This absurd American Gothic melodrama, Laughton's only feature as a director, was critically panned upon its release in 1955. It's now recognised as a classic, and has been recently re-released in the UK, where I saw it at the Metro Cinema, Rupert Street. There is much to recommend this film, which is a shot as a bizarre mixture of children's fantasy, biblical allegory and cat and mouse thriller - a sort of Hitchcockian 'Wizard of Oz'. Shot in expressionistic, high grade, monochrome, the film makes a powerful impression; one of the most visually rich films of its age. Low key lighting and low angles predominate, interspersed with scenes of a more fantastical nature: The discovery of the murdered mother at the bottom of the lake, hair billowing in the current like sea-weed; the fairy tale imagery of the children's escape by boat under the stars, with a host of woodland creatures such as toads and rabbits framed in the foreground. We are whipped through the introductory scenes and straight into the heart of the story with considerable energy. Mitchum, as the renegade Preacher Harry Powell, creates an imposing presence, shot from a child's eye view and introduced in looming silhouette. The later scenes, as he tries to extract from the children where the $10,000 is hidden are full of incredible suspense, making great use of framing and the depth of screen in a way that is seldom used any more. It is during the final third where the film begins to fall apart. The claustrophobia of the early scenes with the children holed up in the house with their new surrogate father is lost as the film opens out, and the tone changes to that of mawkish sentimentality with the introduction of Shelley Long's character. The tension has all but disappeared by the time of the anti-climactic confrontation with Mitchum at the end. Whilst the film stands out amongst others of its era due to its mix of fantastical imagery and dark allegory, ultimately its never quite as good as the first half promises.
Review of The Night of the Hunter
