“Night of the Hunter” is the only film legendary actor Charles Laughton ever directed. Unfortunately, it was a flop on release, and he never directed again. This is a shame, as this was a great film, if not without its flaws.

Robert Mitchum plays Harry Powell, a self-styled reverend who cons and kills widows in order to steal their money. The viewer might be forgiven for thinking Powell’s talk of God is a con, but he speaks to God while he is on his own, so it appears that he does believe what he is saying. Unfortunately, he is of the belief that God hates women and tells him to kill them – he is quite the misogynist. Meanwhile Ben Harper, played by a young Peter Graves robs a bank, killing someone in the process. He manages to make his way back to his home and hides the money, telling his children where it is and making them promise to never tell. He meets Powell in jail, who manages to get from him that he hid the money and the children have the secret. Harper is hanged, and Powell heads off to the Harper family, seducing and marrying Mrs Harper, in order to find out from the children where the money is. The rest of the film involves the psychopathic Powell pursuing the children to get the money.

Billy Chapin plays John Harper, the son, who keeps his father’s secret and looks after his sister.  This is a complicated role for a child, and Chapin rises to the occasion by turning in an excellent performance. John is almost immediately suspicious of Powell, and his suspicions are confirmed by Powell questioning them about the money. John shows throughout a level of strength and resilience as he tries to protect his sister and himself. He attempts to warn his mother that Powell is up to no good, but she is very much under his thumb and does not believe John. I find the character of John very believable – he is a brave kid and tries all avenues before he runs away with his sister, but he is not unbelievable as a child. He makes mistakes, is tricked by Powell, and clearly shows how frightened he is. Chapin’s performance is very powerful and it is a shame that he appears not to have continued his acting career into adulthood.

Robert Mitchum is very chilling as the deranged Powell. He plays the plausible psychopath very well, and his preacher persona is very popular with the people of the depression era small town they live in. The character has tattoos on his fingers, love on one hand and hate on the other. Mitchum comes across as very cocky, very confident. His conviction that God is on his side means that he doesn’t do well with setbacks. He often announces his appearance by singing hymns, then seems astonished any time things don’t go his way. I think it is interesting that the director depicted Powell as not interested in sex – he marries the children’s mother, and there is a very weird scene on their wedding night when she expects sex and he scolds her for wanting to do something so ungodly. I found myself wondering if the Powell can even perform, given his obvious hangups about women. For a movie of the era this was an interesting aspect of the character.  While Powell is clever, he is ultimately not as smart as he thinks he is, and when he really meets resistance, from being shot by Rachel Cooper, he wails and runs away to hide. Mitchum gives a chilling performance, and is a convincing killer.

Rachel Cooper is played by the silent screen legend Lillian Gish, in a late role for her. In many respects the character could be seen as cliché. She is a strong and stern older lady who has taken in orphan children who have come to her house and takes in John and Pearl. She is a person of strong faith, and very loving under her strict exterior. Despite the obvious ‘heart of gold’ stereotype of her character, Gish plays this beautifully, and she is a strong presence in the latter part of the film, and contrast to Powell as what faith should be instead of his twisted insanity. She also stands out as an adult who listens to and supports John and Pearl, where all the previous adults including their own parents have failed them. There is a marvellous scene where Powell is lurking in the garden hoping to break into the house while they are asleep. In his usual cocky way he comes to the house during the day and tries to con Ms Cooper, who (again unlike other adults) sees right through him and chases him off with a gun.  She sits up with a gun and sees him in the yard. He starts to sing a hymn, and she sings the hymn too. It’s like good and evil competing. He does manage to get into the house but is shot for his trouble, and arrested after she calls the police. It’s a great moment, and I think she’s a great character, played by a superb actor.

The film is not perfect and has a number of flaws that prevent it from being a true masterpiece. One of these involves the children’s mother, played by Shelley Winters (another great actor, but a less well-rounded role.) The audience is told that Powell has married and then killed a number of women for their money. So we are to conclude that he is very good at convincing women of his sincerity and love. Even so, it seems that Willa Harper falls under Powell’s spell way too quickly. The movie goes from their meeting to their marriage extremely rapidly, and from there she is soon seen standing up at his ‘prayer meetings’ saying all sorts of rubbish that he has put into her head to support him. I found it implausible, because it wasn’t developed. In the last interaction we see between her and John she seems depressed and exhausted, but there is no reason why she would give up on her children like that. Before Powell kills her she seems aware that he will do this, and almost grateful for it. It didn’t make a lot of sense.

There is a very odd scene near the end that seems to have no rationale behind it. Powell is on trial for murder, and the people of the town are incense, mainly because they all thought he was wonderful and now want to not think about their own stupidity. A mob gathers, and they start to march on the jail. We think there will be a big scene with them surrounding the jail and demanding Powell be given to them. But no, Powell is taken out the back of the jail, put in a police car and driven away. The film doesn’t cut back to the mob or anyone telling them Powell is not there. It just peters out. So the question is, why was it in the movie in the first place? I think having people talk angrily about Powell is fine, as it establishes their anger at being conned. Beyond that, there was no reason behind it.

Laughton directs some beautiful scenes of the children on the river, after John has stolen a boat to escape from Powell. They attempt to travel at night, and there are some beautifully shot scenes on the river, with wildlife, the water, the boat. There is low level lighting of sunset or sunrise. This sequence is clearly done in studio and is quite artificial, but it doesn’t matter, because it is dreamlike and beautiful, a surreal moment of peace in contrast to the following danger.

“It’s a hard world for little things,” says Rachel Cooper as she guards her house against the evil of Powell. Surely this sums up the happenings of the film, the abject failure of all the adults in the children’s world to protect them, leaving them prey to an evil man. The children are safe at the end but not unaffected. They are orphans, and John in particular may spend years thinking about actions he took that he might have done differently. He may blame himself for not making the right decisions, even though as a child he did his best (and better than many adults would have done).

“The Night of the Hunter” is rightfully considered a classic and is worth watching. Don’t expect gritty realism as this is not that kind of movie. It is not noir. It is a fable, a morality tale, of the struggle between good and evil. I recommend it highly.