Goofs for
The Night of the Hunter (1955) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: When John is telling Pearl the bedtime story, Harry's shadow appears on the bedroom wall. When John looks outside at Harry at the gate, the angle of the streetlight next to him would not throw the shadow into the house, but on the ground in front of him.
  
  
• Factual errors: After Harry Powell disappears from in front of Ms. Cooper's yard, a barn owl swoops down on a rabbit. We can hear the owl's wings flap even though barn owls make no noise when they fly.
  
  
• Continuity: Mr. Spoon opens the cabinet to get the peach brandy. In the next shot, the cabinet is closed and he opens it again to put the brandy away.
  
  

• Continuity: After he drinks direct from the brandy bottle, Mr. Spoon changes the bottle to the left hand to put it in the sideboard. The next shot shows him finishing to set the bottle with his right hand.
  
  
• Continuity: When Harry and Willa are talking on the riverside, he has his arms crossed, with his left hand touching his right arm and his right hand holding the hat leaned on his left folded leg. Between shots he appears with his left hand leaning on his leg and his right hand free holding the hat.
  
  
• Continuity: On the honeymoon night, when Willa approaches to the bed, Harry stands up and lights the lamp above in front of him. Between shots the lamp changes position.
  
  
• Continuity: When Harry says good morning to Ruby and Mrs. Cooper, he holds the hat about his chest. In the subsequent shot he is lifting the hat from about his knees.
  
  
• Continuity: When the children are in the boat over night and it drifts onto shore, the oar is positioned one way - after a cutaway to the bow, we see the whole boat again, but now the oar is positioned differently (under John's legs).
  
  
• Anachronisms: The film is set in the 1930s, but John wears 1950s sneakers
  
  
• Continuity: On the riverside when Willa and Harry are talking, Willa's hands and purse are resting on the edge of her knees. In the next shot, however, her hands and purse are in her lap.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Willa Harper is lying in bed talking to Harry her mouth movements are out of sync with the dialogue.
  
  
• Continuity: When Icey Spoon negatively talks about being married to Walt for 40 years at the picnic, his reaction shot shows him set down the piece of chicken. But when Willa calls for John, we see Walt is holding chicken again.
  
  
• Continuity: In the basement scene, John pulled down the overhead shelf with the jam or oils pouring over Harry's hairs and shoulders. In the following shot when Harry is trying to grab at John and Pearl, his hairdo remained its normal form without drops of oils or jam on them.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: A wire is clearly visible on the owl before it catches the rabbit.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Harry tells the children about their "fine dinner, with fried chicken..." the chicken on the table is a whole, baked chicken.
  
  
• Factual errors: When John and Pearl are in the barn at dusk, there is a time-lapse sequence of the crescent moon rising. A crescent moon shortly after sunset is always setting and the lit portion should be tilted toward the point where the sun has recently set.
  
  
• Continuity: When Harry is stood in front of the Moonlit window and talking to Willa who is lying down on the bed, the 'odd' shaped window frame is projected by the moonlight on the wall behind Harry. When there is a shot of Willa alone on the bed, the shape of the moonlit window obviously frames Willa and not on the wall as before. Although the lighting around her is coffin-shaped and likely to be a framing device.
  
  
• Factual errors: The turtle that John says could be made into soup is actually a desert tortoise.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: On their wedding night, Harry tells Willa to stand in front of the mirror. As Willa moves toward the mirror, Harry comes into view of the reflection and quickly steps out of the way.
  
  

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