A lovely photograph

of two great actors for the promotion of a still much underrated movie. What had Robert Mitchum and Charles Laughton actually in common to start off this extraordinary adventure?

Mitchum frequently called Laughton the best director he ever worked with and considered Rev. Harry Powell in The Night of the Hunter (1955) as his own personal favourite movie role. Laughton, in turn, deeply admired Mitchum's hidden intelligence, discipline, and natural acting talent behind his tough-guy persona. When Laughton described the villainous preacher as a "diabolical shit" to him, Mitchum immediately quipped, "Present!" and with that sealed his casting. Those were indeed the extraordinarry attributes that made Mitchum the splendid actor that he was.

Personally, I think that the world would have been a lot poorer without he two great men and the terrific picture. Laughton was a classically trained British theater actor who transitioned to Hollywood, whereas Mitchum was known as an offhand, nonchalant American "hellraiser" and drifter on screen. Despite their contrasting public reputations, they forged a deep, respectful friendship during the production. Laughton called Mitchum "one of the best actors in the world, a tender man and a great gentleman".

Rev. Powell was a fanatical, self-appointed "itinerant preacher", con artist and serial killer who murdered wealthy widows across the Ohio River Valley under the guise of doing God's work. He wears a wide-brimmed black hat and dark suit, and famously has "LOVE" tattooed on the fingers of his right hand and "HATE" on the fingers of his left hand. The character was loosely based on real-life American serial killer Harry Powers, who was hanged in West Virginia in 1932.

The movie was poorly received by audiences and critics upon its initial release, leading Laughton sadly never to direct another movie. Over the decades, it has been reevaluated and is now widely celebrated amongst movie connoisseurs as a true masterwork of American cinema. Nevertheless it's still not attainded with the wider public the standing that it really deserves. The narrative frames a timeless battle where malice wears the disguise of piety ("ravening wolves in sheep's clothing"), anchored by Rachel Cooper's lovely opening and closing reflections.

In his trademark witty and incisive style, British movie critic Barry Norman praised the film's transition into a dark, expressionistic fairytale, and he frequently lauded the "natural film director" evident in Laughton. He considered Mitchum's bone-chilling portrayal of the psychotic, knuckle-tattooed preacher Harry Powell to be a masterclass in screen villainy. During a highly famous BBC television interview, when Norman was expanding on Mitchum's profound, artistic contribution to cinema—specifically referencing his complex, brilliant work in The Night of the Hunter—the notoriously nonchalant actor cut the critic off mid-sentence.

The reason why the picture failed at the box office and with most critics was for sure because of the dark subject matter and the avant-garde style. It's a blend of German Expressionism, Southern Gothic horror, and dark fairy-tale elements that audiences weren't then readily warmed up for yet. It's also a moral film that nevertheless gives a tantalising glimpse of something akin to purgatory. It's far more frightening than most horror films, though it defies the genre tag, whether as thriller, horror or allegory. Go and see it if you haven't already. As Robert Egbert once wrote: "nobody who has seen The Night of the Hunter has forgotten it, or Mitchum’s voice coiling down those basement stairs: Chillll . . . dren?”