Probably Robert Mitchum's best-known performance was in this extremely creepy suspense-horror film … Murderous ex-convict Harry Powell misrepresents himself as a prison chaplain upon his release from prison. The Night of the Hunter is one of a kind. And as the only film directed by actor Charles Laughton, its very existence is somewhat haunting. Following a script by James Agree, The Night of the Hunter follows nine-year-old John Harper (Billy Chapin) and his four-year-old sister Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce), who are left fatherless when their Depression-weary pop, Ben (Peter Graves), robs a bank and kills two men in the process. Starting out on the British stage in 1926, he had been acting in film since 1928 and came to Hollywood in the early '30s. It was only while watching the film, enthralled but also deeply unsettled, that I fully realized just how insidiously terrifying the … CHARLES LAUGHTON DIRECTS ‘THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER’ The film has been cited among critics as one of the best of the 1950s, and has been selected by the United States National Film Registry for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Night of the Hunter – review 5 / 5 stars 5 out of 5 stars. This is one weird, troubling movie, all the more so for being released in 1955. “The Night of the Hunter” Anna N. Beach Paper #1 March 7, 2011 “The Night of The Hunter” is a thriller written by Davis Grubb in 1953. The Night of the Hunter is nearly as demented as its lead villain, and I mean that as a compliment. Two young children, Pearl and John Harper, are being raised alone by their mother in Cresap’s Landing, Ohio. Adapted by James Agee from a novel by Davis Grubb, The Night of the Hunter represented legendary actor Charles Laughton's only film directing effort. The Night of the Hunter is a 1953 thriller novel by American author Davis Grubb. The Night of the Hunter (1955) is a truly compelling, haunting, and frightening classic masterpiece thriller-fantasy, and the only film ever directed by the great British actor Charles Laughton. It might have been released in 1955, but with its stark black and white photography, irreal set design full of odd angles and larger-than-life villain, it feels like it's from a different era entirely. The setting for The Night of the Hunter is Cresap’s Landing, a small town on the banks of the Ohio River, which has recently been shocked by a killing during a robbery carried out by Ben Harper (Peter Graves) who now awaits execution, meanwhile sharing a cell with Preacher Harry Powell (Mitchum). The book was a national bestseller and was voted a finalist for the 1955 National Book Award Story line and development. It is imaginably chilling and disturbing. The story of The Night of the Hunter occurs in 1930 in the Ohio River Valley country of West Virginia. The picture has become a cult classic since its release, and is widely regarded by film critics and historians and modern filmmakers as one of the most important pictures of the 1950s. The Night of the Hunter has the feel and the force of an American folk fable; yet, it’s a curious and highly eccentric sort of folk fable, mixing, as it does, rural humor with gothic humor, biblical quotation and Freudian symbolism, and everyday realities with a near-mythic confrontation between the forces of … About The Night of the Hunter.