Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1785 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-03-19
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, Dubbed, Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
• Dubbed in: French, German, Italian, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 89 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
In the entire history of American movies, The Night of the Hunter stands 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 Hunter tells 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

Special Features
1.33 Full Screen
DVD 9
French\German\Italian\Spanish
English\German
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital Mono English French German Italian Spanish
Dolby Digital Mono
Original Theatrical Trailer
Interactive Menu
Chapter Selection
Danish\Dutch\English\Finnish\French\German\Italian\Norwegian\Portuguese\Spanish\Swedish

Synopsis
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.

Customer Reviews

Deep symbolism under a dark fairy tale thriller
One of the most written and talked about films in history, as it seems to be telling a story in deeply symbolic images. That was its exact intention. I am amazed so many people still appear to take this film literally, as a story about a demented serial killer who will stop at nothing to get his hands on the money left to children by a condemned man he meets in prison. It was made so that it would work well as a conventional thriller, if that's how you want to view it, but Laughton so clearly wants his audience to look far deeper beyond the surface narrative and into the deeper meaning he has put in huge shovel loads just beneath the surface. Why else would a director embue a film with such heavily symbolic images, dreamy fairytale like photography, and that dreamlike music? If it was just to make the point about the children's pure innocence as a contrast to the dark perniciousness of an evil man, then of course it is way overdone and risks swamping the reality of the story. But there is hardly anything intended to be seen as real here, to be taken literally, as this is very plainly a film about the dark role religion plays in people's lives. An unsavoury character without an ounce of goodness in him cons people into taking him into their confidence by simply wearing the costume of a priest - The whole thing is a symbolic attack on the way all religion works: normal people wishing to have power over us and tell us what to do, simply by adopting the authority of the church. And Laughton goes much further than this - He makes this imposter in a dog collar evil incarnate, revealing what he really thinks of the church, any church: that it has a deeply negative, dark and inhumane effect on the lives of people it is purporting to support. The message very loudly, but in rich symbolism, is 'Do not trust any church or any religion, as all they bring is darkness and misery'. The force of pure goodness and our real salvation is represented by those very powerful images of nature, the many woodland animals scurrying around, the helpful river that seems to hold the hunted children in its protective hand, never letting the evil priest get to them, the moon which seems to be keeping its watchful eye on these innocent things. It is Nature that protects and saves these children, and the message is that Nature has always been our true guardian, not any corrupted notion of a god with a set of codes we must adhere to lest we go to hell when we die, as all that has done to man is cause misery and harm. It is a masterpiece of cinematic symbolism, and Laughton felt he didn't need to make another movie after this, as he had said all he had wanted to say in this great picture. It is a man's homage to Nature and to the Truth.

Genuine Magic
A compelling, deeply scary study in good and evil, love and hate, light and dark, truth and lies, innocence and experience, loss and re-discovery. Everything about this - the story, the acting, and look and feel of each scene makes this an elemental, magical fairy tale. The apparent triumph of pure evil, and genuine and total peril that we are powerless to help with. You are desperate to intervene but can't. Great story, great images, and shot with a genuine magic - like a story book come to life, and like a weird, nightmarish dream that you can't and don't want to wake from. There are great, totally unique scenes and images along the way -(I'll just say "Shelly Winters" and when you see the film you'll know exactly what I'm referring to - an extraordinary image that will genuinely haunt you), the journey down river fleeing by boat, brilliant brilliant brilliant. If you have any interest at all in cinema you should see this. This is a genuinely unique piece of work, shot through with Laughton's genius, ready to weedle its way into a little dark recess of your heart and stay there forever.

amazing!
i cannot rate this film high enough, it has all the ingredients of a fantastic film noir and everythin about it is brilliant!!it still terrifys me now even though i know whats going to happen!!!watc it, you'll love it!!