Night of the Hunter

(1955) dir Charles Laughton w/Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce [92 min; DCP]

A horror movie with qualities of a Grimm fairy tale, NIGHT OF THE HUNTER stars a sublimely sinister Mitchum as a traveling preacher named Harry Powell (he of the tattooed knuckles), whose nefarious motives for marrying a fragile widow (Winters) are uncovered by her terrified young children. Graced by images of eerie beauty and a sneaky sense of humor, this ethereal, expressionistic American classic is cinema’s most eccentric rendering of the battle between good and evil. – Criterion Collection