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starring: Mitchum, Winters, Gish, Beddoe, Va
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301973236
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC
ISBN: 6301973232
Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Release Date: September 01, 1998
Running Time: 94 minutes
Sales Rank: 3076
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Theatrical Release Date: 1955
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video:
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 cowrote 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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Great Classic
This is a tuly excellent classic movie. My entire family enjoyed it! Great dramatic performances from Robert Mitchum and Shelly Winters. I am so glad that movies like this are still in circulation , I just can't stomach much of what is on the silver screen today! This movie is a keeper!
Rating: - Night Of The Psychopathic Religious Fanatic
NIGHT OF THE HUNTER is an excellent film. Set in depression era West Virginia it is based on an prize winning novel of the same name that was inspired by a real life murderer who lived in that area. The surreal beginning and the fluffy ending in a cozy cottage at Christmas seem like the stuff of fairy tales but in between all is pure nightmare.
Robert Mitchum is both chilling and spellbinding as a criminal/preacher who marries the gullible widow of an executed cellmate in hopes he ... Read More
Rating:  - Love and Hate do battle
A family man steals money after a robbery and hides it with his kids without their mother knowing. He makes them promise not to tell. In jail he reveals to a self appointed evangelical Minster Powell (Robert Mitchum) that he still has the loot before he is hanged. The Minister marries into the family after wooing the widow to try to get the kids to reveal the whereabouts of the money. He even resorts to murder. Eventually the kids escape and he chases after them for a final showdown in the home of ... Read More
Rating: - Robert Mitchum is Terrifying!
Robert Mitchum has played some pretty creepy characters, but no one rivals Harry Powell from "The Night of the Hunter." He is marvelous throughout the film. Powell is a disturbed "preacher" who happens to speak to God. He believes God is helping him rid the world of the horrible and foul female. Yes, he hates women. He hates them so much, he murders them for money.
Shelley Winters is superb as the widowed Willa Harper, whose husband happens to meet Powell in prison. Convinced by ... Read More
Rating: - "It doesn't matter. It's me your mother believes"
The story may be simple - two children, John and Pearl, are pursued by the evil 'Preacher' who killed their mother and is after the money their father stole - but there is nothing in cinema to compare to The Night of the Hunter. Both Robert Mitchum's stunning extroverted performance and the film itself were shamelessly plundered by De Niro and Scorsese for their all but inept remake of Cape Fear, but this is the genuine article. A flop in its day and plagued with censorship problems (it was banned outright ... Read More
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