The Night Of The Hunter - incredibly, the only film the great actor Charles Laughton ever directed - is truly a standalone masterwork. A horror movie with qualities of a Grimm fairy tale, it stars a sublimely sinister Robert Mitchum (Cape Fear, The Friends Of Eddie Coyle) as a traveling preacher named Harry Powell (he of the tattooed knuckles), whose nefarious motives for marrying a fragile widow, played by ShelleyWinters (A Place In The Sun, The Diary Of Anne Frank) are uncovered by her terrified youngchildren. Graced by images of eerie beauty and a sneaky sense of humor, this ethereal, expressionistic American classic - also featuring the contributions of actress Lillian Gish (Intolerance, Duel In The Sun) and writer James Agee - is cinema's quirkiestrendering of the battle between good and evil.
