Stars: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason, Evelyn Varden, Peter Graves, Don Beddoe, Billy Chapin

Director: Charles Laughton

Summary: Robert Mitchum appears as a psychopathic woman-hater in this gripping film based on a story by Davis Grubb.

In this eerie meditation on good and evil, a schizophrenic preacher--possibly the devil himself--relentlessly hunts two small children (Billy Chapin and Sally Jane Bruce) across the Depression-era Bible Belt to get at their dead father's stolen fortune. In Robert Mitchum's career-defining role as Reverend Harry Powell, he wears unforgettable tattoos of two four-letter words on his fingers: LOVE and HATE. Skillfully directed by Charles Laughton, the haunting thriller is the actor's only credited directorial effort.

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In the entire history of American movies, The Night of the Hunterstands out as the rarest and most exotic of specimens. It is, to say the least, a masterpiece--and not just because it was the only movie directed by flamboyant actor Charles Laughton or the only produced solo screenplay by the legendary critic James Agee (who also co-wrote The African Queen). The truth is, nobody has ever made anything approaching its phantasmagoric, overheated style in which German expressionism, religious hysteria, fairy-tale fantasy (of the Grimm-est variety), and stalker movie are brought together in a furious boil. Like a nightmarish premonition of stalker movies to come, Night of the Huntertells the suspenseful tale of a demented preacher (Robert Mitchum, in a performance that prefigures his memorable villain in Cape Fear), who torments a boy and his little sister--even marries their mixed-up mother (Shelley Winters)--because he's certain the kids know where their late bank-robber father hid a stash of stolen money. So dramatic, primal, and unforgettable are its images--the preacher's shadow looming over the children in their bedroom, the magical boat ride down a river whose banks teem with fantastic wildlife, those tattoos of LOVE and HATE on the unholy man's knuckles, the golden locks of a drowned woman waving in the current along with the indigenous plant life in her watery grave--that they're still haunting audiences (and filmmakers) today. --Jim Emerson, Amazon.com

Aspect Ratio:	1.33 Full Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Original Theatrical Trailer, Interactive Menu, Chapter Selection
Subtitles:	Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
Year:	1955
Release Date:	March 19, 2001
Runtime:	89 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	21231 D V D
Keywords:	Night, General, Hunter, Drama
Genre:	Drama