#80 The Night of the Hunter - Don't trust the wolf in sheep's clothing

1955. dir. Charles Laughton, starring Robert Mitchum, Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish.

Seen it before? No.

Robert Mitchum plays a bad, bad man dressed as a preacher who seduces people with words, marries widows and slays them for their money. This time his pray was Shelley Winters whose husband was executed for stealing a great amount of money. Everyone in the town believes Harry Powell (Mitchum) is benevolent to a fault and only wants to help the recently widowed Willa Harper raise her two children, John and Pearl. But we see the truth. The man is cold, calculating and manipulative. He rebuffs Willa. He calls John a sinner and does a whole slew of bad things while telling nosy neighbors Icey and Walt Spoon that Willa turned him down, etc.

Sam's least favorite character is probably my favorite. I loved Lillian Gish's Mrs. Cooper. She was smart, sassy, and generous. She took in John and Pearl when they had no where else to turn. And believed John over the words of Powell.

I think this movie is worth seeing. I hated every grown-up in the movie except for Mrs. Cooper. I thought it was annoying that people ate up every word Powell said. Watch the movie and you'll see what I mean. I won't blow the ending for you.

Watch it again? Yes
Own it? No real need to.

#80 The Night of the Hunter: A hard world for little things

1955. dir. Charles Laughton, starring Robert Mitchum, Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish.

Seen it before? No.

Charles Laughton only directed one movie, and it was a good one. Robert Mitchum plays Harry Powell, one of the most e-e-evil movie characters of all time. He travels from town to town and seduces widows by acting religious. Then he kills them and steals their money. While in prison, his condemned cellmate had stolen a large sum of money, so he tracks down the surviving family members - Shelley Winters plays the mother, and there's two kids, played by Billy Chapin and Sally Jane Bruce - and tries to steal the money.

It's really only about two-thirds of a great film. It starts out really suspenseful and dramatic, but then... I won't spoil the ending, but in my opinion the movie comes to a screeching halt the moment Lillian Gish's character shows up. Total deus ex machina. Oh well, can't win 'em all.

Position on the list: 176
And then we watched a Simpsons episode: Cape Feare, which has a lot of references to this movie. No one who speaks German could be an evil man!