The Night of The Hunter (1955)

I literally knew almost nothing about The Night of the Hunter apart from this iconic film still...

I thought it would be more grim and darkly noirish (what darkly dark?!) but, and i'm ashamed to say this because it makes me sound (again) like an infantile cultural ignoramus but the story of this film totally reminded me of Lemony Snicket.

I know, I know!– Truly I’m sorry but I’m not responsible for how I assimilate culture!!  

That said there are key simlarities in terms of story- Our heroes are children endowed with great wealth and an evil adult/guardian is trying to get them out of the way to take it for himself, The evil adult is also adept at undermining the children's credibility towards the other adults, There's an honest pure benefactor who'll look out for the children, etc. 
Basically it's not my fault that i saw that before I saw this.

So like I say, i was expecting Robert Mitchum to be more scary, though he is and he racks up quite the body count but it's not adult scary - more 5pm-CBBC-kids-drama scary. Which is no diss, his character is quite the insidious, conniving, maligant force in Depression-era America but, and again not in a negative way, the character can be too arch or cartoonish like when he (a zealous reverend) has a confused-dog face while watching a burlesque show at the start of the film. I mean i love the idea of this psychopath using the religion as righteous cause to kill-

"Not that you mind the killings! There's plenty of killings in your book, Lord..."

and Robert Mitchum is gleefully brilliant but it's just not what i was expecting i guess.

Also Charles Laughton- a massive actor in his time. Not just chubby, he was also a prolific actor too. This being the only film he directed, since this film was poorly received by audiences on its release. As a British actor, by trade- you wonder how Laughton captures Southern USA during the Depression so well. I came to the conclusion that the style and story is very close to Dickens and Laughton must have been well versed in him. Charles Dickens being the English actors burden before Rowling. 

No, it's a major hypothetical loss because his direction for a debut, for an actor-not necessarily a photographer, is so assured. Just look at the light and shape in this shot:

Shelley Winters is also great here, playing the mother of the children but unfortunately again, I'm seeing her play the widow Haze from Lolita but in this case that's alright cos they're basically the same part...

I'm not trying to be negative- this film's a great parable about using religion as a tool for good but also the corruption of religion for evil. The spinster that takes the kids in, also devout in her beliefs, is constantly using Bible stories to educate her wards in how they should conduct themselves- where as the Reverend Harry Powell can recite scripture with the best of them but he doesn't have a decent intention in his body- he just uses the 'Good book' as a tool to portray his goodness because the people invest their trust so easily to 'men of God'.

I guess based on my preconceptions, i thought Mitchum in The Night of The Hunter, would be this ultimate bad-ass cos he looks like the ultimate bad-ass and he kinda was... 

Just not the way, Mitchum is playing him.

I watched The Night of The Hunter (1955) on DVD, rented from LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with The Kings Speech (2010)...