If you’re a regular reader of this site you’re familiar with my weekly What I Watched columns, where I detail the films outside of my regular work schedule that I’ve watched each week. The primary reasons I started the feature, outside of giving readers a place to discuss and recommend films they’ve watched, was to begin watching older films I had not seen and creating a starting point with each one. Films are never same the second, third and fourth time you watch them and one thing necessary to gain a better perspective on film’s history is to have a greater understanding, and a first-hand understanding, of the film’s that came before rather than always relying on what others have said.
As bad luck would have it, I didn’t write up my thoughts on Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter when I watched it for the first time a couple of years ago. However, I can remember my reaction, which was largely based on reading about the film online, hearing how great it was and how terrifying Robert Mitchum’s performance as the traveling preacher, Harry Powell, was. I wouldn’t say my expectations were too high, but I would say what I was expecting was all wrong.
It reminds me of a quote from Christian Bale’s recent Esquire interview where he says, “Somebody tells me I ‘should read Dickens,’ I’ll be f**ked if I’m ever gonna pick up Dickens. That word ‘should’ just kills it. I’ll never feel a personal connection to it.”
Bale exaggerates the situation a bit, but his meaning is well understood. By suggesting something – a book, movie, piece of music, play, etc. – and placing a greater importance on it above others means you’ve run the risk of building the film up, perhaps to heights it can’t live up to. In my case with Night of the Hunter, comments saying how terrifying Mitchum’s portrayal of the preacher are worked to the film’s disadvantage. This isn’t an ordinary film and to tell readers it’s one of the best horror films out there, one of the best thrillers, has one of cinema’s best serial killers, etc. without qualification is to mislead and perhaps ruin it for anyone intrigued by what you’re describing.
Night of the Hunter is a film that requires more than one viewing. The first time you watch it you may be like me and watch Mitchum’s performance and look at what’s going on and just laugh at it. You may pass it off as one of the most unintentionally hilarious films you’ve ever seen. If someone were to watch it and tell me that’s what they got out of it I wouldn’t say they missed the boat, but I would ask them to consider a few things and then watch it again… but not right away.
Let your opinion of the film sink in. Allow your subconscious to absorb everything the film had to offer, but allow the memory of what you watched begin to fade. Now watch it again. If you didn’t like it or found it funny I bet you’ll begin to come around. Yes, it is funny, but the menace behind the absurdity will begin to show its face. The same way a joke is never as funny when told a second time, what you thought was comical the first time around will begin to take on a different meaning. Unlike jokes, with a movie once, when the laughter dies down there are other things to focus on and that’s when the darkness in The Night of the Hunter begins to seep out.
Harry Powell is a religious nut. Whether he believes what he’s preaching or if he only believes it far enough to get what he wants, he’s no less nutty. Feel free to laugh at such a character, but perhaps the more you watch Night of the Hunter the more your laughter will turn from chuckles at foolishness to uncomfortable grins at the fear his character induces as he chases two young children along the Ohio River, trying to get his hands on the stolen $10,000 they have in their possession.
As for Criterion’s Blu-ray presentation, it’s immaculate… truly. No matter what you think of the film you can’t deny it is visually outstanding and this high-definition black-and-white presentation is as gorgeous as they come. Whether it’s Powell silhouetted on his horse in the distance or the ghostly image of one of Powell’s victims at the bottom of the lake, every ounce of this film is truly beautiful and the additional features are icing on the cake.
Broken up into two discs to make sure the film gets as much real estate as possible, the first disc includes the feature film along with an informative and lively audio commentary with second-unit director Terry Sanders, film archivist Robert Gitt, film critic F.X. Feeney and author Preston Neal Jones.
Additionally you get a 38-minute “The Making of The Night of the Hunter” documentary, a new interview with Simon Callow on the film’s director Charles Laughton, an archival 15-minute doc titled “Moving Pictures”, an excellent 1984 interview with the film’s cinematographer Stanley Cortez and an excerpt from “The Ed Sullivan Show” that serves pretty much as a deleted scene as Peter Graves and Shelley Winters act out a scene not included in the film.
The first disc is capped off with the theatrical trailer and a collection of Davis Grubb (author of “The Night of the Hunter”) sketches he gave to Laughton detailing how he viewed the film in his mind’s eye, many of which closely resemble scenes in the film.
The second disc is where it all comes together in the form of a two-and-a-half-hour film titled “Charles Laughton Directs The Night of the Hunter” which includes several outtakes, rushes and behind-the-scenes looks at the film and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. This is a feature that breaks out of the designation of being just another feature as much as it is a story all its own, and an inclusion that makes this set more than just a matter of purchasing one movie.
Finally, there’s a 30-page illustrated booklet with an essay titled “Holy Terror” by Terrence Rafferty and “Downriver and Heavenward” by Michael Sragow to complete the set.
As far as a recommendation goes, I hope I’ve set proper expectations while at the same time gave you reason enough to give this film a chance and perhaps a second and/or third if it doesn’t immediately appeal to you on first viewing. It took me a couple of viewings to come around to this picture, but now that I have I hope others will do the same.
