Review of The Night of the Hunter (1955) by Sean N — 07 May 2009

Mitchum's entire relogious background belonging to his character seems to me a kind of front for an otherwise very charming psycopath. It feels as if he isn't really behind every prayer or bible verse but only using it to get away with his murderous and conniving actions.

For film noir, the ending is a little too happy but of course it was the 50's and it is an American movie so what can you expect? But I can imagine if given a darker ending this could have been a perfect film noir with already one of the best noir characters ever produced and pulled off by Eddie Coyle himself.