Review of The Night of the Hunter (1955) by Mary D — 17 May 2010

There's a lot of technical prowess in the cinematography, which is truly eerie and abstract, and the film manages to really shake you because of it. A very memorable scene involving a body tethered to the bottom of the river is especially surreal and sure to come back to you.

This is all to say nothing of the performances by Chapin and Mitchum, both of whom steal every scene they're a part of. Only a heavy-handed, pace-killing, broad moral commentary bogs this one down.