and Terry Sanders, whose only experience was an Academy Award-winning
short they'd done as students at UCLA, to bounce ideas off."
According to a biographer
of Agee, the renowned writer's script was not an adaptation at all but a "cinematic version" of the book in
great detail with newsreel footage to document the Southern Depression setting and "any
number of elaborate, impractical montages." Dennis Sanders confirmed that Laughton "tried
to tell Jim Agee what to do" but that Agee didn't get it and Laughton wrote most of the
screenplay himself. Refuting the above claim, however, was the discovery of Agee's first draft of the script in 2004; it proved that it reflected Laughton's final release version, almost scene for scene.
According to novelist Davis Grubb, Laughton wanted the film
to closely resemble the mental pictures the author had in mind while writing the book. In
the Lee Server biography,
Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care, the author stated
that Laughton "learned that Grubb was an amateur sketch artist who liked to draw scenes
and caricatures of the people he created in his fiction. Seeing the value in such
visualizations by the hand of the author himself, Laughton had him send them to Hollywood
and phoned him up begging for new ones throughout the production, sometimes specifying
that Grubb draw in the exact expression on a character's face that he'd had in mind while
writing a particular scene. The writer produced over a hundred of these pen-and-ink
drawings for the film. "I declare, perhaps immodestly," Grubb said, "that I was not only
the author of the novel from which the screenplay was adapted but was the actual scene
designer as well."
by Rob Nixon
The Big Idea - The Night of the Hunter
Davis
Grubb's novel The Night of the Hunter was on the best-seller lists early in 1954
when producer Paul Gregory snapped it up. Gregory immediately saw it as the perfect
project for actor Charles Laughton's directorial debut. The two men had worked together
on stage projects, and Gregory, who had never produced a motion picture before, felt the
theater and screen performances given by the often difficult and conflicted actor were
"killing" him and that he needed to turn his talents to directing.
From the very
beginning, it was decided by both men that Robert Mitchum would play the murderous
preacher. Gregory thought the actor's unique and "quicksilver" personality was ideal for
the role, the way he kept people off balance with his unpredictability - "a little
scary," the producer said. "This character I want you to play is a diabolical sh*t,"
Laughton told Mitchum to which the actor replied, "Present." With Mitchum's name
attached to the project, United Artists agreed to put up the small $700,000
budget
To adapt the novel, they hired Southern-born James Agee, a poet and
journalist who made a name for himself providing the text for Walker Evans' photos in the
highly acclaimed Depression chronicle, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941). In
1939, Agee wrote a treatment for a film based on Andre Malraux's Man's Fate.
Although it was never produced, it began Agee's long and deep interest in film, and he
became one of cinema's most passionate and intelligent critics, first for Time,
then The Nation. Laughton and Gregory hired Agee largely on the strength of his
screenplay for John Huston's highly successful The African Queen (1951). What
they apparently did not know was that, by the mid-1950s, the writer was a difficult and
quickly degenerating alcoholic. "The credits say Jim Agee wrote The Night of the
Hunter, but he was rolling around on the floor drunk most of the time," Gregory later
wrote. "He turned in a screenplay four times thicker than the book. Eventually Charles
took on Dennis and Terry Sanders, whose only experience was an Academy Award-winning
short they'd done as students at UCLA, to bounce ideas off."
According to a biographer
of Agee, the renowned writer's script was not an adaptation at all but a "cinematic version" of the book in
great detail with newsreel footage to document the Southern Depression setting and "any
number of elaborate, impractical montages." Dennis Sanders confirmed that Laughton "tried
to tell Jim Agee what to do" but that Agee didn't get it and Laughton wrote most of the
screenplay himself. Refuting the above claim, however, was the discovery of Agee's first draft of the script in 2004; it proved that it reflected Laughton's final release version, almost scene for scene.
According to novelist Davis Grubb, Laughton wanted the film
to closely resemble the mental pictures the author had in mind while writing the book. In
the Lee Server biography, Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care, the author stated
that Laughton "learned that Grubb was an amateur sketch artist who liked to draw scenes
and caricatures of the people he created in his fiction. Seeing the value in such
visualizations by the hand of the author himself, Laughton had him send them to Hollywood
and phoned him up begging for new ones throughout the production, sometimes specifying
that Grubb draw in the exact expression on a character's face that he'd had in mind while
writing a particular scene. The writer produced over a hundred of these pen-and-ink
drawings for the film. "I declare, perhaps immodestly," Grubb said, "that I was not only
the author of the novel from which the screenplay was adapted but was the actual scene
designer as well."
by Rob Nixon
Behind the Camera - The Night of the Hunter
It was Robert Mitchum who originally suggested to Laughton that they film
The Night of the Hunter in authentic Appalachian locations but the director couldn't afford the budget to do on-location shooting. Besides, he wanted to create the film's unique look on Hollywood sound stages and found what he was looking for at Pathe, Republic studios and the Rowland V. Lee ranch in the San Fernando Valley. Terry and Denis Sanders were dispatched to Ohio to film some second-unit material along the Ohio River.
Robert Mitchum never had a single regret from the minute he agreed to do
The Night of the Hunter; he frequently stated over the years it was his best performance and Laughton was his best director. The admiration was mutual. Laughton, who thought Mitchum was "one of the best actors in the world," wrote in
Esquire of the private man he knew to be different than the public image: "All this tough talk is a blind, you know. He's a literate, gracious, kind man, with wonderful manners, and he speaks beautifully - when he wants to. He's a tender man and a very great gentleman. You know, he's really terribly shy." Laughton was usually ill at ease with very macho men yet very comfortable with his star. In turn, Mitchum gave a performance that is rather uncharacteristically delicate and seductive, so much so that Lillian Gish feared the director and actor might be undercutting the character's evil. Laughton explained to her, half joking, that he didn't want to ruin Mitchum's future career by pushing him to play total evil, although the touches of humor in the character actually serve to play up the preacher's essentially ludicrous and haywire psychology. And Mitchum's borderline buffoonery makes the children's escape and eventual triumph over him more plausible. Mitchum's performance was seen as a change of pace for the actor, but notoriously unwilling or unable to accept praise for his work, he countered, "I haven't changed anything but my underwear."
With Mitchum on board, the main parts to cast were the children, their mother, and Rachel, the fairy godmother character. For the latter, Laughton wanted and got Gish, one of the most enduring legends of the screen. A combination of delicate grace and steely resolve, Gish had an almost Victorian purity that was perfect for the part. Casting her also confirmed the connection to one of Laughton's main inspirations for the film, D.W. Griffith, in whose pictures Gish had so often starred as a young actress during the silent era. (Laughton repeatedly ran and studied Griffith's films preparing for this picture.) At their initial meeting, Gish asked him why he wanted her for the part; he replied, "When I first went to the movies, they sat in their seats straight and leaned forward. Now they slump down, with their heads back, and eat candy and popcorn. I want them to sit up straight again."
Shelley Winters started her film career being stereotyped as the blonde "babe," but her casting against type as the mousy factory girl in
A Place in the Sun (1951) - and the resulting Supporting Actress Oscar nomination she received - convinced directors she had much more to offer. She had occasionally studied acting with Laughton and to Mitchum's considerable dismay, he cast her as the young widowed mother who falls under Harry's spell. "Shelley defeats herself a lot," Mitchum said years later on the
Today show, commenting on her reputation for throwing tantrums on movie sets. "She's so self-conscious and so insecure that she visits it on other people, which is unfortunate for her....Shelley got what she deserved, lying there dead at the bottom of the river." Nevertheless, Mitchum was so trustful of Laughton that he put aside his differences with his co-star. As for Winters, she stated that this was "the most thoughtful and reserved performance I ever gave."
Mitchum's faith in the project also helped skirt another potential production problem: Laughton apparently loathed the child actors. Mitchum tried explaining to Billy Chapin (in the key role of John) that he needed to better understand his character and his relationship to the preacher. Chapin, who had a reputation for brattiness, replied, "That's probably why I just won the New York Critics Circle prize." Laughton bellowed, "Get that child away from me!" and from then on Mitchum patiently directed the boy in their scenes together.
According to writer Lee Server in his biography,
Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care, Mitchum's "devotion to Laughton and the project had begun to fade by the final week of the thirty-six-day shoot. [Producer Paul] Gregory: "Laughton had a keen thing for Mitchum, and Mitchum said all this sh*t about how he loved Charles, but he was on drugs, drunk, and what have you, and there were times when Charles couldn't get him in front of the camera. He put us through a lot of hell on that. The picture went two hundred thousand dollars over budget." To Gregory, Mitchum at times seemed uncomfortably like the character he was playing. "He was a charmer. An evil son of a bitch with a lot of charm. Mitch sort of scared me, to tell you the truth. I was always on guard. He was often in a state, and you never knew what he would do next. He would be drunk or in a fight with this flunky he kept around, and kicking him all over the place. I came from the world of the theatre and I had never seen anyone quite like this."
Despite these occasional difficulties (Mitchum's drinking, Winters' tantrums, the children's lack of experience), the working atmosphere on
The Night of the Hunter was, by all accounts, not only harmonious but inspiring. Laughton had chosen famed cinematographer Stanley Cortez to shoot the picture. Known for his advanced procedures in capturing images and mood, Cortez was happy to explain to the director, every Sunday for six weeks before shooting began, all the technical aspects of the trade. But soon, he said, the student became the instructor, "not in terms of knowing about the camera but in terms of what he had to say, his ideas for the camera." The two spurred each other on with a collaborative and often unconventional approach. Cortez often took his pictorial inspiration from music, and he suggested the
valse triste to be played on the soundtrack for the scene when Harry murders Willa. He later said that apart from Orson Welles'
The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), the most exciting experience he had working in cinema was on
The Night of the Hunter and that Laughton was the only other director besides Welles who understood his approach to capturing light on film.
In the Lee Server biography of Robert Mitchum, the author described the creation of the famous underwater sequence with Willa's body at the bottom of the river: "To reveal the dead Shelley Winters seated in her car underwater, Laughton desired a bright, ethereal image, her hair floating like seaweed, and a slow, unbroken camera movement rising to the water's surface. Cortez went all over town trying to find a water tank that his lights could penetrate sufficiently, settling on the one owned by Republic Pictures. A platform suspended by a crane held eight blinding Titan sun arcs. Wind machines had to be carefully employed to blow the hair and weeds without making waves. The camera operator and an assistant worked underwater in scuba gear. The amazingly lifelike dead Shelley Winters was a wax dummy."
"Every day the marvelous team that made that picture would meet and discuss the next day's work," Cortez said. "It was designed from day to day in fullest detail, so that the details seemed fresh, fresher than if we had done the whole thing in advance." Gish echoed the sentiment: "I have to go back as far as Griffith to find a set so infused with purpose and harmony....There was never a moment's doubt as to what we were doing or how we were doing it. To please Charles Laughton was our aim. We believed in him and respected him. Totally."
It's all the more heartbreaking, then, that the picture failed so miserably at the box office and that Laughton was, as many people observed, destroyed by its poor reception. Gregory said the main problem during production was United Artists executive Bert Allenberg, who cast Mitchum in the higher-profile, big-budget picture
Not as a Stranger (1955), knowing full well director Stanley Kramer planned to start shooting before
The Night of the Hunter was finished. The action disrupted the filming, forcing Mitchum to return to Laughton's set on Sundays while they shot around him the rest of the week. Those involved have also said United Artists disrupted the film's chances at the box office by burying it while heavily promoting
Not as a Stranger.
by Rob Nixon & Jeff Stafford
Behind the Camera - The Night of the Hunter
It was Robert Mitchum who originally suggested to Laughton that they film The Night of the Hunter in authentic Appalachian locations but the director couldn't afford the budget to do on-location shooting. Besides, he wanted to create the film's unique look on Hollywood sound stages and found what he was looking for at Pathe, Republic studios and the Rowland V. Lee ranch in the San Fernando Valley. Terry and Denis Sanders were dispatched to Ohio to film some second-unit material along the Ohio River.
Robert Mitchum never had a single regret from the minute he agreed to do The Night of the Hunter; he frequently stated over the years it was his best performance and Laughton was his best director. The admiration was mutual. Laughton, who thought Mitchum was "one of the best actors in the world," wrote in Esquire of the private man he knew to be different than the public image: "All this tough talk is a blind, you know. He's a literate, gracious, kind man, with wonderful manners, and he speaks beautifully - when he wants to. He's a tender man and a very great gentleman. You know, he's really terribly shy." Laughton was usually ill at ease with very macho men yet very comfortable with his star. In turn, Mitchum gave a performance that is rather uncharacteristically delicate and seductive, so much so that Lillian Gish feared the director and actor might be undercutting the character's evil. Laughton explained to her, half joking, that he didn't want to ruin Mitchum's future career by pushing him to play total evil, although the touches of humor in the character actually serve to play up the preacher's essentially ludicrous and haywire psychology. And Mitchum's borderline buffoonery makes the children's escape and eventual triumph over him more plausible. Mitchum's performance was seen as a change of pace for the actor, but notoriously unwilling or unable to accept praise for his work, he countered, "I haven't changed anything but my underwear."
With Mitchum on board, the main parts to cast were the children, their mother, and Rachel, the fairy godmother character. For the latter, Laughton wanted and got Gish, one of the most enduring legends of the screen. A combination of delicate grace and steely resolve, Gish had an almost Victorian purity that was perfect for the part. Casting her also confirmed the connection to one of Laughton's main inspirations for the film, D.W. Griffith, in whose pictures Gish had so often starred as a young actress during the silent era. (Laughton repeatedly ran and studied Griffith's films preparing for this picture.) At their initial meeting, Gish asked him why he wanted her for the part; he replied, "When I first went to the movies, they sat in their seats straight and leaned forward. Now they slump down, with their heads back, and eat candy and popcorn. I want them to sit up straight again."
Shelley Winters started her film career being stereotyped as the blonde "babe," but her casting against type as the mousy factory girl in A Place in the Sun (1951) - and the resulting Supporting Actress Oscar nomination she received - convinced directors she had much more to offer. She had occasionally studied acting with Laughton and to Mitchum's considerable dismay, he cast her as the young widowed mother who falls under Harry's spell. "Shelley defeats herself a lot," Mitchum said years later on the Today show, commenting on her reputation for throwing tantrums on movie sets. "She's so self-conscious and so insecure that she visits it on other people, which is unfortunate for her....Shelley got what she deserved, lying there dead at the bottom of the river." Nevertheless, Mitchum was so trustful of Laughton that he put aside his differences with his co-star. As for Winters, she stated that this was "the most thoughtful and reserved performance I ever gave."
Mitchum's faith in the project also helped skirt another potential production problem: Laughton apparently loathed the child actors. Mitchum tried explaining to Billy Chapin (in the key role of John) that he needed to better understand his character and his relationship to the preacher. Chapin, who had a reputation for brattiness, replied, "That's probably why I just won the New York Critics Circle prize." Laughton bellowed, "Get that child away from me!" and from then on Mitchum patiently directed the boy in their scenes together.
According to writer Lee Server in his biography, Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care, Mitchum's "devotion to Laughton and the project had begun to fade by the final week of the thirty-six-day shoot. [Producer Paul] Gregory: "Laughton had a keen thing for Mitchum, and Mitchum said all this sh*t about how he loved Charles, but he was on drugs, drunk, and what have you, and there were times when Charles couldn't get him in front of the camera. He put us through a lot of hell on that. The picture went two hundred thousand dollars over budget." To Gregory, Mitchum at times seemed uncomfortably like the character he was playing. "He was a charmer. An evil son of a bitch with a lot of charm. Mitch sort of scared me, to tell you the truth. I was always on guard. He was often in a state, and you never knew what he would do next. He would be drunk or in a fight with this flunky he kept around, and kicking him all over the place. I came from the world of the theatre and I had never seen anyone quite like this."
Despite these occasional difficulties (Mitchum's drinking, Winters' tantrums, the children's lack of experience), the working atmosphere on The Night of the Hunter was, by all accounts, not only harmonious but inspiring. Laughton had chosen famed cinematographer Stanley Cortez to shoot the picture. Known for his advanced procedures in capturing images and mood, Cortez was happy to explain to the director, every Sunday for six weeks before shooting began, all the technical aspects of the trade. But soon, he said, the student became the instructor, "not in terms of knowing about the camera but in terms of what he had to say, his ideas for the camera." The two spurred each other on with a collaborative and often unconventional approach. Cortez often took his pictorial inspiration from music, and he suggested the valse triste to be played on the soundtrack for the scene when Harry murders Willa. He later said that apart from Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), the most exciting experience he had working in cinema was on The Night of the Hunter and that Laughton was the only other director besides Welles who understood his approach to capturing light on film.
In the Lee Server biography of Robert Mitchum, the author described the creation of the famous underwater sequence with Willa's body at the bottom of the river: "To reveal the dead Shelley Winters seated in her car underwater, Laughton desired a bright, ethereal image, her hair floating like seaweed, and a slow, unbroken camera movement rising to the water's surface. Cortez went all over town trying to find a water tank that his lights could penetrate sufficiently, settling on the one owned by Republic Pictures. A platform suspended by a crane held eight blinding Titan sun arcs. Wind machines had to be carefully employed to blow the hair and weeds without making waves. The camera operator and an assistant worked underwater in scuba gear. The amazingly lifelike dead Shelley Winters was a wax dummy."
"Every day the marvelous team that made that picture would meet and discuss the next day's work," Cortez said. "It was designed from day to day in fullest detail, so that the details seemed fresh, fresher than if we had done the whole thing in advance." Gish echoed the sentiment: "I have to go back as far as Griffith to find a set so infused with purpose and harmony....There was never a moment's doubt as to what we were doing or how we were doing it. To please Charles Laughton was our aim. We believed in him and respected him. Totally."
It's all the more heartbreaking, then, that the picture failed so miserably at the box office and that Laughton was, as many people observed, destroyed by its poor reception. Gregory said the main problem during production was United Artists executive Bert Allenberg, who cast Mitchum in the higher-profile, big-budget picture Not as a Stranger (1955), knowing full well director Stanley Kramer planned to start shooting before The Night of the Hunter was finished. The action disrupted the filming, forcing Mitchum to return to Laughton's set on Sundays while they shot around him the rest of the week. Those involved have also said United Artists disrupted the film's chances at the box office by burying it while heavily promoting Not as a Stranger.
by Rob Nixon & Jeff Stafford
The Night of the Hunter
In his own words, director Charles Laughton described
The Night of the Hunter (1955) as "a nightmarish sort of Mother Goose tale." Based on a popular novel by David Grubb, the film takes place in West Virginia during the Depression and follows a homicidal preacher as he stalks two children, a brother and sister, across the rural landscape. The reason for his pursuit is $10,000 in cash and it's stuffed inside a doll the little girl is carrying.
Laughton worked with James Agee on the screenplay but the famous author of
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men had a severe drinking problem (he died the same year) and the screenplay he delivered was a mammoth script by Hollywood standards that Laughton had to whittle down to an acceptable length. Although Agee biographer Lawrence Bergman maintained that Laughton had to rewrite most of screenplay, the discovery of Agee's first draft of the script in 2004 proved that it reflected Laughton's final release version, almost scene for scene.
Laughton had a much more positive working experience with his second-unit directors, Terry and Denis Sanders, whose documentary film,
A Time Out of War (1954) won an Oscar®, and cinematographer, Stanley Cortez. The latter once remarked: "Apart from
The Magnificent Ambersons, the most exciting experience I have had in the cinema was with Charles Laughton on
Night of the Hunter...every day I consider something new about light, that incredible thing that can't be described. Of the directors I've worked with, only two have understood it: Orson Welles and Charles Laughton."
The casting was also exceptional and Laughton coaxed excellent performances from Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, and Lillian Gish. However, he developed an aversion to the two child actors and when he overheard the little boy, Billy Chapin, brag about winning the New York Critics' Circle Prize for a recent play, Laughton roared, "Get that child away from me." After that, the two children took their direction mostly from Mitchum. The only other problem Laughton encountered was having to juggle his shooting schedule so that Mitchum could begin work on his next film,
Not as a Stranger (1955).
Ignored and misunderstood at the time of its release, except by a handful of critics,
The Night of the Hunter had to wait several decades before it took its rightful place alongside other revered works of the American cinema like John Ford's
The Searchers (1956) and Alfred Hitchcock's
Vertigo (1958). It was the sole directorial effort of actor Charles Laughton and he took the film's commercial failure very hard, abandoning any future plans to direct another film.
Yet,
The Night of the Hunter is anything but a failure and is chock full of riches: Robert Mitchum creates a chilling portrait of evil in one of his finest performances (and one of his personal favorites); the rock-steady presence of Lillian Gish is both a homage and a direct link to the films of D.W. Griffith, the film pioneer Laughton pays tribute to with this movie; the shimmering beauty of Stanley Cortez's cinematography also recalls the shadows and lighting of other silent era classics by Fritz Lang and Josef von Sternberg, and the music score by Walter Schumann is unusually evocative, mixing hymns, children's songs, and orchestral effects.
Director: Charles Laughton
Producer: Paul Gregory
Screenplay: James Agee, Charles Laughton (uncredited), based on the novel by Davis Grubb
Cinematography: Stanley Cortez
Editor: Robert Golden
Art Direction: Hilyard Brown
Music: Walter Schumann
Cast: Robert Mitchum (Rev. Harry Powell), Shelley Winters (Willa Harper), Lillian Gish (Rachel Cooper), James Gleason (Birdie Steptoe), Evelyn Varden (Icey Spoon).
BW-93m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.
by Jeff Stafford
The Night of the Hunter
In his own words, director Charles Laughton described The Night of the Hunter (1955) as "a nightmarish sort of Mother Goose tale." Based on a popular novel by David Grubb, the film takes place in West Virginia during the Depression and follows a homicidal preacher as he stalks two children, a brother and sister, across the rural landscape. The reason for his pursuit is $10,000 in cash and it's stuffed inside a doll the little girl is carrying.
Laughton worked with James Agee on the screenplay but the famous author of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men had a severe drinking problem (he died the same year) and the screenplay he delivered was a mammoth script by Hollywood standards that Laughton had to whittle down to an acceptable length. Although Agee biographer Lawrence Bergman maintained that Laughton had to rewrite most of screenplay, the discovery of Agee's first draft of the script in 2004 proved that it reflected Laughton's final release version, almost scene for scene.
Laughton had a much more positive working experience with his second-unit directors, Terry and Denis Sanders, whose documentary film, A Time Out of War (1954) won an Oscar®, and cinematographer, Stanley Cortez. The latter once remarked: "Apart from The Magnificent Ambersons, the most exciting experience I have had in the cinema was with Charles Laughton on Night of the Hunter...every day I consider something new about light, that incredible thing that can't be described. Of the directors I've worked with, only two have understood it: Orson Welles and Charles Laughton."
The casting was also exceptional and Laughton coaxed excellent performances from Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, and Lillian Gish. However, he developed an aversion to the two child actors and when he overheard the little boy, Billy Chapin, brag about winning the New York Critics' Circle Prize for a recent play, Laughton roared, "Get that child away from me." After that, the two children took their direction mostly from Mitchum. The only other problem Laughton encountered was having to juggle his shooting schedule so that Mitchum could begin work on his next film, Not as a Stranger (1955).
Ignored and misunderstood at the time of its release, except by a handful of critics, The Night of the Hunter had to wait several decades before it took its rightful place alongside other revered works of the American cinema like John Ford's The Searchers (1956) and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958). It was the sole directorial effort of actor Charles Laughton and he took the film's commercial failure very hard, abandoning any future plans to direct another film.
Yet, The Night of the Hunter is anything but a failure and is chock full of riches: Robert Mitchum creates a chilling portrait of evil in one of his finest performances (and one of his personal favorites); the rock-steady presence of Lillian Gish is both a homage and a direct link to the films of D.W. Griffith, the film pioneer Laughton pays tribute to with this movie; the shimmering beauty of Stanley Cortez's cinematography also recalls the shadows and lighting of other silent era classics by Fritz Lang and Josef von Sternberg, and the music score by Walter Schumann is unusually evocative, mixing hymns, children's songs, and orchestral effects.
Director: Charles Laughton
Producer: Paul Gregory
Screenplay: James Agee, Charles Laughton (uncredited), based on the novel by Davis Grubb
Cinematography: Stanley Cortez
Editor: Robert Golden
Art Direction: Hilyard Brown
Music: Walter Schumann
Cast: Robert Mitchum (Rev. Harry Powell), Shelley Winters (Willa Harper), Lillian Gish (Rachel Cooper), James Gleason (Birdie Steptoe), Evelyn Varden (Icey Spoon).
BW-93m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.
by Jeff Stafford
The Night of the Hunter (Critierion) - Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters & Lillian Gish in Charles Laughton's THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER on DVD
The Night of the Hunter, the only film directed by Charles Laughton, still takes audiences by surprise. Its jarring
blend of Southern Gothic mania, silent film technique and expressionistic effects is unlike that of any movie made before or
since. Mr. Laughton and his screenwriter James Agee infuse their story of a murderer posing as a preacher with visual and
aural poetry. The result is a psychological portrait of rural America preyed upon by perverse forces of twisted sex and
religion. The movie ignores many mainstream cinematic conventions to instead challenge its audience on an emotional, primal
level. A blast of music transforms a charging locomotive into a demon from hell, representing as it does the malevolent
"preacher" Harry Powell (Mitchum), a wolf in sheep's clothing who uses a switchblade for a cross. Harry meets his match in the
tough old mother hen Miss Cooper (Lillian Gish), an angel of goodness who protects orphans lost in the Great Depression. Miss
Cooper addresses curious, soulful nuggets of wisdom directly to the camera: "Children are Man at his strongest. They abide".
The frightening story is told partially from the point of view of small children. Hiding behind his Bible, serial killer Harry
Powell charms Willa Harper (Shelley Winters), hoping to discover where her dead husband hid $10 thousand in stolen money. Soon
after their marriage, Powell sets to extracting the secret of the money from Willa's children. Tiny Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce)
is willing to accept her new daddy, but the older John (Billy Chapin) sees through Powell's deception and holds firm. Nobody
is on John's side. His mother thinks he's holding on to his father's bad example, and the nosy Icey Spoon (Evelyn Varden)
considers John a bad boy who "needs a dose of salts".
The unenthusiastic advertising campaign for
The Night of the Hunter promised a racy thriller. The few ticket buyers
must have been surprised to find an arty concoction stacked with exaggerated sets and stylized performances, and it
disappeared from screens almost immediately. Long a buried cinematic treasure, the film now excites and energizes audiences
with its nonconformist artistry. Filmmaker Spike Lee appropriated the film's show-stopping set piece, Harry Powell's
insultingly simplistic dramatization of the conflict between good and evil using the words "Love" and "Hate" tattooed on his
fingers. But no film has come near Laughton and production designer Hilyard Brown's stylized representation of Depression-era
Ohio. The dreamlike nighttime landscape is represented by artificial cutout hills and twinkling stars that resemble graphics
from a child's story book. The frame house of the newly widowed Willa Harper (Shelley Winters) appears to be only a few feet
deep, while an entire neighboring farm is rendered in only two dimensions, like a child's diorama. The film's daytime scenes
are more realistic yet present equally disturbing social content.1950s audiences weren't accustomed to images of hungry
orphans begging door to door for castoff potatoes, or small children threatened by a sex murderer. The movie also dares to
present down-home religion as essentially malign, an influence for conformism and hypocrisy.
The movie evokes comparisons with classic cinematic forms but doesn't fully align with any of them. One acknowledged influence
is the silent classics of D.W. Griffith, as seen in the harmonious pictorials of the film's farm scenes and the presence of
Griffith's iconic star Lillian Gish. Cinematographer Stanley Cortez ends one scene with a classic Griffith iris transition,
performed in-camera. Yet the movie also uses helicopter shots, which in 1955 were not the norm in Hollywood fare. Laughton
contrasts his bucolic daylight images with elements more at home in expressionist horror. Harry Powell's hulking silhouette is
a
Caligari- like nightmare, whether looming on a hilltop or drifting across the screen on the back of a mule, singing a
hymn. The Harper basement becomes a pit surrounded by darkness and connected to reality by a diagonal staircase. When Harry is
overtaken by the rapture of the "religion that God and me worked out betwixt us", Willa's bedchamber transforms into a
perverse church, complete with a steeple formed by stabbing slivers of light.
The Night of the Hunter's stylized performances also take audiences by surprise. Robert Mitchum is amazing as the
insane Harry Powell, who charms women with his romantic good looks and silences critics with his false piety. The more
outrageous the charlatan's holy talk, the more the unthinking faithful accept him. Evelyn Varden's wickedly accurate Icey
Spoon is a domineering church matron whose pea-brained endorsement enables Powell to do his dirty work. Powell need only bat
his eyes at the love-starved Ruby (Gloria Castilo) and she'll do whatever he wants. Little Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce) is
Powell's toughest conquest -- he never quite undermines Pearl's loyalty to her brother John (Billy Chapin) and must finally
resort to threats of violence. These scenes were surely a major turn-off for the '50s audience. Filmmakers tread on thin ice
when they put children in jeopardy, and five year-old Sally Jane appears genuinely surprised when Mitchum talks tough and
flicks a switchblade right in front of her nose. What kind of stage mother would trust her child with Hollywood's most
unpredictable bad boy?
The most disturbing content comes straight from Davis Grubb's novel. Harry Powell psychologically torments Willa Harper with
guilt for her dead husband's crimes and shame for her own "filthy" sexuality. Numbed into submission and deprived of her
better judgment, Willa denies obvious evidence of her new husband's murderous intentions. She instead accepts Powell as her
savior and retreats into a fantasy of religious harmony. The film's mix of sex, violence and religious hysteria is potent
stuff.
Charles Laughton's scathing criticism of "old time religion" as a repressive source of evil doesn't stop with the character of
Harry Powell. The sanctimonious Icey Spoon and her self-righteous ilk are easily converted into a drunken lynch mob. This
assault on degraded religious values might have attracted controversy had audiences seen
The Night of the Hunter in
large numbers. It was in fact rejected for exhibition in some parts of the South. The film's positive alternative to
revivalism is Miss Cooper's home-based Bible teaching. Cooper forgoes paternal authoritarianism and instead teaches by
example, stressing the positive values of understanding and forgiveness. She can be a nag but she also possesses natural
wisdom. When her errant ward Ruby tearfully confesses that she's been skipping sewing lessons to "go with men", Miss Cooper
offers sympathy, not condemnation or guilt: "You were just looking for love, Ruby, in the only foolish way you knew how".
The Night of the Hunter creates its own cosmos, with an absent father, a protective mother figure and a horrid devil.
In the film's most inspired sequence the children flee from Powell in a small boat and find a brief respite suspended between
twinkling stars and the dark river. A host of nocturnal animals watch them from the riverbanks. Are the rabbits, frogs and
turtles there to protect the fugitives, or do they represent an indifferent nature? John and Pearl are ill equipped to survive
in this uncivilized wilderness, but their spiritual innocence forms a momentary shield from fear. Pearl sings a beautiful,
eerie tune that appears to transport their skiff past the spider's web and away from Powell, to safety. Her song makes the
night bearable.
Producer Paul Gregory remembers that United Artists took one look and decided that Laughton's film was too arty to be a
commercial contender. They were right in a broad sense, but a customized art-film release could have turned the movie into an
"event" picture. From the middle 1930s on United Artists became the distributor of many independent productions, often films
with content deemed uncommercial, whether politically controversial (
So Ends Our Night), socially critical (
The
Underworld Story) or stylistically radical (
Kiss Me Deadly). Charles Laughton was reportedly deeply discouraged by
the commercial failure of his labor of love, which found recognition as a classic only long after he was gone.
Criterion's two-disc Blu-ray of
The Night of the Hunter completely eclipses MGM's DVD from 2000. The full restoration
and digital cleanup treatment given this marvelously filmed B&W show results in something beautiful to behold. We feel we can
reach out and touch Jack Rabin's painted moon, and the contrast between the "Griffith" farm scenes and the "Caligari" night
scenes is even more acute.
Expect some web grousing about the transfer's chosen aspect ratio, an absolutely correct, slightly matted widescreen 1.66:1.
This wasn't done to fill HD monitors but to honor the film's original screen shape. Viewers accustomed to flat TV prints and
videos will miss two or three bravura shots -- the wider view of the basement, the murder scene in the vaulted-ceiling bedroom
-- that looked even more radical when projected full-frame. But the rest of the movie has plenty of dead space above and
below, and for one interior night farm scene an open matte peers right over the top of the cyclorama backing, into the rafters
of the sound stage. Criterion has chosen the right scan for their transfer.
The feature comes with a composite commentary featuring input from critic F.X. Feeney, author Preston Neal Jones, and
The
Night of the Hunter's second unit director Terry Sanders. UCLA Film Archives' restoration expert Robert Gitt is also
present on the track. Criterion disc producer Issa Clubb includes plenty of rare prime-source extra content. A new documentary
combines film clips and photos with the recollections of producer Paul Gregory to present a full picture of the film's
production. In a new interview, Charles Laughton biographer Simon Callow discusses
The Night of the Hunter in terms of
its director, making the case that Laughton's awareness of the persecution of gays contributed to the film's critical look at
religious hypocrisy. A 1995 BBC introduction to the movie features interviews with the late actors Robert Mitchum, Shelley
Winters and Lillian Gish. It shows how misinformation can become history when Mitchum incorrectly asserts that Laughton didn't
use much of screenwriter James Agee's work. Cinematographer Stanley Cortez is given his own video showcase in a 1985 French TV
interview filmed at the A.S.C.'s Hollywood clubhouse. Also included are author Davis Grubb's concept sketches and a clip
from
The Ed Sullivan Show with Peter Graves and Shelley Winters performing a scene cut from the movie. The film's
ineffective, forgettable original trailer is also included.
Criterion's second Blu-ray disc makes
The Night of the Hunter the year's most intriguing video release, bar none. It
contains
Charles Laughton Directs "Night of the Hunter", archivist Robert Gitt's eye-opening 150-minute presentation
that until now has been screened only under special circumstances. Several decades ago Laughton's widow Elsa Lanchester turned
over to Gitt hours of film kept by her husband, 35mm daily rolls of picture and audio. The outtakes document the entire
filming, showing Laughton's impressive directing style in full detail. It's fascinating to hear him shape the performances by
leaving the camera running while he coaches his actors. Laughton has the confidence of his cast and is especially good at
obtaining precise performances from his child actors. Young Billy Chapin comes off as a responsive professional and 5 year-old
Sally Jane Bruce exhibits remarkable concentration under Laughton's sensitive, nurturing direction. Laughton is harsher with
Shelley Winters but this seems a method of helping her maintain a certain level of anxiety. Neither actor nor director loses
concentration or shows any irritation. Asked to say a quick prayer before one of her revival speeches, Ms. Winters blurts out
what sounds like a line of Hebrew! But nobody laughs, as this is serious business.
The two hours of dailies never become tedious. We see one older actor replaced and watch many Lillian Gish outtakes where
she's more conventionally sentimental than she appears in the final film. When Evelyn Varden recites her dicey dialogue about
sex with her husband, we see a variety of Don Beddoe's humiliated reactions, while Ms. Varden tries her best to conceal her
awareness of the sly joke during stage waits, after "cut" is called. The biggest surprise of the dailies is Robert Mitchum,
who has his character down pat at all times and receives little or no verbal direction from Laughton. Mitchum is professional
with the kids and gentle with little Sally Jane -- no matter how threatening he becomes, she just keeps staring at him with
her saucer eyes. Respecting the children and his director, Mitchum at one point seems to catch himself before saying something
profane. Like everyone else, he gives a big performance and relies on Laughton to tame it down later. His famous scream in the
river seems to have been created in post-production. In dailies, Mitchum shouts out short barking noises instead of a long,
Edvard Munch-like scream. Perhaps Mitchum saw his character as sort of a demonic, cowardly animal?
Robert Gitt also leaves room for clips of the film's excellent special effects by Louis De Witt and Jack Rabin. We see
individually filmed animals and a fake spider's web combined optically for the river escape scene. Several nearly undetectable
mattes combine sets and twinkling stars, and add a Mississippi riverboat to a scene filmed in Southern California.
For its contribution to cinema history, Criterion's
The Night of the Hunter Blu-ray is the outstanding home video
release of the year.
For more information about
The Night of the Hunter, visit
The Criterion Collection. To order
The Night of the Hunter, go to
TCM
Shopping.
by Glenn Erickson
The Night of the Hunter (Critierion) - Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters & Lillian Gish in Charles Laughton's THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER on DVD
The Night of the Hunter, the only film directed by Charles Laughton, still takes audiences by surprise. Its jarring
blend of Southern Gothic mania, silent film technique and expressionistic effects is unlike that of any movie made before or
since. Mr. Laughton and his screenwriter James Agee infuse their story of a murderer posing as a preacher with visual and
aural poetry. The result is a psychological portrait of rural America preyed upon by perverse forces of twisted sex and
religion. The movie ignores many mainstream cinematic conventions to instead challenge its audience on an emotional, primal
level. A blast of music transforms a charging locomotive into a demon from hell, representing as it does the malevolent
"preacher" Harry Powell (Mitchum), a wolf in sheep's clothing who uses a switchblade for a cross. Harry meets his match in the
tough old mother hen Miss Cooper (Lillian Gish), an angel of goodness who protects orphans lost in the Great Depression. Miss
Cooper addresses curious, soulful nuggets of wisdom directly to the camera: "Children are Man at his strongest. They abide".
The frightening story is told partially from the point of view of small children. Hiding behind his Bible, serial killer Harry
Powell charms Willa Harper (Shelley Winters), hoping to discover where her dead husband hid $10 thousand in stolen money. Soon
after their marriage, Powell sets to extracting the secret of the money from Willa's children. Tiny Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce)
is willing to accept her new daddy, but the older John (Billy Chapin) sees through Powell's deception and holds firm. Nobody
is on John's side. His mother thinks he's holding on to his father's bad example, and the nosy Icey Spoon (Evelyn Varden)
considers John a bad boy who "needs a dose of salts".
The unenthusiastic advertising campaign for The Night of the Hunter promised a racy thriller. The few ticket buyers
must have been surprised to find an arty concoction stacked with exaggerated sets and stylized performances, and it
disappeared from screens almost immediately. Long a buried cinematic treasure, the film now excites and energizes audiences
with its nonconformist artistry. Filmmaker Spike Lee appropriated the film's show-stopping set piece, Harry Powell's
insultingly simplistic dramatization of the conflict between good and evil using the words "Love" and "Hate" tattooed on his
fingers. But no film has come near Laughton and production designer Hilyard Brown's stylized representation of Depression-era
Ohio. The dreamlike nighttime landscape is represented by artificial cutout hills and twinkling stars that resemble graphics
from a child's story book. The frame house of the newly widowed Willa Harper (Shelley Winters) appears to be only a few feet
deep, while an entire neighboring farm is rendered in only two dimensions, like a child's diorama. The film's daytime scenes
are more realistic yet present equally disturbing social content.1950s audiences weren't accustomed to images of hungry
orphans begging door to door for castoff potatoes, or small children threatened by a sex murderer. The movie also dares to
present down-home religion as essentially malign, an influence for conformism and hypocrisy.
The movie evokes comparisons with classic cinematic forms but doesn't fully align with any of them. One acknowledged influence
is the silent classics of D.W. Griffith, as seen in the harmonious pictorials of the film's farm scenes and the presence of
Griffith's iconic star Lillian Gish. Cinematographer Stanley Cortez ends one scene with a classic Griffith iris transition,
performed in-camera. Yet the movie also uses helicopter shots, which in 1955 were not the norm in Hollywood fare. Laughton
contrasts his bucolic daylight images with elements more at home in expressionist horror. Harry Powell's hulking silhouette is
a Caligari- like nightmare, whether looming on a hilltop or drifting across the screen on the back of a mule, singing a
hymn. The Harper basement becomes a pit surrounded by darkness and connected to reality by a diagonal staircase. When Harry is
overtaken by the rapture of the "religion that God and me worked out betwixt us", Willa's bedchamber transforms into a
perverse church, complete with a steeple formed by stabbing slivers of light.
The Night of the Hunter's stylized performances also take audiences by surprise. Robert Mitchum is amazing as the
insane Harry Powell, who charms women with his romantic good looks and silences critics with his false piety. The more
outrageous the charlatan's holy talk, the more the unthinking faithful accept him. Evelyn Varden's wickedly accurate Icey
Spoon is a domineering church matron whose pea-brained endorsement enables Powell to do his dirty work. Powell need only bat
his eyes at the love-starved Ruby (Gloria Castilo) and she'll do whatever he wants. Little Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce) is
Powell's toughest conquest -- he never quite undermines Pearl's loyalty to her brother John (Billy Chapin) and must finally
resort to threats of violence. These scenes were surely a major turn-off for the '50s audience. Filmmakers tread on thin ice
when they put children in jeopardy, and five year-old Sally Jane appears genuinely surprised when Mitchum talks tough and
flicks a switchblade right in front of her nose. What kind of stage mother would trust her child with Hollywood's most
unpredictable bad boy?
The most disturbing content comes straight from Davis Grubb's novel. Harry Powell psychologically torments Willa Harper with
guilt for her dead husband's crimes and shame for her own "filthy" sexuality. Numbed into submission and deprived of her
better judgment, Willa denies obvious evidence of her new husband's murderous intentions. She instead accepts Powell as her
savior and retreats into a fantasy of religious harmony. The film's mix of sex, violence and religious hysteria is potent
stuff.
Charles Laughton's scathing criticism of "old time religion" as a repressive source of evil doesn't stop with the character of
Harry Powell. The sanctimonious Icey Spoon and her self-righteous ilk are easily converted into a drunken lynch mob. This
assault on degraded religious values might have attracted controversy had audiences seen The Night of the Hunter in
large numbers. It was in fact rejected for exhibition in some parts of the South. The film's positive alternative to
revivalism is Miss Cooper's home-based Bible teaching. Cooper forgoes paternal authoritarianism and instead teaches by
example, stressing the positive values of understanding and forgiveness. She can be a nag but she also possesses natural
wisdom. When her errant ward Ruby tearfully confesses that she's been skipping sewing lessons to "go with men", Miss Cooper
offers sympathy, not condemnation or guilt: "You were just looking for love, Ruby, in the only foolish way you knew how".
The Night of the Hunter creates its own cosmos, with an absent father, a protective mother figure and a horrid devil.
In the film's most inspired sequence the children flee from Powell in a small boat and find a brief respite suspended between
twinkling stars and the dark river. A host of nocturnal animals watch them from the riverbanks. Are the rabbits, frogs and
turtles there to protect the fugitives, or do they represent an indifferent nature? John and Pearl are ill equipped to survive
in this uncivilized wilderness, but their spiritual innocence forms a momentary shield from fear. Pearl sings a beautiful,
eerie tune that appears to transport their skiff past the spider's web and away from Powell, to safety. Her song makes the
night bearable.
Producer Paul Gregory remembers that United Artists took one look and decided that Laughton's film was too arty to be a
commercial contender. They were right in a broad sense, but a customized art-film release could have turned the movie into an
"event" picture. From the middle 1930s on United Artists became the distributor of many independent productions, often films
with content deemed uncommercial, whether politically controversial (So Ends Our Night), socially critical (The
Underworld Story) or stylistically radical (Kiss Me Deadly). Charles Laughton was reportedly deeply discouraged by
the commercial failure of his labor of love, which found recognition as a classic only long after he was gone.
Criterion's two-disc Blu-ray of The Night of the Hunter completely eclipses MGM's DVD from 2000. The full restoration
and digital cleanup treatment given this marvelously filmed B&W show results in something beautiful to behold. We feel we can
reach out and touch Jack Rabin's painted moon, and the contrast between the "Griffith" farm scenes and the "Caligari" night
scenes is even more acute.
Expect some web grousing about the transfer's chosen aspect ratio, an absolutely correct, slightly matted widescreen 1.66:1.
This wasn't done to fill HD monitors but to honor the film's original screen shape. Viewers accustomed to flat TV prints and
videos will miss two or three bravura shots -- the wider view of the basement, the murder scene in the vaulted-ceiling bedroom
-- that looked even more radical when projected full-frame. But the rest of the movie has plenty of dead space above and
below, and for one interior night farm scene an open matte peers right over the top of the cyclorama backing, into the rafters
of the sound stage. Criterion has chosen the right scan for their transfer.
The feature comes with a composite commentary featuring input from critic F.X. Feeney, author Preston Neal Jones, and The
Night of the Hunter's second unit director Terry Sanders. UCLA Film Archives' restoration expert Robert Gitt is also
present on the track. Criterion disc producer Issa Clubb includes plenty of rare prime-source extra content. A new documentary
combines film clips and photos with the recollections of producer Paul Gregory to present a full picture of the film's
production. In a new interview, Charles Laughton biographer Simon Callow discusses The Night of the Hunter in terms of
its director, making the case that Laughton's awareness of the persecution of gays contributed to the film's critical look at
religious hypocrisy. A 1995 BBC introduction to the movie features interviews with the late actors Robert Mitchum, Shelley
Winters and Lillian Gish. It shows how misinformation can become history when Mitchum incorrectly asserts that Laughton didn't
use much of screenwriter James Agee's work. Cinematographer Stanley Cortez is given his own video showcase in a 1985 French TV
interview filmed at the A.S.C.'s Hollywood clubhouse. Also included are author Davis Grubb's concept sketches and a clip
fromThe Ed Sullivan Show with Peter Graves and Shelley Winters performing a scene cut from the movie. The film's
ineffective, forgettable original trailer is also included.
Criterion's second Blu-ray disc makes The Night of the Hunter the year's most intriguing video release, bar none. It
contains Charles Laughton Directs "Night of the Hunter", archivist Robert Gitt's eye-opening 150-minute presentation
that until now has been screened only under special circumstances. Several decades ago Laughton's widow Elsa Lanchester turned
over to Gitt hours of film kept by her husband, 35mm daily rolls of picture and audio. The outtakes document the entire
filming, showing Laughton's impressive directing style in full detail. It's fascinating to hear him shape the performances by
leaving the camera running while he coaches his actors. Laughton has the confidence of his cast and is especially good at
obtaining precise performances from his child actors. Young Billy Chapin comes off as a responsive professional and 5 year-old
Sally Jane Bruce exhibits remarkable concentration under Laughton's sensitive, nurturing direction. Laughton is harsher with
Shelley Winters but this seems a method of helping her maintain a certain level of anxiety. Neither actor nor director loses
concentration or shows any irritation. Asked to say a quick prayer before one of her revival speeches, Ms. Winters blurts out
what sounds like a line of Hebrew! But nobody laughs, as this is serious business.
The two hours of dailies never become tedious. We see one older actor replaced and watch many Lillian Gish outtakes where
she's more conventionally sentimental than she appears in the final film. When Evelyn Varden recites her dicey dialogue about
sex with her husband, we see a variety of Don Beddoe's humiliated reactions, while Ms. Varden tries her best to conceal her
awareness of the sly joke during stage waits, after "cut" is called. The biggest surprise of the dailies is Robert Mitchum,
who has his character down pat at all times and receives little or no verbal direction from Laughton. Mitchum is professional
with the kids and gentle with little Sally Jane -- no matter how threatening he becomes, she just keeps staring at him with
her saucer eyes. Respecting the children and his director, Mitchum at one point seems to catch himself before saying something
profane. Like everyone else, he gives a big performance and relies on Laughton to tame it down later. His famous scream in the
river seems to have been created in post-production. In dailies, Mitchum shouts out short barking noises instead of a long,
Edvard Munch-like scream. Perhaps Mitchum saw his character as sort of a demonic, cowardly animal?
Robert Gitt also leaves room for clips of the film's excellent special effects by Louis De Witt and Jack Rabin. We see
individually filmed animals and a fake spider's web combined optically for the river escape scene. Several nearly undetectable
mattes combine sets and twinkling stars, and add a Mississippi riverboat to a scene filmed in Southern California.
For its contribution to cinema history, Criterion's The Night of the Hunter Blu-ray is the outstanding home video
release of the year.
For more information about The Night of the Hunter, visit The Criterion Collection. To order The Night of the Hunter, go to
TCM
Shopping.
by Glenn Erickson
Critics' Corner - The Night of the Hunter
AWARDS & HONORS:
In 1992, the National Film Preservation Board selected
The Night of the Hunter to be preserved in the Library of Congress National Film Registry.
The Critics' Corner: THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
"The atmosphere of the sticks is intense, and Robert Mitchum plays the murderous minister with an icy unctuousness that gives you the chills. There is more than malevolence and menace in his character. There is a strong trace of Freudian aberration, fanaticism, and iniquity. É [Laughton] has got out of Shelley Winters a grueling performance as the vapid widow and wife. The scene of the wedding-night of Miss Winters and the preacher is one of the most devastating of its sort since Von Stroheim's
Greed [1925]." - Bosley Crowther,
The New York Times, September 30, 1955
"A remarkably effective scene has Miss Winters, now spirited, confessing her sins and asking forgiveness at a prayer meeting after she is persuaded into marriage by Mitchum." -
Variety, July 20, 1955.
"From its opening moment, with the face of Lillian Gish magically materializing out of a star-filled sky, to its last shot of a snow-covered farm house as comfortably banal as a calendar illustration,
The Night of the Hunter is one of the more unclassifiable films ever made. É As directed by Charles Laughton, this 1955 production is a film of looming expressionist shadows, homespun back-fence chatter, psychopathic sexual craving, and victorious maternal wisdom. It is also along with Lang's
Moonfleet [1955] and Erice's
Spirit of the Beehive [1973], one of the finest, truest portraits of the childhood experience." - David Ehrenstein,
Los Angeles Reader, May 1982.
"Despite its peculiar overtones of humor, this is one of the most frightening movies ever made (and truly frightening movies become classics of a kind). É The two kids' flight from the madman is a mysterious, dream-like episode - a deliberately "artistic" suspense fantasy, broken by the appearance of a Christian variety fairy godmother." - Pauline Kael,
The New Yorker, January 1983.
"A distinctly American Gothic interpretation of German Expressionism, with tilt pans, Stanley Cortez's moody cinematography, and a startling appearance of Lillian Gish as the incarnation of Good combating Mitchum's unreconstructed Evil. A movie about the American nightmare of greed, about the precipitous experience of two innocents, about the triumph of spirit over will,
The Night of the Hunter embodies the evil of Pox Americana and its transcendence." - Carrie Rickey,
The Village Voice, January 1983.
"While many films are spoken of as offbeat or unusual, it generally becomes evident with the passing of time that these films are more conventional than they once appeared to be. É It remains possible, however, for an occasional film to be extremely idiosyncratic, and one film that may be so described is
The Night of the Hunter, the only film directed by the celebrated actor Charles Laughton. This work remains unexpected and strange after 25 years; far from being simply a curiosity, however, it is an important achievement, reflecting directly the influence of the silent cinema in a highly personal way." - Blake Lucas,
Magill's Survey of the Cinema (Series I, Vol. 3).
"The film runs counter to the rules of commercialism; it will probably be Laughton's single experience as a director. It's a pity, for despite failures of style,
The Night of the Hunter is immensely inventive. It's like a horrifying news item retold by small children. É It makes us fall in love again with an experimental cinema that truly
experiments, and a cinema of discovery that, in fact,
discovers." - Francois Truffaut, 1956 (reprinted in
The Films in My Life, Simon & Schuster, 1975).
"Rumor has it that the final shooting script of
The Night of the Hunter was one-third Laughton, one-third James Agee, and one-third Davis Grubb. Be that what it may,
The Night of the Hunter displays a striking visual style, almost semi-Germanic Griffith, which is completely lacking in the Huston-Agee-Forester
The African Queen [1951]É. Moral: Directors, not writers, are the ultimate auteurs of the cinema, at least of cinema that has any visual meaning and merit." - Andrew Sarris,
The American Cinema (Dutton, 1968).
"It is easy to see, however, that
Night of the Hunter would never be a popular hit. Not only is the subject matter complex, the movie itself has a poetic and imagistic density which make it somewhat indigestible on first viewing. It benefits enormously from being seen twice, or more - something that can be expected of no popular audience; in fact, it would be correct to say it
needs to be seen twice. It doesn't grab you by the lapel; it tries to suck you in." - Simon Callow,
Charles Laughton: A Difficult Actor (Grove, 1987).
"First time viewers are invariably startled by how weird and how brilliant is Charles Laughton's movie adaptation of Davis Grubb's riveting best-seller. It is a fascinating, truly unique work." - Danny Peary,
Cult Movies 3 (Fireside).
Compiled by Rob Nixon & Jeff Stafford
Critics' Corner - The Night of the Hunter
AWARDS & HONORS:
In 1992, the National Film Preservation Board selected The Night of the Hunter to be preserved in the Library of Congress National Film Registry.
The Critics' Corner: THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
"The atmosphere of the sticks is intense, and Robert Mitchum plays the murderous minister with an icy unctuousness that gives you the chills. There is more than malevolence and menace in his character. There is a strong trace of Freudian aberration, fanaticism, and iniquity. É [Laughton] has got out of Shelley Winters a grueling performance as the vapid widow and wife. The scene of the wedding-night of Miss Winters and the preacher is one of the most devastating of its sort since Von Stroheim's Greed [1925]." - Bosley Crowther, The New York Times, September 30, 1955
"A remarkably effective scene has Miss Winters, now spirited, confessing her sins and asking forgiveness at a prayer meeting after she is persuaded into marriage by Mitchum." - Variety, July 20, 1955.
"From its opening moment, with the face of Lillian Gish magically materializing out of a star-filled sky, to its last shot of a snow-covered farm house as comfortably banal as a calendar illustration, The Night of the Hunter is one of the more unclassifiable films ever made. É As directed by Charles Laughton, this 1955 production is a film of looming expressionist shadows, homespun back-fence chatter, psychopathic sexual craving, and victorious maternal wisdom. It is also along with Lang's Moonfleet [1955] and Erice's Spirit of the Beehive [1973], one of the finest, truest portraits of the childhood experience." - David Ehrenstein, Los Angeles Reader, May 1982.
"Despite its peculiar overtones of humor, this is one of the most frightening movies ever made (and truly frightening movies become classics of a kind). É The two kids' flight from the madman is a mysterious, dream-like episode - a deliberately "artistic" suspense fantasy, broken by the appearance of a Christian variety fairy godmother." - Pauline Kael, The New Yorker, January 1983.
"A distinctly American Gothic interpretation of German Expressionism, with tilt pans, Stanley Cortez's moody cinematography, and a startling appearance of Lillian Gish as the incarnation of Good combating Mitchum's unreconstructed Evil. A movie about the American nightmare of greed, about the precipitous experience of two innocents, about the triumph of spirit over will, The Night of the Hunter embodies the evil of Pox Americana and its transcendence." - Carrie Rickey, The Village Voice, January 1983.
"While many films are spoken of as offbeat or unusual, it generally becomes evident with the passing of time that these films are more conventional than they once appeared to be. É It remains possible, however, for an occasional film to be extremely idiosyncratic, and one film that may be so described is The Night of the Hunter, the only film directed by the celebrated actor Charles Laughton. This work remains unexpected and strange after 25 years; far from being simply a curiosity, however, it is an important achievement, reflecting directly the influence of the silent cinema in a highly personal way." - Blake Lucas, Magill's Survey of the Cinema (Series I, Vol. 3).
"The film runs counter to the rules of commercialism; it will probably be Laughton's single experience as a director. It's a pity, for despite failures of style, The Night of the Hunter is immensely inventive. It's like a horrifying news item retold by small children. É It makes us fall in love again with an experimental cinema that truly experiments, and a cinema of discovery that, in fact, discovers." - Francois Truffaut, 1956 (reprinted in The Films in My Life, Simon & Schuster, 1975).
"Rumor has it that the final shooting script of The Night of the Hunter was one-third Laughton, one-third James Agee, and one-third Davis Grubb. Be that what it may, The Night of the Hunter displays a striking visual style, almost semi-Germanic Griffith, which is completely lacking in the Huston-Agee-Forester The African Queen [1951]É. Moral: Directors, not writers, are the ultimate auteurs of the cinema, at least of cinema that has any visual meaning and merit." - Andrew Sarris, The American Cinema (Dutton, 1968).
"It is easy to see, however, that Night of the Hunter would never be a popular hit. Not only is the subject matter complex, the movie itself has a poetic and imagistic density which make it somewhat indigestible on first viewing. It benefits enormously from being seen twice, or more - something that can be expected of no popular audience; in fact, it would be correct to say it needs to be seen twice. It doesn't grab you by the lapel; it tries to suck you in." - Simon Callow, Charles Laughton: A Difficult Actor (Grove, 1987).
"First time viewers are invariably startled by how weird and how brilliant is Charles Laughton's movie adaptation of Davis Grubb's riveting best-seller. It is a fascinating, truly unique work." - Danny Peary, Cult Movies 3 (Fireside).
Compiled by Rob Nixon & Jeff Stafford
Heaven and Hell to Play With: The Filming of The Night of the Hunter
"This is the story of the making of
The Night of the Hunter, which in my opinion is the greatest picture ever made, as told by all the people involved in making it. A must-read for all film makers and students of the cinema."
- Christopher Lee, actor, (
Horror of Dracula, The Lord of the Rings trilogy)
"A splendid, completely absorbing oral history...This is a celebratory book. (It) is an important book, as well. (It) transcends
The Night of the Hunter and becomes a fascinating exploration of the private sources of art, and the evolution of artists."
- Filmfax, July/September 2005
"...offers the kind of back story actually worth one's undivided attention."
- Film Comment, March 2003
It was Mother Goose with goose bumps. It scared the living Levis off a young kid in Maine named Stephen King, and it has had the same impact on many another child and grown-up. It drew inspiration from D.W. Griffith and the German expressionists, but there has never been another movie, before or since, like
The Night of the Hunter.
Although
The Night of the Hunter wasn't a hit when it was released in 1955, today it boasts the honor of inclusion in the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress as well as a ranking among the American Film Institute's "100 Greatest Thrillers."
In Heaven & Hell to Play With: The Filming of The Night of the Hunter (Limelight Editions), published by Limelight Editions, author Preston Neal Jones reveals the fascinating inside story of the film's making - from its beginnings in the pages of Davis Grubb's novel to the acquisition of film rights by producer Paul Gregory, to the hiring of the late actor Charles Laughton to direct and James Agee to write the script, to every aspect of the film's development and production - casting, design, shooting, scoring, and editing - to the profound disappoint upon its release.
Heaven & Hell to Play With is the result of over a decade of archival research and interviews with a dozen key people associated with the film. Like the artistic collaboration inherent to the power of the film, Jones's narrative flows through the dramatic montage of memories offered by the interviewees: author Grubb; author's brother Louis Grubb; producer Gregory; actor Robert Mitchum; actress Lillian Gish; actor Don Beddoe; art director Hilyard Brown; cinematographer Stanley Cortez; editor Robert Golden; widow of composer Walter Schumann, Mrs. Sonya Goodman; second unit director Terry Sanders; actor/friend William Phipps. "Laughton, himself, of course, was a remarkable person, and the memories and insights of his associates--often at wide variance with each other--combine to evoke a portrait of the artist and the man."
It was Laughton who strove beyond jolts and shudders to bring
The Night of the Hunter a tenderness and compassion almost unheard-of in the suspense stories of the time. Surprisingly, it was the only film he ever directed. "As Gregory remembers, 'I think Charlie could see himself in the rendition of it. Yes, he could put you through miseries, but there was much that was saintly in Charles Laughton, too. And with the young children aspect of it, and the devil in Preacher Powell and all that, you see, that gave Laughton both heaven and hell to play with, and he was the master of both of those at that time.'"
The journey of
Heaven & Hell to Play With takes place in four parts--Pre-production, Production, Post-production, The Morning After--and includes numerous artifacts from the film's making--photos, sketches, character portraits, telegrams, posters, press kit materials, sheet music--along with dozens of film stills.
With
Heaven & Hell to Play With, Jones has not only produced the definitive source on the creation of
The Night of the Hunter, but composed a symphony of voices, ideas, and action as compelling as the film it celebrates.
To order
Heaven and Hell to Play With: The Filming of The Night of the Hunter, use this link to
Barnes and Noble.
Heaven and Hell to Play With: The Filming of The Night of the Hunter
"This is the story of the making of The Night of the Hunter, which in my opinion is the greatest picture ever made, as told by all the people involved in making it. A must-read for all film makers and students of the cinema."
- Christopher Lee, actor, (Horror of Dracula, The Lord of the Rings trilogy)
"A splendid, completely absorbing oral history...This is a celebratory book. (It) is an important book, as well. (It) transcends The Night of the Hunter and becomes a fascinating exploration of the private sources of art, and the evolution of artists."
- Filmfax, July/September 2005
"...offers the kind of back story actually worth one's undivided attention."
- Film Comment, March 2003
It was Mother Goose with goose bumps. It scared the living Levis off a young kid in Maine named Stephen King, and it has had the same impact on many another child and grown-up. It drew inspiration from D.W. Griffith and the German expressionists, but there has never been another movie, before or since, like The Night of the Hunter.
Although The Night of the Hunter wasn't a hit when it was released in 1955, today it boasts the honor of inclusion in the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress as well as a ranking among the American Film Institute's "100 Greatest Thrillers." In Heaven & Hell to Play With: The Filming of The Night of the Hunter (Limelight Editions), published by Limelight Editions, author Preston Neal Jones reveals the fascinating inside story of the film's making - from its beginnings in the pages of Davis Grubb's novel to the acquisition of film rights by producer Paul Gregory, to the hiring of the late actor Charles Laughton to direct and James Agee to write the script, to every aspect of the film's development and production - casting, design, shooting, scoring, and editing - to the profound disappoint upon its release.
Heaven & Hell to Play With is the result of over a decade of archival research and interviews with a dozen key people associated with the film. Like the artistic collaboration inherent to the power of the film, Jones's narrative flows through the dramatic montage of memories offered by the interviewees: author Grubb; author's brother Louis Grubb; producer Gregory; actor Robert Mitchum; actress Lillian Gish; actor Don Beddoe; art director Hilyard Brown; cinematographer Stanley Cortez; editor Robert Golden; widow of composer Walter Schumann, Mrs. Sonya Goodman; second unit director Terry Sanders; actor/friend William Phipps. "Laughton, himself, of course, was a remarkable person, and the memories and insights of his associates--often at wide variance with each other--combine to evoke a portrait of the artist and the man."
It was Laughton who strove beyond jolts and shudders to bring The Night of the Hunter a tenderness and compassion almost unheard-of in the suspense stories of the time. Surprisingly, it was the only film he ever directed. "As Gregory remembers, 'I think Charlie could see himself in the rendition of it. Yes, he could put you through miseries, but there was much that was saintly in Charles Laughton, too. And with the young children aspect of it, and the devil in Preacher Powell and all that, you see, that gave Laughton both heaven and hell to play with, and he was the master of both of those at that time.'"
The journey of Heaven & Hell to Play With takes place in four parts--Pre-production, Production, Post-production, The Morning After--and includes numerous artifacts from the film's making--photos, sketches, character portraits, telegrams, posters, press kit materials, sheet music--along with dozens of film stills.
With Heaven & Hell to Play With, Jones has not only produced the definitive source on the creation of The Night of the Hunter, but composed a symphony of voices, ideas, and action as compelling as the film it celebrates.
To order Heaven and Hell to Play With: The Filming of The Night of the Hunter, use this link to Barnes and Noble.
The Making of "The Night of the Hunter"
CHARLES LAUGHTON DIRECTS THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of an American classic, will be presented by legendary UCLA film preservationist Robert Gitt on Thursday, May 8 at Film Forum in New York City. Mr. Gitt's presentation, a talk and screening of out-takes from the film, will be shown as a double feature with
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955).
CHARLES LAUGHTON DIRECTS THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER will be presented twice, at 2:50 and 7:40, with the film screening at 1:00, 5:50 and 10:30.
Mr. Gitt will explore the making of Laughton's masterwork (his sole directorial effort) in a talk illustrated with material culled from over eight hours of original rushes, trims and cuts from the
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER,the only classic for which such an abundance of material survives - providing an alternate view of the film's most memorable sequences, including variant camera angles and dialogue missing from the final film. But perhaps the most fascinating elements of all are between-takes glimpses of Laughton directing his actors by playing all the parts himself - men, women and children. "That these out-takes survived at all is a miracle... To watch them is to feel present at the creation of a classic motion picture." Kenneth Turan, L.A. Times.
The presentation will be shown as a double feature with
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER: "Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms" sing both shotgun-toting child protector Lillian Gish and lurking psycho preacher Robert Mitchum, who sports a pocket switchblade, as well as fingers tattooed "Love" and "Hate." Fairy tale and nightmare combine as Shelley Winters' orphans Sally Bruce and Billy Chapin odyssey through the American heartland, in this spellbinding folk tale adapted from the Davis Grubb novel by legendary critic and scenarist (The African Queen) James Agee (though Laughton purportedly completely rewrote his 350-page draft). A hypnotic tribute to the visuals of D.W. Griffith, with memorable images including a startling A-frame ceiling above a timorous victim (underscored by Sibelius' valse triste); the undulations of an underwater corpse's hair; and the children's nightmarish downriver trip; all stunningly photographed by cinematographer Stanley Cortez, who considered it one of the two most exciting experiences of his long career (the other was Welles'
The Magnificent Ambersons). "Haunting and highly personal... clearly the work of a master." - New York Times.
Presented in association with the Tribeca Film Festival.
The Night of the Hunter is released by MGM Distribution.
For press information, contact Harris Dew at 212-966-0730 or mailto:harris_dew@filmforum.com
For more information, links and showtimes, check out our website at www.filmforum.com
The Making of "The Night of the Hunter"
CHARLES LAUGHTON DIRECTS THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of an American classic, will be presented by legendary UCLA film preservationist Robert Gitt on Thursday, May 8 at Film Forum in New York City. Mr. Gitt's presentation, a talk and screening of out-takes from the film, will be shown as a double feature with THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955). CHARLES LAUGHTON DIRECTS THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER will be presented twice, at 2:50 and 7:40, with the film screening at 1:00, 5:50 and 10:30.
Mr. Gitt will explore the making of Laughton's masterwork (his sole directorial effort) in a talk illustrated with material culled from over eight hours of original rushes, trims and cuts from the THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER,the only classic for which such an abundance of material survives - providing an alternate view of the film's most memorable sequences, including variant camera angles and dialogue missing from the final film. But perhaps the most fascinating elements of all are between-takes glimpses of Laughton directing his actors by playing all the parts himself - men, women and children. "That these out-takes survived at all is a miracle... To watch them is to feel present at the creation of a classic motion picture." Kenneth Turan, L.A. Times.
The presentation will be shown as a double feature with THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER: "Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms" sing both shotgun-toting child protector Lillian Gish and lurking psycho preacher Robert Mitchum, who sports a pocket switchblade, as well as fingers tattooed "Love" and "Hate." Fairy tale and nightmare combine as Shelley Winters' orphans Sally Bruce and Billy Chapin odyssey through the American heartland, in this spellbinding folk tale adapted from the Davis Grubb novel by legendary critic and scenarist (The African Queen) James Agee (though Laughton purportedly completely rewrote his 350-page draft). A hypnotic tribute to the visuals of D.W. Griffith, with memorable images including a startling A-frame ceiling above a timorous victim (underscored by Sibelius' valse triste); the undulations of an underwater corpse's hair; and the children's nightmarish downriver trip; all stunningly photographed by cinematographer Stanley Cortez, who considered it one of the two most exciting experiences of his long career (the other was Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons). "Haunting and highly personal... clearly the work of a master." - New York Times.
Presented in association with the Tribeca Film Festival.
The Night of the Hunter is released by MGM Distribution.
For press information, contact Harris Dew at 212-966-0730 or mailto:harris_dew@filmforum.com
For more information, links and showtimes, check out our website at www.filmforum.com
Restorations - Night of the Hunter
CHARLES LAUGHTON'S THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
For this year's New York Film Festival, director Martin Scorsese was asked to select a film as a model of film restoration and choose The Night of the Hunter which was presented to the festival audiences in a stunning new print, struck from the camera negative and with digitally restored sound by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. With any luck, this uniquely American film will be programmed in upcoming film festivals and movie venues in major cities this year.
In his own words, director Charles Laughton described The Night of the Hunter (1955) as "a nightmarish sort of Mother Goose tale." Based on a popular novel by David Grubb, the film takes place in West Virginia during the Depression and follows a homicidal preacher as he stalks two children, a brother and sister, across the rural landscape. The reason for his pursuit is $10,000 in cash and it's stuffed inside a doll the little girl is carrying.
Laughton worked with James Agee on the screenplay but the famous author of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men had a severe drinking problem (he died the same year) and the screenplay he delivered was a mammoth 350-page script that Laughton had to whittle down to an acceptable length. Luckily, Laughton had a more positive experience with his second-unit directors, Terry and Denis Sanders, whose documentary film, A Time Out of War (1954) won an Oscar, and cinematographer, Stanley Cortez. The latter once remarked: "Apart from The Magnificent Ambersons, the most exciting experience I have had in the cinema was with Charles Laughton on The Night of the Hunter...every day I consider something new about light, that incredible thing that can't be described. Of the directors I've worked with, only two have understood it: Orson Welles and Charles Laughton."
The casting was also exceptional and Laughton coaxed excellent performances from Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, and Lillian Gish. However, the director developed an aversion to the two child actors and when he overheard the little boy, Billy Chapin, brag about winning the New York Critics' Circle Prize for a recent play, Laughton roared, "Get that child away from me." After that, the two children took their direction mostly from Mitchum. The only other problem Laughton encountered was having to juggle his shooting schedule so that Mitchum could begin work on his next film, Not as a Stranger (1955).
Ignored and misunderstood at the time of its release, except by a handful of critics, The Night of the Hunter had to wait several decades before it took its rightful place alongside other revered works of the American cinema like John Ford's The Searchers (1956) and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958). It was the sole directorial effort of actor Charles Laughton and he took the film's commercial failure very hard, abandoning any future plans to direct another film. Yet, The Night of the Hunter is anything but a failure and is chock full of riches: Robert Mitchum creates a chilling portrait of evil in one of his finest performances (and one of his personal favorites); the rock-steady presence of Lillian Gish is both a homage and a direct link to the films of D.W. Griffith, the film pioneer Laughton pays tribute to with this movie; the shimmering beauty of Stanley Cortez's cinematography also recalls the shadows and lighting of other silent era classics by Fritz Lang and Josef von Sternberg, and the music score by Walter Schumann is unusually evocative, mixing hymns, children's songs, and orchestral effects.
By Jeff Stafford
TCM PREMIERES THE RESTORED VERSION OF GILLO PONTECORVO'S "THE WIDE BLUE ROAD"
Turner Classic Movies will present the U.S. television premiere of the critically acclaimed and recently restored 1957 Italian film LA GRANDE STRADA AZZURRA (THE WIDE BLUE ROAD) on Oct. 13, at 8 p.m. ET as part of a tribute to the film's star, Yves Montand, on what would have been his 80th birthday. The tribute will also include two of the actor's other films.
Presented by Jonathan Demme and Dustin Hoffman, THE WIDE BLUE ROAD was recently restored by Milestone Film & Video, with funding from TCM and is also the debut film of director Gillo Pontecorvo, best known for his moive, Battle of Algiers (1965). THE WIDE BLUE ROAD is the story of a poor Italian fisherman's struggle to feed his family. On the surface, this deceptively simple story is of an outlaw fisherman's struggle to keep his livelihood and his family together by using illegal fishing techniques, but a closer look reveals the communist views of its creators. The film also serves as a showcase for Montand's acting expertise, as he inhabits the complex character of Squarci¿, a fisherman seeking to increase his catch by bombing for fish instead of netting them.
THE RETURN OF A JEAN-LUC GODARD MASTERPIECE
At long last someone has taken the effort to restore one of Jean-Luc Godard's seminal films of the sixties - Band of Outsiders. Accessible even to non-fans of the French filmmaker, this 1964 release looks just as fresh, spontanteous, and inventive as it did upon its original release. On the surface, the plot is deceptively simple: two students, Arthur (Claude Brasseur) and Franz (Sami Frey), befriend their new classmate, Odile (Anna Karina). A rapid chain of events follows sparked by Odile's confession that she lives with her aunt in a villa that houses a hidden fortune. Like kids playing movie gangsters, the trio plot to steal the money but soon discover that their scheme is no match for the grim reality that awaits them.
Loosely based on Fools' Gold, an American crime novel of the fifties written by Dolores Hitchens, Band of Outsiders works on one level as a playful homage to B-movies while at the same time critiquing the dangers of movie-fed fantasies. Even today, the film remains consistently unpredictable: characters occasionally address the camera, jump cuts and unusual camera angles accent the erratic, slapdash behavior of the three principals, and the sombre, grey cinematography by Raoul Coutard often resembles the look of an Arget photograph. Of the many famous set pieces, the Madison dance scene is easily the most celebrated with Karina, Brasseur, and Frey unexpectedly going into a line dance at a small bohemian cafe. If you're a Francophile, you'll enjoy Godard's use of Parisian locations as much as his Gallic re-working of Hollywood cliches. Much of Band of Outsiders was shot in the working-class neighborhoods east of the Bastille and along the Marne River but there are also such familiar Parisian sights as the Metro, billboards, cafes, and, of course, the Louvre, which figures prominently in one madcap sequence.
Thanks to Rialto, who brought us the original director's cut of Fellini's
Nights of Cabiria (1957) a few years back, Band of Outsiders is being distributed theatrically in a beautiful new 35mm print which accents the overcast, wintry look of the film (It was shot in February and March). It was recently screened in New York City at the Film Forum where it had critics rhapsodizing about its poetic qualities all over again. Amy Taubin of The Village Voice wrote "Band of Outsiders is less nostalgic for the past then it's heartbroken by the present - by the knowledge that the last traces of the world of Verlaine and Rimbaud, of Claude Renoir, the father, and Jean Renoir, the son, are about to be obiterated by the onrush of '60s consumer capitalism." Charles Taylor of Salon.com said, "We never feel more complicity in "Band of Outsiders" than we do when Karina, addressing the camera, says, "My heart goes out at the sight of you." Odile may be speaking about the boys she loves; Karina may have directed the line to her then-husband behind the camera. Today, she seems to be speaking directly to those of us in the audience whose lives - and fantasy lives - have been dominated by the movies, who still love them with the ardor of a first romance, even as we're convinced that there has to be something more."
With a little luck, Band of Outsiders might spark enough interest in Godard to inspire Rialto or another enterprising distributor to restore other early works by the director. At any rate, if you're never seen a Godard film before, this is a great place to begin.
By Jeff Stafford
BOB LE FLAMBEUR
Often cited as one of the most influential filmmakers of postwar France, whose work anticipated the look and style of the French New Wave, Jean-Pierre Melville is finally starting to receive some belated international recognition for his films. Bob Le Flambeur (1956) is currently enjoying a revival in major cities across the U.S. and several of his other films have recently been remastered and released on VHS and DVD.
Bob Le Flambeur was Melville's fourth feature and a distinct departure from his earlier adaptation of literary classics like Jean Vercors' Le Silence de la Mer (1947) and Jean Cocteau's Les Enfants Terribles (1950). The film is a detailed depiction (strikingly photographed in black and white) of the robbery of the Casino de Deauville's bank vault on the eve of the French Grand Prix. Melville was first approached with the story idea for Bob Le Flambeur just prior to seeing John Huston's The Asphalt Junge (1950). "After I had seen Huston's masterpiece," Melville told interviewer Rui Nogueira, "I could no longer deal, either dramatically or tragically, with the preparation and execution of a robbery. So I decided to reshape my scenario completely and turn it into a light-hearted film. Bob Le Flambeur is not a pure policier, but a comedy of manners."
Even at the time of its original release, Bob Le Flambeur was referred to as 'a love letter to Paris which no longer exists,' particularly in its evocative views of the Montmartre neighborhood. The film is just as atmospheric and beguiling today and has been championed by such critics as J. Hoberman of the Village Voice who called it, "The cinematic birth of the cool! Melville's drollest, most likable gangster movie!....a superb riff with a boffo finale!" The newly restored print of Bob Le Flambeur, which recently appeared at the Film Forum in New York City, features newly translated sub-titles by Lenny Borger, who did such a wonderful job on the recent restoration of Rififi (1955). With any luck, Bob Le Flambeur will get a release on home video and DVD later this year. In the meantime, you should check out Le Doulos (1961), Le Samourai (1967) and Un Flic (1971). There is also the possibility that Rialto, who distributed the original cut of Fellini's Nights of Cabiria (1957) a few years back, will be releasing a restored version of Melville's Le Cercle Rouge (1970) later this year.
APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX
Maybe you've heard the news that Francis Ford Coppola has re-edited an extra hour of material back into Apocalypse Now (this version premiered at the Cannes festival with a U.S. release planned for later this summer entitled Apocalypse Now Redux). What's new in Francis Ford Coppola's restored version? Here are a few highlights, culled from the Miramax web site:
The much-discussed French plantation sequence, which includes a riverside encounter, the funeral of Clean, a rancorous dinner, and Willard's seduction of (and by) Roxanne, a young French widow (played by Aurore Clement). At the dinner, the patriarch of the French plantation, Hubert deMorais (played by the late Christian Marquand) asks rhetorically: "Why do we stay here? It keeps our family together. We fight to keep what is ours. You
Americans fight for the biggest nothing in history." This sequence, Coppola says,"captures an exotic yearning, groping for long-vanished ideals and a crumbling way of life that presages and essentially predicts the folly of America's experience in Vietnam. These characters are sort of ghosts like Bunuel has ghosts: people who are trapped in their own thinking from years ago."
An expanded Playboy playmates sequence. Coppola remembers: "This was never even in the assembly because it was shot during the typhoon when we had to stop shooting, and the scene was never completed. But in this new version Walter found a way to get in and out of the sequence; In the beginning of the sequence, we learn that the Playboy helicopter has run out of fuel and landed at a remote Medevac base along the river. As Willard
leaves the boat, the chief (Albert Hall) asks: "Captain, are you giving away our fuel for a Playmate of the Month."; Willard replies: "No, Playmate of the Year, chief." Coppola says: "In their way, the girls are the corresponding characters of those young boys on the boat, except they're being exploited in sexual ways. But it's the same thing, you know how they're being consumed; used up by a society that calls itself moral and yet isn't."
A new scene with Marlon Brando: "Don't try to escape, or you'll be killed," Kurtz tells Willard in their first meeting. Kurtz, holding Willard captive in a metal shed, quotes an American intelligence analyst recently returned to Vietnam to sound out the situation for President Nixon. "He told the President last week that: 'Things felt much better, and smelled much better over there.'; How do they smell to you, soldier?" Kurtz asks his charge. The deletion of this scene was one of the last cuts the filmmakers made in 1979, in the interest of time. Restoring this philosophical scene, Murch says,
"sets up the last scene in the film much more effectively."
All of this talk about Apocalypse Now Redux started us wondering about films that exist in two versions. Sure there are countless films that were slightly different in America and overseas (such as Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train), had minor trims for content (Robocop), were reworked by the director (The Wild Bunch) or other similar oddities (Abbott and Costello's first film One Night in the Tropics was for years missing an entire scene that triggered the plot!). But what really got us thinking are films that can be seen in your choice of Version A or Version B. Our crack TCM researchers came up with the following:
The Big Sleep - Made right at the tail end of World War II, this Humphrey Bogart classic was held up by the studio because they had a glut of films to release. In the meantime, though, co-star Lauren Bacall lept from new face to major star which, along with some other behind-the-scenes maneuvering, resulted in the filming of new material and some re-editing to emphasize her new status. This reworking is the familiar one but the original was recently released to the public. You can see both versions on TCM.
The Godfather - Coppola isn't new to re-editing. For a TV showing of the first two Godfather films he put all the material into chronological sequence and added deleted material to make one giant epic called The Godfather Saga. Then that big saga was again slightly re-edited and released on video as The Godfather Epic. Then after the third film appeared, that too was edited into the chronological story for a video set called The Godfather Trilogy. And of course all the films are also available separately.
Passion of Joan of Arc - Here's one that's even more complicated than the Godfather films. This 1928 classic was immediately denounced by censors which resulted in some small cuts but the real tragedy occurred when the negative and most of the prints were destroyed in a laboratory fire. Director Carl Theodor Dreyer reconstructed another negative using outtakes and other surviving material but guess what? That too burned up in a fire. Apparently still floating around at the time were prints of these two versions but they seem to have been chopped up or simply destroyed. In the early '30s the film was trimmed to almost an hour and had voice-overs added while during the next decade came a poorly regarded "restoration" and then in 1951 there was yet another version done with additional dubious shots added. Finally 1981 brought a wonderful surprise. A Norweigan mental hospital discovered that it had a print of Dreyer's original cut stored literally in one of their closets. This was restored to as much of its full glory as possible and can be seen on TCM.
Touch of Evil - Orson Welles' struggles with the studios are legendary and perhaps only the butchering of The Magnificent Ambersons rivals his travails with this one. A 1958 film noir classic, Touch of Evil apparently so horrified the studio that they looked for a way to cut their losses. So they took a 108 minute version prepared for preview screenings that Welles was still working on, cut it down to 95 minutes and dumped that into theatres. For years, this was all that was available until the preview version quietly appeared on video in the 1980s. But that wasn't enough. Welles had prepared a 58-page memo about how envisioned the film, information that guided a 1998 revision by restoration expert Rick Schmidlin which may be as close as we're likely to get to Welles' intentions. So where does this leave us? Three different versions of the same film, none of them definitive or a "director's cut" and all three available at one time or another on video (though unfortunately only the revision is on DVD).
The Big Sky - Maybe you've noticed that when TCM shows Howard Hawks' classic Western (chosen by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum as one of the 100 greatest American films) it runs about 20 minutes longer than most reference book listings and the video release. That's because the material was trimmed shortly after release and practically unseen until our airings.
Black Sunday - A good example of how small changes can really alter a film is Mario Bava's classic horror film. It's a subtle and atmospheric story (adapted from the same Gogol tale used for the cult Russian film Vij) but marketed almost as kiddie fare in the U.S. The grown-up dialogue was watered down, the moody music replaced by a typically schlocky Les Baxter score, and numerous small edits were made to protect sensitive Americans. Recently, though, the original version appeared on DVD and can be seen for the striking visual experience it really is. (An even more extreme revision exists in Bava's career. After his oblique, dream-like film Lisa and the Devil was considered unreleasable it was taken over by the producer and so drastically reworked with new material that the story turned out quite different. That version was released as House of Exorcism to capitalize on that trend but both can now be found on DVD.)
Restorations - Night of the Hunter
CHARLES LAUGHTON'S THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
For this year's New York Film Festival, director Martin Scorsese was asked to select a film as a model of film restoration and choose The Night of the Hunter which was presented to the festival audiences in a stunning new print, struck from the camera negative and with digitally restored sound by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. With any luck, this uniquely American film will be programmed in upcoming film festivals and movie venues in major cities this year.
In his own words, director Charles Laughton described The Night of the Hunter (1955) as "a nightmarish sort of Mother Goose tale." Based on a popular novel by David Grubb, the film takes place in West Virginia during the Depression and follows a homicidal preacher as he stalks two children, a brother and sister, across the rural landscape. The reason for his pursuit is $10,000 in cash and it's stuffed inside a doll the little girl is carrying.
Laughton worked with James Agee on the screenplay but the famous author of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men had a severe drinking problem (he died the same year) and the screenplay he delivered was a mammoth 350-page script that Laughton had to whittle down to an acceptable length. Luckily, Laughton had a more positive experience with his second-unit directors, Terry and Denis Sanders, whose documentary film, A Time Out of War (1954) won an Oscar, and cinematographer, Stanley Cortez. The latter once remarked: "Apart from The Magnificent Ambersons, the most exciting experience I have had in the cinema was with Charles Laughton on The Night of the Hunter...every day I consider something new about light, that incredible thing that can't be described. Of the directors I've worked with, only two have understood it: Orson Welles and Charles Laughton."
The casting was also exceptional and Laughton coaxed excellent performances from Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, and Lillian Gish. However, the director developed an aversion to the two child actors and when he overheard the little boy, Billy Chapin, brag about winning the New York Critics' Circle Prize for a recent play, Laughton roared, "Get that child away from me." After that, the two children took their direction mostly from Mitchum. The only other problem Laughton encountered was having to juggle his shooting schedule so that Mitchum could begin work on his next film, Not as a Stranger (1955).
Ignored and misunderstood at the time of its release, except by a handful of critics, The Night of the Hunter had to wait several decades before it took its rightful place alongside other revered works of the American cinema like John Ford's The Searchers (1956) and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958). It was the sole directorial effort of actor Charles Laughton and he took the film's commercial failure very hard, abandoning any future plans to direct another film. Yet, The Night of the Hunter is anything but a failure and is chock full of riches: Robert Mitchum creates a chilling portrait of evil in one of his finest performances (and one of his personal favorites); the rock-steady presence of Lillian Gish is both a homage and a direct link to the films of D.W. Griffith, the film pioneer Laughton pays tribute to with this movie; the shimmering beauty of Stanley Cortez's cinematography also recalls the shadows and lighting of other silent era classics by Fritz Lang and Josef von Sternberg, and the music score by Walter Schumann is unusually evocative, mixing hymns, children's songs, and orchestral effects.
By Jeff Stafford
TCM PREMIERES THE RESTORED VERSION OF GILLO PONTECORVO'S "THE WIDE BLUE ROAD"
Turner Classic Movies will present the U.S. television premiere of the critically acclaimed and recently restored 1957 Italian film LA GRANDE STRADA AZZURRA (THE WIDE BLUE ROAD) on Oct. 13, at 8 p.m. ET as part of a tribute to the film's star, Yves Montand, on what would have been his 80th birthday. The tribute will also include two of the actor's other films.
Presented by Jonathan Demme and Dustin Hoffman, THE WIDE BLUE ROAD was recently restored by Milestone Film & Video, with funding from TCM and is also the debut film of director Gillo Pontecorvo, best known for his moive, Battle of Algiers (1965). THE WIDE BLUE ROAD is the story of a poor Italian fisherman's struggle to feed his family. On the surface, this deceptively simple story is of an outlaw fisherman's struggle to keep his livelihood and his family together by using illegal fishing techniques, but a closer look reveals the communist views of its creators. The film also serves as a showcase for Montand's acting expertise, as he inhabits the complex character of Squarci¿, a fisherman seeking to increase his catch by bombing for fish instead of netting them.
THE RETURN OF A JEAN-LUC GODARD MASTERPIECE
At long last someone has taken the effort to restore one of Jean-Luc Godard's seminal films of the sixties - Band of Outsiders. Accessible even to non-fans of the French filmmaker, this 1964 release looks just as fresh, spontanteous, and inventive as it did upon its original release. On the surface, the plot is deceptively simple: two students, Arthur (Claude Brasseur) and Franz (Sami Frey), befriend their new classmate, Odile (Anna Karina). A rapid chain of events follows sparked by Odile's confession that she lives with her aunt in a villa that houses a hidden fortune. Like kids playing movie gangsters, the trio plot to steal the money but soon discover that their scheme is no match for the grim reality that awaits them.
Loosely based on Fools' Gold, an American crime novel of the fifties written by Dolores Hitchens, Band of Outsiders works on one level as a playful homage to B-movies while at the same time critiquing the dangers of movie-fed fantasies. Even today, the film remains consistently unpredictable: characters occasionally address the camera, jump cuts and unusual camera angles accent the erratic, slapdash behavior of the three principals, and the sombre, grey cinematography by Raoul Coutard often resembles the look of an Arget photograph. Of the many famous set pieces, the Madison dance scene is easily the most celebrated with Karina, Brasseur, and Frey unexpectedly going into a line dance at a small bohemian cafe. If you're a Francophile, you'll enjoy Godard's use of Parisian locations as much as his Gallic re-working of Hollywood cliches. Much of Band of Outsiders was shot in the working-class neighborhoods east of the Bastille and along the Marne River but there are also such familiar Parisian sights as the Metro, billboards, cafes, and, of course, the Louvre, which figures prominently in one madcap sequence.
Thanks to Rialto, who brought us the original director's cut of Fellini's
Nights of Cabiria (1957) a few years back, Band of Outsiders is being distributed theatrically in a beautiful new 35mm print which accents the overcast, wintry look of the film (It was shot in February and March). It was recently screened in New York City at the Film Forum where it had critics rhapsodizing about its poetic qualities all over again. Amy Taubin of The Village Voice wrote "Band of Outsiders is less nostalgic for the past then it's heartbroken by the present - by the knowledge that the last traces of the world of Verlaine and Rimbaud, of Claude Renoir, the father, and Jean Renoir, the son, are about to be obiterated by the onrush of '60s consumer capitalism." Charles Taylor of Salon.com said, "We never feel more complicity in "Band of Outsiders" than we do when Karina, addressing the camera, says, "My heart goes out at the sight of you." Odile may be speaking about the boys she loves; Karina may have directed the line to her then-husband behind the camera. Today, she seems to be speaking directly to those of us in the audience whose lives - and fantasy lives - have been dominated by the movies, who still love them with the ardor of a first romance, even as we're convinced that there has to be something more."
With a little luck, Band of Outsiders might spark enough interest in Godard to inspire Rialto or another enterprising distributor to restore other early works by the director. At any rate, if you're never seen a Godard film before, this is a great place to begin.
By Jeff Stafford
BOB LE FLAMBEUR
Often cited as one of the most influential filmmakers of postwar France, whose work anticipated the look and style of the French New Wave, Jean-Pierre Melville is finally starting to receive some belated international recognition for his films. Bob Le Flambeur (1956) is currently enjoying a revival in major cities across the U.S. and several of his other films have recently been remastered and released on VHS and DVD.
Bob Le Flambeur was Melville's fourth feature and a distinct departure from his earlier adaptation of literary classics like Jean Vercors' Le Silence de la Mer (1947) and Jean Cocteau's Les Enfants Terribles (1950). The film is a detailed depiction (strikingly photographed in black and white) of the robbery of the Casino de Deauville's bank vault on the eve of the French Grand Prix. Melville was first approached with the story idea for Bob Le Flambeur just prior to seeing John Huston's The Asphalt Junge (1950). "After I had seen Huston's masterpiece," Melville told interviewer Rui Nogueira, "I could no longer deal, either dramatically or tragically, with the preparation and execution of a robbery. So I decided to reshape my scenario completely and turn it into a light-hearted film. Bob Le Flambeur is not a pure policier, but a comedy of manners."
Even at the time of its original release, Bob Le Flambeur was referred to as 'a love letter to Paris which no longer exists,' particularly in its evocative views of the Montmartre neighborhood. The film is just as atmospheric and beguiling today and has been championed by such critics as J. Hoberman of the Village Voice who called it, "The cinematic birth of the cool! Melville's drollest, most likable gangster movie!....a superb riff with a boffo finale!" The newly restored print of Bob Le Flambeur, which recently appeared at the Film Forum in New York City, features newly translated sub-titles by Lenny Borger, who did such a wonderful job on the recent restoration of Rififi (1955). With any luck, Bob Le Flambeur will get a release on home video and DVD later this year. In the meantime, you should check out Le Doulos (1961), Le Samourai (1967) and Un Flic (1971). There is also the possibility that Rialto, who distributed the original cut of Fellini's Nights of Cabiria (1957) a few years back, will be releasing a restored version of Melville's Le Cercle Rouge (1970) later this year.
APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX
Maybe you've heard the news that Francis Ford Coppola has re-edited an extra hour of material back into Apocalypse Now (this version premiered at the Cannes festival with a U.S. release planned for later this summer entitled Apocalypse Now Redux). What's new in Francis Ford Coppola's restored version? Here are a few highlights, culled from the Miramax web site:
The much-discussed French plantation sequence, which includes a riverside encounter, the funeral of Clean, a rancorous dinner, and Willard's seduction of (and by) Roxanne, a young French widow (played by Aurore Clement). At the dinner, the patriarch of the French plantation, Hubert deMorais (played by the late Christian Marquand) asks rhetorically: "Why do we stay here? It keeps our family together. We fight to keep what is ours. You
Americans fight for the biggest nothing in history." This sequence, Coppola says,"captures an exotic yearning, groping for long-vanished ideals and a crumbling way of life that presages and essentially predicts the folly of America's experience in Vietnam. These characters are sort of ghosts like Bunuel has ghosts: people who are trapped in their own thinking from years ago."
An expanded Playboy playmates sequence. Coppola remembers: "This was never even in the assembly because it was shot during the typhoon when we had to stop shooting, and the scene was never completed. But in this new version Walter found a way to get in and out of the sequence; In the beginning of the sequence, we learn that the Playboy helicopter has run out of fuel and landed at a remote Medevac base along the river. As Willard
leaves the boat, the chief (Albert Hall) asks: "Captain, are you giving away our fuel for a Playmate of the Month."; Willard replies: "No, Playmate of the Year, chief." Coppola says: "In their way, the girls are the corresponding characters of those young boys on the boat, except they're being exploited in sexual ways. But it's the same thing, you know how they're being consumed; used up by a society that calls itself moral and yet isn't."
A new scene with Marlon Brando: "Don't try to escape, or you'll be killed," Kurtz tells Willard in their first meeting. Kurtz, holding Willard captive in a metal shed, quotes an American intelligence analyst recently returned to Vietnam to sound out the situation for President Nixon. "He told the President last week that: 'Things felt much better, and smelled much better over there.'; How do they smell to you, soldier?" Kurtz asks his charge. The deletion of this scene was one of the last cuts the filmmakers made in 1979, in the interest of time. Restoring this philosophical scene, Murch says,
"sets up the last scene in the film much more effectively."
All of this talk about Apocalypse Now Redux started us wondering about films that exist in two versions. Sure there are countless films that were slightly different in America and overseas (such as Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train), had minor trims for content (Robocop), were reworked by the director (The Wild Bunch) or other similar oddities (Abbott and Costello's first film One Night in the Tropics was for years missing an entire scene that triggered the plot!). But what really got us thinking are films that can be seen in your choice of Version A or Version B. Our crack TCM researchers came up with the following:
The Big Sleep - Made right at the tail end of World War II, this Humphrey Bogart classic was held up by the studio because they had a glut of films to release. In the meantime, though, co-star Lauren Bacall lept from new face to major star which, along with some other behind-the-scenes maneuvering, resulted in the filming of new material and some re-editing to emphasize her new status. This reworking is the familiar one but the original was recently released to the public. You can see both versions on TCM.
The Godfather - Coppola isn't new to re-editing. For a TV showing of the first two Godfather films he put all the material into chronological sequence and added deleted material to make one giant epic called The Godfather Saga. Then that big saga was again slightly re-edited and released on video as The Godfather Epic. Then after the third film appeared, that too was edited into the chronological story for a video set called The Godfather Trilogy. And of course all the films are also available separately.
Passion of Joan of Arc - Here's one that's even more complicated than the Godfather films. This 1928 classic was immediately denounced by censors which resulted in some small cuts but the real tragedy occurred when the negative and most of the prints were destroyed in a laboratory fire. Director Carl Theodor Dreyer reconstructed another negative using outtakes and other surviving material but guess what? That too burned up in a fire. Apparently still floating around at the time were prints of these two versions but they seem to have been chopped up or simply destroyed. In the early '30s the film was trimmed to almost an hour and had voice-overs added while during the next decade came a poorly regarded "restoration" and then in 1951 there was yet another version done with additional dubious shots added. Finally 1981 brought a wonderful surprise. A Norweigan mental hospital discovered that it had a print of Dreyer's original cut stored literally in one of their closets. This was restored to as much of its full glory as possible and can be seen on TCM.
Touch of Evil - Orson Welles' struggles with the studios are legendary and perhaps only the butchering of The Magnificent Ambersons rivals his travails with this one. A 1958 film noir classic, Touch of Evil apparently so horrified the studio that they looked for a way to cut their losses. So they took a 108 minute version prepared for preview screenings that Welles was still working on, cut it down to 95 minutes and dumped that into theatres. For years, this was all that was available until the preview version quietly appeared on video in the 1980s. But that wasn't enough. Welles had prepared a 58-page memo about how envisioned the film, information that guided a 1998 revision by restoration expert Rick Schmidlin which may be as close as we're likely to get to Welles' intentions. So where does this leave us? Three different versions of the same film, none of them definitive or a "director's cut" and all three available at one time or another on video (though unfortunately only the revision is on DVD).
The Big Sky - Maybe you've noticed that when TCM shows Howard Hawks' classic Western (chosen by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum as one of the 100 greatest American films) it runs about 20 minutes longer than most reference book listings and the video release. That's because the material was trimmed shortly after release and practically unseen until our airings.
Black Sunday - A good example of how small changes can really alter a film is Mario Bava's classic horror film. It's a subtle and atmospheric story (adapted from the same Gogol tale used for the cult Russian film Vij) but marketed almost as kiddie fare in the U.S. The grown-up dialogue was watered down, the moody music replaced by a typically schlocky Les Baxter score, and numerous small edits were made to protect sensitive Americans. Recently, though, the original version appeared on DVD and can be seen for the striking visual experience it really is. (An even more extreme revision exists in Bava's career. After his oblique, dream-like film Lisa and the Devil was considered unreleasable it was taken over by the producer and so drastically reworked with new material that the story turned out quite different. That version was released as House of Exorcism to capitalize on that trend but both can now be found on DVD.)
