The Night of the Hunter
1955, NR, 93 min.
Directed by Charles Laughton, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, Peter Graves.

The great Charles Laughton’s only film as a director is a story often imitated but rarely equaled. With a screenplay by James Agee, the story has Mitchum playing a larcenous and psychotic religious fanatic who menaces some homeless children and an old woman (Gish) for their money. This is the movie that features Mitchum with the contrasting “love” and “hate” letters spelled out on his knuckles.

This article appears in July 16 • 1999 (Cover).

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.