― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 1 January 2004 18:44 (twenty years ago) link
Prima fissy - i dont think it's funny at all - i can't understand that.
― jed (jed_e_3), Thursday, 1 January 2004 19:05 (twenty years ago) link
Would make a great thread.
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 1 January 2004 19:56 (twenty years ago) link
those kids are awful.
― cozen¡ (Cozen), Thursday, 1 January 2004 20:30 (twenty years ago) link
― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Thursday, 1 January 2004 21:42 (twenty years ago) link
― jed (jed_e_3), Thursday, 1 January 2004 22:22 (twenty years ago) link
He wouldn't have done what Laughton did with the material. What would Welles have done with any material. This is a straw man argument.
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 1 January 2004 22:32 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 1 January 2004 22:45 (twenty years ago) link
the woman in the water, of course, the woman in the water.
when mitchum is abt to kill the woman, the shot switches from a close-up view to a shot of the full room, which because at night is bordered in black. i suppose i can't really articulate why this shot is so remarkable.
and one i hated:
the reprise of the 'don't! DON'T!' when mitchum is arrested: this was painful enough the first time round, the boy's first don't too reticent and insincere, his second much too stilted and annoying: and it's acted the same way both times. blech.
i really love the singing all throughout this film too: is that really r. mitchum's voice?
haha oz the movie! i don't see it but i want to!
are welles and laughton similar? when were they around? what's 'touch of evil' like? at all similar?
― cozen¡ (Cozen), Thursday, 1 January 2004 22:54 (twenty years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 1 January 2004 23:02 (twenty years ago) link
Maybe partly because the scene is so obviously shot on a sound stage and he not only doesnt attempt to hide the unreality of the thing but actually accentuates it. I suppose thats pretty radical for its time.
― jed (jed_e_3), Thursday, 1 January 2004 23:16 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 1 January 2004 23:53 (twenty years ago) link
― cozen¡ (Cozen), Thursday, 1 January 2004 23:56 (twenty years ago) link
anyway memory sux, i got it on tape so maybe tomorrow
― prima fassy (bob), Friday, 2 January 2004 00:10 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 2 January 2004 00:10 (twenty years ago) link
Two points - set design and river sequence alone make this a keeper.
― Girolamo Savonarola, Friday, 2 January 2004 00:20 (twenty years ago) link
and which do i watch most
― prima fassy (bob), Friday, 2 January 2004 00:25 (twenty years ago) link
― jed (jed_e_3), Friday, 2 January 2004 00:27 (twenty years ago) link
As for the river sequence, the pure Moses/Homer/Aesop/Brothers Grimm gels there perfectly. It's like a cohesion and perversion of every twisted bit of children's literature. Which also goes to show how perverse the genre is enough that (in my view) censorship is a moot point when we let children read things like that which are just as grotesque. (Which to me is fine - it's the censorship that I'm patronizing.)
― Girolamo Savonarola, Friday, 2 January 2004 00:45 (twenty years ago) link
(another good thread idea.)
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 2 January 2004 01:18 (twenty years ago) link
Passion of Joan of Arc got some soft support, Sunrise (my personal guess) nearly came out on top, but in the end we had settled on Night of the Hunter. Now I have to open the question back up among my chums.
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 2 January 2004 01:22 (twenty years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 2 January 2004 01:33 (twenty years ago) link
There, now destroy that one you ciniphile-nihilist fuckers!
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 15 January 2004 14:26 (twenty years ago) link
― the angry cowboy (dick), Thursday, 15 January 2004 14:39 (twenty years ago) link
― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Thursday, 15 January 2004 14:40 (twenty years ago) link
― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 24 December 2004 23:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 24 December 2004 23:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 24 December 2004 23:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 24 December 2004 23:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Saturday, 25 December 2004 06:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― cºzen (Cozen), Saturday, 25 December 2004 11:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― g--ff (gcannon), Saturday, 25 December 2004 15:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 27 December 2004 00:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Monday, 27 December 2004 02:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― AIDS BENEDICT (Adrian Langston), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 11:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 01:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 02:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 03:13 (nineteen years ago) link
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 03:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 03:22 (nineteen years ago) link
I want to mention another scene from the movie that always sticks in my mind- the boy watching his father (played by Mission Impossible's Peter Graves) get arrested. I couldn't tell you offhand why it works so well, I guess I'll have to go back and watch it again.
― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 30 December 2004 06:16 (nineteen years ago) link
― Michael White (Hereward), Thursday, 30 December 2004 06:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ken L (Ken L), Thursday, 30 December 2004 06:48 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.amazon.com/Night-Hunter-Walter-Schumann/dp/B000009NX6
just listened to this & it's pretty great. it's not strictly a soundtrack it's laughton narrating the story of the film over an orchestral background from Walter Schumann with some recordings from the film integrated into the tale.
Once upon a time there was a pretty fly.... he had a pretty wife, this pretty fly... but one day she flew away, flew awaaaayyyy...
― jed_, Tuesday, 19 June 2007 20:35 (sixteen years ago) link
Just saw it, fucking brilliant of course. There's a sprightliness, a mischief in the direction that imbues the film with its timeless, childlike spirit. It's shot completely unlike any other film I've seen. Things come and go with abruptness, without need for rumination. We are subjected to a child's experience.
Three best shots:
1) When we cut to the mother's fiery confession. Like some sort of terrifying Satanic ritual it springs off the screen and envelops us.
2) When the boat comes to rest ashore, little children asleep inside, the camera pans upwards, not to reveal the hunter, but instead to reveal the lovely, hyper-real starlight tableau created with such resonance by the film-makers.
3) John placing the apple on Mrs. Cooper's lap. It's an abiding image of fertility and protection, and done with superb subtlety.
― Just got offed, Sunday, 9 December 2007 17:23 (sixteen years ago) link
I suspect it to be in black and white, and therefore shit.
(strokes goatee beard)
― PhilK, Sunday, 9 December 2007 21:59 (sixteen years ago) link
dude i have seen nothing from you but shitty trolling
― Just got offed, Sunday, 9 December 2007 22:06 (sixteen years ago) link
You're not reading between the lines.
― PhilK, Sunday, 9 December 2007 22:19 (sixteen years ago) link
http://incolor.inebraska.com/sumaree/nebraskafilm/images/foo9.jpg
― Noodle Vague, Sunday, 9 December 2007 22:23 (sixteen years ago) link
And yeah, if you told me this was the greatest film of all time, I wouldn't argue with you for a second.
OTM
i love this film so much i can barely bring myself to defend it.
― scissorlocks and the three bears (Eric H.), Friday, 20 May 2011 18:17 (thirteen years ago) link
that is Mitchum singing... burt a midget on the long shot of the horse on the horizon.
― the gay bloggers are onto the faggot tweets (Dr Morbius), Friday, 20 May 2011 18:54 (thirteen years ago) link
Burt, a midget, stand-in for Robert Mitchum
― Shart Shaped Box (Phil D.), Friday, 20 May 2011 19:03 (thirteen years ago) link
Agee's 293-page first draft, back in 2004, which is, scene-for-scene, the film that Laughton directed
That seems awfully long!
― Simon H. Shit (Simon H.), Friday, 20 May 2011 19:09 (thirteen years ago) link
xpost Burt's right up there with Alan Smithee and the Wilhelm scream in movie lore.
― scissorlocks and the three bears (Eric H.), Friday, 20 May 2011 19:11 (thirteen years ago) link
There goes Burt again... don't he never sleep?
http://www.sheilaomalley.com/archives/NightHunter04.jpg
― The hoppiest hop hopper now with xtra hops (Dan Peterson), Friday, 20 May 2011 19:24 (thirteen years ago) link
He actually used to post on ILX as burt_stanton, true story.
― Shart Shaped Box (Phil D.), Friday, 20 May 2011 19:47 (thirteen years ago) link
it did seem like it was plague time for little ones
― Milton Parker, Friday, 20 May 2011 19:54 (thirteen years ago) link
Acting. Pshaw. Acting is so 2010. Concern for "good acting" has blinded many a viewer to genius cinema. And the condemnations are never insightful, pivoting on some bogus, received notion of verisimilitude. Yawn.
rah!
― nakhchivan, Friday, 20 May 2011 19:56 (thirteen years ago) link
A couple of years after watching Night of the Hunter, I read this Brothers Grimm's tale, and got the same powerful punch in the stomach:
There was once a little girl who was obstinate and inquisitive, and when her parents told her to do anything, she did not obey them, so how could she fare well? One day she said to her parents, "I have heard so much of Frau Trude, I will go to her some day. People say that everything about her does look so strange, and that there are such odd things in her house, that I have become quite curious!" Her parents absolutely forbade her, and said, "Frau Trude is a bad woman, who does wicked things, and if thou goest to her; thou art no longer our child." But the maiden did not let herself be turned aside by her parent's prohibition, and still went to Frau Trude. And when she got to her, Frau Trude said, "Why art thou so pale?" "Ah," she replied, and her whole body trembled, "I have been so terrified at what I have seen." "What hast thou seen?" "I saw a black man on your steps." "That was a collier." "Then I saw a green man." "That was a huntsman." "After that I saw a blood-red man." "That was a butcher." "Ah, Frau Trude, I was terrified; I looked through the window and saw not you, but, as I verily believe, the devil himself with a head of fire." "Oho!" said she, "then thou hast seen the witch in her proper costume. I have been waiting for thee, and wanting thee a long time already; thou shalt give me some light." Then she changed the girl into a block of wood, and threw it into the fire. And when it was in full blaze she sat down close to it, and warmed herself by it, and said, "That shines bright for once in a way."
― Marco Damiani, Sunday, 22 May 2011 07:12 (thirteen years ago) link
Laughton to Winters in the murder-scene outtakes: “Doesn’t matter about the lines; just smile, Shelley, and be seraphic.”
http://littleblogtoo.blogspot.com/2008/08/hunting-down-laughtons-haunting-night.html
― already president FYI (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 14 June 2011 19:25 (twelve years ago) link
on TCM tomorrow night (6/15) at 8pm
― Gukbe, Tuesday, 14 June 2011 20:48 (twelve years ago) link
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyffearYSg1qcay1ao1_500.gif
http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyf612nLEX1qcay1ao1_500.gif
http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lydwdwHkzX1qcay1ao1_500.gif
― omar little, Thursday, 8 March 2012 08:19 (twelve years ago) link
so, Gish fires one shot at Mitchum and he goes squawking into the barn like a cartoon rooster? mysteriously unsatisfying climax, and someone on the Criterion commentary says as much.
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 March 2012 12:17 (twelve years ago) link
That whole sequence is perfectly filmed.
― Eric H., Thursday, 8 March 2012 12:31 (twelve years ago) link
just disappointingly conceived?
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 March 2012 12:43 (twelve years ago) link
Not really disappointing by my estimation.
― Eric H., Thursday, 8 March 2012 12:46 (twelve years ago) link
I regard this as one of the two or three closest things to a perfect movie.
Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillllldreeennnn.....
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 8 March 2012 14:25 (twelve years ago) link
I MUST see this movie again! Soon.....
― *tera, Thursday, 8 March 2012 23:26 (twelve years ago) link
I've never really done too much hard thinking about it, but the ending certainly seems deliberate in its effect--Gish's character is certainly as archetypal as Mitchum's in that respect...
― ryan, Thursday, 8 March 2012 23:36 (twelve years ago) link
Just found the book Night of the Hunter on a bargain table and read it; it's actually very good and it turns out the movie is a REALLY faithful adaptation.
― Lily Dale, Monday, 18 November 2019 03:46 (four years ago) link
This is true and was trying to remember it when somebody said something similar on the thread about The Maltese Falcon.
― Irae Louvin (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 18 November 2019 03:57 (four years ago) link