Get Your Reps In: “Night of the Hunter” Remains the All-Time Greatest Serial Killer Film

What to see at Portland’s repertory theaters.

THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER 1955 MGM film with Robert Mitchum. Image shot 1955. Exact date unknown. F7571H THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER 1955 MGM film with Robert Mitchum. Image shot 1955. Exact date unknown. (Alamy Stock Photo)
By Chance Solem-Pfeifer

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Reputationwise, The Night of the Hunter has belatedly gotten its due these past 70 years. Martin Scorsese and Roger Ebert are among those who lifted this cinematic dread-feast from commercial failure and critical ambivalence to its current status as an all-time serial killer film.

That’s no reason to stop the celebration. After all, director Charles Laughton never got to see the reclamation. The revered actor retired from filmmaking after this one initial disappointment.

The Night of the Hunter unfurls as a cat-and-mouse thriller within a holy war. Fashioned as a traveling revival-tent reverend, Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) preys on a country family and seeks their dead patriarch’s stashed fortune. Entrusted with the money’s location, children John (Billy Chapin) and Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce) become Powell’s chief antagonists, lambs just barely escaping the panther’s fangs at every turn.

It’s arguably Mitchum’s finest performance, weaponizing all his languorous charm. But Laughton proves himself more than just an actor’s director. With cinematographer Stanley Cortez, he brings the good-and-evil allegory to the fore in gothic proportion and contrast. Breathtaking shot after breathtaking shot recalls Nosferatu and M more than any contemporaneous American film. Cinema 21, May 13.

ALSO PLAYING:

5th Avenue: The State of Things (1982), Stranger Than Paradise (1984), May 12-14. Academy: Stalker (1979), May 11-18. The Iron Giant (1999), May 12-18. Raging Bull (1980), May 12-19. Cinemagic: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), May 12-May 13. Ator: The Fighting Eagle (1982), May 13. Miami Vice (2006), May 14. The Fast and the Furious (2001), May 14. 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), May 14. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006), May 14. Fast & Furious (2009), May 15. Fast Five (2011), May 15. Furious 6 (2013), May 16. Furious Seven (2015), May 16. The Fate of the Furious (2017), May 17. F9 (2021), May 17. Clinton: Practical Magic (1998), May 11. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), May 13. The Dark Crystal (1982), May 13. The Holy Mountain (1973), May 13. The Alchemist Cookbook (2016), May 15. The Last Unicorn (1982), May 16. Hollywood: Blow Up (1966), May 11. Super Mario Bros. (1993), May 12. To Die For (1995), May 13-May 17. Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), May 14. Troll 2 (1990), May 15. Agency (1980), May 16.

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