Review of The Night of the Hunter (1955) by Tom C — 18 Jul 2010

When the modern viewer approaches a movie from the annals of yesteryear, they expect slightly unusual dialogue due to the changes in dialect, use of colloquialism, notions of obscenity et al, and in most cases will excuse it and enjoy the movie. I can certainly make this claim, for many movies made in and before the 1950s are among my favourites.

However, I could not do the same for Night Of The Hunter. I found it very disappointing, and pretty silly. I consider myself a fan of the Southern Gothic genre of films and several rank among my favourites - Wild At Heart, Wise Blood and the like. And there are several moments in Night of the Hunter which allude to greatness. However, most of the film is steeped with irritating characters, such as the totally braindead, absent-mindedly-in-disregard-of-any-notion-of-individuality-or-feminism mother, who lies staring dazedly at the ceiling while her cantankerous new husband slays her in bed. If this was supposed to be some sort of allusion to the brainwashing effects of patriarchal society coupled with Christianity it utterly fails, having already been showcased in the woman who works in the ice cream parlour (also an irritating zealot of a woman).

Child actors, who are seldom inspired and frequently annoying, are unfortunately no exception here. Whenever something 'frightening' or 'shocking', the best they can do is to make their mouths agape, with absolutely no hint of emotion about their eyes.

At one point, whent he boy is fishing with his chosen surrogate father figure, they are engaged in a discussion about something fairly serious, which at the time of writing I unfortunately cannot completely recall, when suddenly the man catches a fish, and in an unintentionally amusing moment, throws it clumsily aboard the fishing boat...and beats it with an oar. I would love to assert something ridiculous at this point, such as 'this is obviously a brutally symbolic manouevre, simulating an iconoclastic attack on traditional American iconography' but unfortunately, that would be totally farcical.

I'm not the sort of person to hate on the classics - I have certainly seen and loved many from this era - but this movie failed for me.