The Night of the Hunter (1955) [The Criterion Collection]

The Night of the Hunter – incredibly, the only film the great actor Charles Laughton ever directed – is truly a stand-alone masterwork. A horror movie with qualities of a Grimm fairy tale, it stars a sublimely sinister Robert Mitchum as a traveling preacher named Harry Powell (he of the tattooed knuckles), whose nefarious motives for marrying a fragile widow, played by Shelley Winters, are uncovered by her terrified young children. Graced by images of eerie beauty and a sneaky sense of humor, this ethereal, expressionistic American classic – also featuring the contributions of actress Lillian Gish and writer James Agee – is cinema’s most eccentric rendering of the battle between good and evil.



Audio Commentary - a very informative commentary in which second-unit director Terry Sanders, film archivist Robert Gitt, film critic F.X. Feeney, and Preston Neal Jones, author of Heaven and Hell to Play With: The Filming of "The Night of the Hunter" discuss the production history of The Night of the Hunter, its reception and restoration, the film's message, Charles Laughton's fascinating life and career, etc.