The Night of the Hunter (1955) on Netflix
NR19551h 32mCrimeDramaFilm-NoirThriller
In Depression-era West Virginia, bank robber Ben Harper makes his children John and Pearl swear to keep the hiding place secret. A preacher named Harry Powell learns of the money in prison.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.9/10109,522 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes93%
Trailer
Plot summary
During the Depression, Harry Powell drifts along the Ohio River country posing as a preacher, and the police arrest him over a stolen car. In the penitentiary at Moundsville he shares a cell with Ben Harper, jailed for a bank robbery in which two men were killed. Ben's son John and daughter Pearl have been told to keep the stolen money's hiding place secret. Once Ben is executed, Powell arrives in the family's town, charms the neighbors, and courts Willa, Ben's widow, claiming her husband told him the money lies at the bottom of the river. John distrusts the preacher from their first meeting, and Powell means to become the children's father.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The story is rooted in a real serial killer, Harry Powers, who was hanged in 1932 for murdering two widows and three children in Clarksburg, West Virginia.
- When Laughton approached Robert Mitchum he said, "I'm directing this film and there's a character in it who is a diabolical shit." Mitchum simply replied, "Present."
- Gary Cooper turned down the role of Powell because he feared it would hurt his career, John Carradine wanted the part, and Laurence Olivier was interested but unavailable for two years.
- Laughton's first pick for the role of Rachel Cooper was his wife Elsa Lanchester, with Jane Darwell and Louise Fazenda also considered. Lanchester declined the role for reasons unknown to Laughton, suggesting the silent movie star Lillian Gish instead.
- Paul Gregory said absolutely no money was spent on promotion and that United Artists did not have the muscle, desire or intelligence to handle the picture. When the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne denied the film's release, he wanted to sue, but the studio would not allow it.
- The film was also banned outright in Memphis, Tennessee, by the city's head of censorship, Lloyd Binford, and Great Britain rated it adults-only.
- Shelley Winters told Laughton she had an image of Willa as "a fly fascinated by a spider, and she very willingly walks into this web". He liked the image and told her to channel it into the performance, and a stylized spider and web duly appear as the children flee along the riverbank.
