A Noir Classic Revisited

Self-appointed “Preacher” Harry Powell comes to Cresap’s Landing, West Virginia in 1932, where he ingratiates himself, characterizing the battle between good and evil by enfolding and twisting the fingers of his left hand labeled with the letters H A T E against those of his right hand labeled L O V E. He soon woos and weds the recently widowed Willa Harper and moves into her home with her two children—ten-year-old John and five-year-old Pearl.

But he is not the god-fearing man he claims to be. He shared a jail cell with Willa’s husband Ben before the man was executed for killing two security guards during a robbery and is hell-bent on finding the $10,000 in stolen money that was never recovered, aiming to kill anyone who gets in his way.

The chase that sends John and Pearl fleeing down the Ohio River with Preacher not far behind is the focus of the world premiere stage adaptation of The Night of the Hunter presented by Chicago’s City Lit Theatre, a 35-year-old theatre company with a rich history of stage adaptations. At the time it was formed, City Lit was the only theatre in the county devoted to staging adaptations of literary material. Its latest production recalls the iconic film that ironically was a box-office bomb when released in 1955. City Lit Theater Company

The Night of the Hunter

The Night of the Hunter is ranked among the top ten noir films of the 1950s, trailing the likes of A Touch of Evil, Sunset Boulevard, The Big Heat, The Sweet Smell of Success, D.O.A., and The Asphalt Jungle. https://www.tasteofcinema.com/2014/the-15-best-noir-films-of-the-1950s/ It has been rated as one of the greatest movies of all time by Empire magazine in 2008 and Sight and Sound magazine in 2012, finishing in the top 100 films in both those years and then rising to the 25th best film in 2022. The American Film Institute places the film at number 34 on its list of 100 year…100 Thrills and its villain, Harry Powell, as number 29.

It’s been cited for beauty as well as terror, rated as number 2 among the 100 Most Beautiful Films by Carhiers du cinéma in 2007 and as number 90 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments. (The Night of the Hunter (film) - Wikipedia) And The US Library of Congress in 1992 selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry because it is considered to be “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” (The Night of the Hunter A Biography of a Film, Jeffrey Couchman)

Yet the film failed miserably at the box office. Its premiere at the Paramount Theatre in Des Moines filled all 1700 seats on July 26, 1955, but openings in other cities attracted fewer than 20 people and it “ground to a standstill” after that, soon ending up on twin bills with a B-grade Westerns (The Night of the Hunter A Biography of a Film, Jeffrey Couchman)

The film is just out of sync, Jeffrey Couchman points out. It was released at a time when moviegoers were getting used to spectacular, glossy, big-screen film productions the likes of The Robe, Oklahoma, and Around the World in Eighty Days. Even though some smaller scale, black and white films were popular at the time, The Night of the Hunter didn’t fit into any conventional category. It has elements of a thriller, horror film, and noir, but at the same time it is stunningly beautiful and poignant, as shown in scenes of Willa’s dead body trapped in the family vehicle while river currents drive waves of sea weed.

But its perceived weaknesses at the time of its release turn out to make it a universal work of art. As Roger Ebert wrote in 1996, "what a compelling, frightening and beautiful film it is! And how well it has survived its period. Many films of the mid-1950s, even the good ones, seem somewhat dated now, but by setting his story in an invented movie world outside conventional realism, [director Charles] Laughton gave it a timelessness... It is one of the most frightening of movies, with one of the most unforgettable of villains, and on both of those scores, it holds up... well after four decades." (Ebert, Roger, November 24, 1996; "The Night of the Hunter (1955)". Chicago Sun-Times.

From Book to Film

The Night of the Hunter is based on the book of the same name, written by Davis Grubb and published in 1953. The book fictionalizes the life of Harry Powers, a Depression-era serial killer who used lonely hearts advertisements to meet women so he could steal their money and later kill them. After his arrest in 1931 in West Virginia, police found four rooms under Powers’ garage that contained bloody clothing, strands of hair, and singed pages from a burned bankbook. A ditch behind his house uncovered the bodies of two women and two children. (Harry Powers - Wikipedia (bing.com)

Author Grubb created the itinerant character Harry ‘Preacher’ Powell whose fingers bear the tattooed letters L O V E and H A T E, who travels to Cresap’s Landing to find the missing $10,000 his cellmate Ben Harper told him about, kills Willa and stalks her children John and Pearl. (Reverend Harry Powell - Wikipedia) The book made The New York Times bestseller list in March, 1954, was condensed for Reader’s Digest, and sold to independent film producer Paul Gregory.

Grubb’s novel had many of the scenes that would become iconic in the film—Preacher’s tattooed fingers, Willa’s submerged corpse in the family Model T, the children running to the river and escaping on a skiff. (The Night of the Hunter A Biography of a Film, Jeffrey Couchman)

In the hands of director Charles Laughton and producer Gregory, The Night of the Hunter became even more nourish.

Noir …

The immensely popular noir class of Hollywood films was first categorized as black film or black cinema by a French critic in 1946. These films capitalized on over-the-top post WW I German expressionism and stories from gritty crime novelists of the time like Dashiell Hammett (known for the PI Sam Spade) and Cornell Woolrich (known for the idea behind Hitchcock’s Rear Window).

Noir is distinguished by film techniques. Noir films are black and white with low, dramatic lighting creating sharp and harsh shadows, camera angles that tilt, sharpen, or distort images, and props, such as mirrors, that magnify or intensify shadowy effects. The films are shot in cities and zero in on alleyways, narrow lanes, slick pavements. They have dark moods (mystery, paranoia, disillusionment) and certain character types (the flawed man with a past anti-hero, the manipulative villain, the femme fatale) and themes (murder, morality, suspense). (The Art of Film Noir, Updated: Dec 18, 2021, https://www.britannica.com/art/film-noir)

… or Not?

The Night of the Hunter is and is not noir. It has the same noirish looks: a shaft of light illuminating John and Pearl in the basement of their home with Preacher hovering a few steps overhead, a close up of Preacher’s tattooed hands on a railing, a bed lamp’s rays highlighting churchlike eaves, an outline of young John in a darkened barn as he peers at Preacher’s silhouette on a horse in the distance. And the mood is darkly relentless as Preacher stalks the children.

But there is no anti-hero or femme fatale or ambiguity about what has happened, who did it, and why and no moral ambiguity. Unlike the choice between his love and the duty Sam Spade owes his dead partner Miles Archer in The Maltese Falcon, the plot in The Night of the Hunter is clear—flee from the predator. It’s a simple story of good and evil, not a complex one that challenges conventional values. (The Night of the Hunter (1955): Not Noir – FilmsNoir.Net (art.blog)

The Night of the Hunter just doesn’t fit in any one category. It reveres those of good faith who abide and endure, yet it was highly criticized at the time of its release by the Catholic Legion of Decency who listed it as one of the films that were Morally Objectionable in Part for All in 1955, and the Protestant Motion Picture Council concluded it would be offensive to most religious people. It was considered too horrifying for children yet youngsters are often mesmerized by the sights and sounds.

Noir, not noir. Thriller, not thriller. Horror, not horror. That may be the strength of The Night of the Hunter--its uniqueness. As Dave Kehr wrote in 1985: "Charles Laughton's first and only film as a director is an enduring masterpiece—dark, deep, beautiful, aglow... The source of its style and power is mysterious—it is a film without precedent and without any real equals." Kehr, Dave, October 26, 1985: "The Night of the Hunter". Chicago Reader

Sources:

The Night of the Hunter A Biography of a Film, Jeffrey Couchman)

https://www.tasteofcinema.com/2014/the-15-best-noir-films-of-the-1950s/

Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments. (The Night of the Hunter (film) - Wikipedia)

(Ebert, Roger, November 24, 1996; "The Night of the Hunter (1955)". Chicago Sun-Times.

(Harry Powers - Wikipedia (bing.com)

(Reverend Harry Powell - Wikipedia

The Art of Film Noir, Updated: Dec 18, 2021, https://www.britannica.com/art/film-noir)

(The Night of the Hunter (1955): Not Noir – FilmsNoir.Net (art.blog)

Kehr, Dave, October 26, 1985: "The Night of the Hunter". Chicago Reader

The Original Hillbilly Horror Movie: The Night of the Hunter - expatalachians

Night of the Hunter Photo Gallery 20 (morethings.com)