Event

THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER

THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER Starring ROBERT MITCHUM, LILLIAN GISH

Thurs., March 11 at 7:30pm

Special Guest: Author JEFFREY COUCHMAN
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER: A Biography of a Film

I see you're looking at my hands," says the black-suited preacher Harry
Powell. -- played by cobra-lidded Robert Mitchum -- as he sits in an ice
cream parlor in Depression-era West Virginia. His knuckles are tattooed with
the words LOVE and HATE. No one ever forgets the Rev. Harry Powell's
hands, or the switchblade that he carries in his pocket, or the haunting movie
through which he slithers like a serpent: The Night of the Hunter.
The only film ever directed by the great character actor Charles Laughton
(Mutiny on the Bounty), The Night of the Hunter has come to be recognized
as one of American cinema's greatest masterpieces. Shot in glorious black
and white by Stanley Cortez (Citizen Kane), this pastoral film noir set along the
banks of the serene Ohio River is half-Gothic nightmare, half-morality play. Cahiers du Cinma ranks it as the second most
beautiful film of all time (after Orson Wellesâ Citizen Kane and just above Jean Renoirâs The Rules of the Game). USA, 1955, 92 min.