Review of The Night of the Hunter (1955) by Celia C — 26 Apr 2008

If you'd have asked me my opinion of this film a week ago, I'd have told you it was a classic.

Unfortunately, watching it again yesterday, it's stagey, overwrought and has moments of unintentional hilarity that skew the tension badly.

Mitchum's performance in Cape Fear is more evenly sustained; here he lapses into extremism where it isn't needed.

The set design, photography and lighting are masterful, although Laughton tends towards dull talky scenes with little visual interest, and the film tries to cram too many incidental subplots into the mix.

Not quite a flawed masterpiece, though certainly of interest.