Film Forum

(1955, Charles Laughton) “Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms,” sing both shotgun-toting child protector Lillian Gish and lurking psycho preacher Robert Mitchum, sporting a pocket switchblade and fingers tattooed “Love” and “Hate.” Fairy tale and nightmare combine in Laughton’s sole directorial effort, written by legendary critic and screenwriter James Agee. “Haunting and highly personal... clearly the work of a master.” –  New York Times. Approx. 93 min. DCP restoration.

Reviews

"Laughton’s gallery of great performances aside, the crowning achievement of his film career may have been a movie in which he did not appear. That would be The Night of the Hunter, the only film he directed, and one so good it is one of cinema’s true losses that its financial failure prevented him from ever directing another. It was as if Laughton took everything he’d learned from his work — but more importantly life itself — to play on the audience’s feelings, keeping us at once rapt and enthralled, as if we were all children again, completely transfixed by the most compelling bedtime story.”
– David Noh, Gay City News