THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER

THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, 1955
USA | 35mm, Black-White, 93’ | English
Director: Charles Laughton
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish

Is excessive coolness related to schizophrenia? Directing his first –and last– movie, famous actor Charles Laughton thought of Robert Mitchum as a psychopathic preacher who has HATE written on the fingers of one hand and LOVE on the other. It is a brilliant coup because the movie is not only about the relationship between cool and a divided consciousness. It thinks up of a fairy-tale world with innocent kids chased by the bogeyman and with rabbits cocking their ears to the night, uncanny as a murderer’s mind. Aside from the American Gothic aspect, the style of the movie is cool because it is very minimal, almost a shadow play.