Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3995 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

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.

is there a better movie ?
I just got a DVD player and this is the 1st film I had to buy. You have not seen it until you see it clear and bright as the lighting and photography of this true masterpiece are also in the starring roles here. There is no other movie like it (which explains why it bombed so unjustly at release time) and I for one believe it to be at least one of the top 10 of all times. The people who do not like this simply do not get this as it escapes all labelling and takes you from opposites genres to emotions.This is best viewed with a child eye view as the story is told through(largely) a child point of view. it is one of the greatest film of all times and if you give it a bit of your time and undivided attention it will enthrall you, make you smile, scare the bejesus out of you and leave you with so many haunting images that you will carry with you for ever,(Shelley Winters in the lake, Mitchum jumping in front of Gish and her gun, LOVE and HATE knuckles...You will be humming LEANING,LEANING also for a long time) If you never see another film, just see this one as even though it is a classic it is also approachable by anyone who has ever been thrilled by cinema, connoisseur or just movie goer...

Courageous and Innovative.
Charles Laughton directs this experimental project from the mid 1950s. The end results are positive and the movie has gone on to attain cult status amongst horror aficionados.

Using a blend of european cinematic style and the theatrical melodrama usually seen on stage, the director engages the viewer in this story of the eternal struggle between right and wrong, good and evil. The not so good Reverend Harry Powell impresses and seduces the simple, god-fearing folk of rural America with a well rehearsed pastiche of how good eventually triumphs, with his tatooed hands playing the lead roles.

Good may win the day but evil has a flick-knife and he certainly ain't afeared to use it.

The film is memorable for its cinematographic value with some of the sets outrageous in their beauty and dramatic effect. The juxtaposition of Mitchum's evil (which he exudes superbly)and the innocence and simplicity of the seemingly-helpless children at his mercy, is striking and, at times, disturbing. In the end, salvation comes from an unlikey source, the outwardly benign old Miss Cooper, plyed by Lilian Gish. She is not so easily fooled and as a protector, she is not to be under-estimated.

This is a "must own" film for any one who takes cinema seriously. The action is subtly terrifying, not gory in the style of more contemporary films but thought-provoking and spiritually haunting. You will hear the insane and evil Harry Powell's remorseless hollering of hymns, in your head for some time after the end credits appear.