The Night of the Hunter—incredibly, the only film the great actor CHARLES LAUGHTON ever directed— is truly a standalone masterwork. A horror movie with qualities of a Grimm fairy tale, it stars a sublimely sinister ROBERT MITCHUM (Cape Fear, The Friends of Eddie Coyle) as a traveling preacher named Harry Powell (he of the tattooed knuckles), whose nefarious motives for marrying a fragile widow, played by SHELLEY WINTERS (A Place in the Sun, The Diary of Anne Frank) are uncovered by her terrified young children. Graced by images of eerie beauty and a sneaky sense of humour, this ethereal, expressionistic American classic—also featuring the contributions of actress LILLIAN GISH (Intolerance, Duel in the Sun) and writer JAMES AGEE—is cinema’s quirkiest rendering of the battle between good and evil.
UNITED STATES | 1990 | 107 MINUTES | COLOUR | 1.85:1 | ENGLISH
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Audio commentary featuring assistant director Terry Sanders, film critic F. X. Feeney, archivist Robert Gitt, and author Preston Neal Jones
- Charles Laughton Directs “The Night of the Hunter,” a two-and-a-half-hour archival treasure trove of outtakes from the film
- New documentary featuring interviews with producer Paul Gregory, Sanders, Jones, and author Jeffrey Couchman
- New video interview with Simon Callow, author of Charles Laughton: A Difficult Actor
- Clip from The Ed Sullivan Show, in which cast members perform live a scene that was deleted from the film
- Fifteen-minute episode of the BBC show Moving Pictures about the film
- Archival interview with cinematographer Stanley Cortez
- Gallery of sketches by author Davis Grubb
- New video conversation between Gitt and film critic Leonard Maltin about Charles Laughton Directs “The Night of the Hunter”
- Original theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critics Terrence Rafferty and Michael Sragow