the night of the hunter essay

The Definitives

Critical essays, histories, and appreciations of great films

The Night of the Hunter

Essay by brian eggert january 26, 2022.

( This essay was originally published on November 23, 2010. It has been edited and expanded. )

The Night of the Hunter is a strange film. Nothing quite compares. Its unusualness draws influence from German Expressionism and Mother Goose. Yet the story, set in a Southern Gothic backdrop, explores how religion can be corrupted for greed, murder, and lust. Released in 1955, it would become the only film directed by renowned actor Charles Laughton, who approached filmmaking in the same manner as his acting—from a place of keen human observation and the layering of a master painter. But the film is not the product of an established auteur. Under Laughton’s untested direction, the production fostered a contingent of film-workers with the creative latitude to shape the picture through an inspiring account of artistic collaboration. Laboring toward their director’s singular vision, Laughton’s cast and crew developed enduring imagery both startling and beautiful, ideas both complex and disturbing. Their approach was experimental yet assured, combining the threat of a slit throat with the tenderness of a lullaby. Divergent from every known formula, The Night of the Hunter ’ s arrangement of graceful cinematography and unnerving impulses channels a cinematic dreamscape of desire and terror, which awakens the unconscious and continues to challenge the creative limits of cinema.

Part folk tale, part horror story, the film’s amalgamation of moods and methods is arcane, even off-putting upon first assessment. Based on Davis Grubb’s 1953 novel, The Night of the Hunter shifts perspectives between characters, from a child’s point of view to that of a murderer. And with these dramatic tonal switches, the stylistic approach turns as well—in sometimes abrupt and disorienting transitions, such as when noirish photography gives way to bright rural landscapes suited for a storybook. Such rich contrasts of style remain inventive but elusive, even beguiling. It’s impossible to make sense of the film in a single viewing—or even in two or three. Yet, unique as its mannerisms prove, the effect retains a place in the memory of those who experience it. Motion pictures this distinctive have a way of mesmerizing an audience with their mysteries of style and narrative, instilling a seed that germinates over time and grows into an emergent affection that lingers in the viewer’s unconscious. As a result, audiences and critics alike dismissed the picture in 1955. But slowly, and after much reassessment, the film has gained esteem so that today it is hailed as one of cinema’s most extraordinary oddities.

Laughton’s professional acting career began in 1926 after a brief stint at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He achieved immediate acclaim in many significant roles, bringing his grandiosity to each performance. He was the foremost presence on the English stage within five years, later moving to Broadway and after that Hollywood. In his early films, he became known for bombastic characterizations, such as his Henry in The Private Lives of Henry VIII (1933) or Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), all culminating with his signature role as Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939). After his acclaimed performance as the Hunchback, his roles turned into easier evocations of his personality, but no less rich, such as those in Jules Dassin’s version of The Canterville Ghost (1944) or David Lean’s Hobson’s Choice (1954), versus the total embodiments that came before. His creative drive shifted toward directing theatrical productions for the stage. However, he continued to act in more commercial roles, which he said used up a mere “tenth” of his creative energies. His manager Paul Gregory knew Laughton should be directing motion pictures.

Gregory believed, somewhat naïvely, that with good art comes good business, and accordingly, he took creative risks as a producer. He became Laughton’s manager after seeing the actor read a chapter from the Bible’s book of Daniel on The Ed Sullivan Show. Gregory immediately sought out the actor to propose a one-man show where Laughton would read selections from classic literature to a rapt audience. Costume-free readings of material like Don Juan in Hell , along with productions of John Brown’s Body and The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial , followed until Gregory realized that Laughton’s organization of these shows gave evidence of the actor’s incredible talent for composing more than a single performance but an entire arrangement—and that more significant directing challenges awaited in film. Gregory later received a call from a publisher friend in New York City who offered him a chance to read a yet-unpublished novel by first-time author Davis Grubb. Gregory read Grubb’s The Night of the Hunter and, immediately after finishing the book, he wanted Laughton to put the story to film.

Laughton, however, interpreted Grubb’s book to be about the defeat of childhood demons, analogous to fairy tales where the child hero defeats a wicked witch preying on children—he called it “a fairy-story, really a nightmarish sort of Mother Goose tale.” On the set, Laughton regularly referred to his star Lillian Gish as “Mother Goose” to shape the actress’ maternal savior role. Laughton’s adaptation was atypical in that he wanted his film to serve the novel by maintaining its themes and imagery. To this end, James Agee seemed the perfect choice to adapt Grubb’s book. Agee had written many screenplays but had only received credit for John Huston’s The African Queen (1951); he also worked as a novelist, film critic, and poet. He had a similar background to Grubb, having written in the Depression-era backdrop of Grubb’s novel before. Moreover, at the time of his hiring, Agee was also writing his posthumously published book, A Death in the Family , a tale told from a child’s perspective, which much of Grubb’s novel and the film would be. The fit was natural, but perhaps Agee was too close to the material. When the writer turned in an overly detailed adaptation of Grubb’s novel that, totaling around 300 pages, clung to the author’s words, Laughton took it upon himself to rewrite Agee’s version into a script of suitable length, editing down and reinterpreting the material through story conferences between writer and director. And despite the need for Laughton to extensively rework Agee’s script, the relationship between all parties remained professional, if combustive at times. Though the resulting script had been drastically reduced from Agee’s version, Laughton did not argue when Agee received sole screen credit. They were Agee’s words, just revised by Laughton.

The screen story opens with a procession of deeply conflicting scenes that anticipate the film’s shifts in style. The first features the face of Lillian Gish superimposed against a starry sky, playing a yet-unnamed character who gives a Bible lesson to children during storytime to “beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep’s clothing.” The next scene shows children playing hide-and-seek until one of them finds a dead body of a woman in a cellar door. The camera pulls away into the sky and settles back down on an old jalopy and its driver, Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), talking to God. “Well now, what’s it to be Lord? Another widow? How many has it been? Six? Twelve? I disremember.” Then the film transitions to deep in Depression-era West Virginia. Children John (Billy Chapin) and younger sister Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce), whose father Ben Harper (Peter Graves) was just executed for murder and armed robbery, live with their rattled mother, Willa Harper (Shelley Winters). Within a few short minutes, the film establishes a variance of perspectives and tones, ranging from childhood innocence to macabre danger—and already, the viewer experiences a wealth of compassion and terror when these characters meet.

Narrowly evading the Preacher’s clutches, John and Pearl escape to the river in their father’s old skiff, meandering with the current on a long journey to safety. Like something out of a storybook or a child’s dream, Mother Nature—a selection of rabbits, frogs, owls, turtles, and spiders—watches over them with an inquisitive calmness. Preacher, meanwhile, tracks them downriver. The small creatures no doubt identify with what it means to be hunted. Through starry nights and serene days on the river, John questions who, if anyone, he can trust. When he and Pearl arrive at the farmhouse of Rachel Cooper (Gish), a kindhearted older woman who has taken in many orphans from the river, he knows he has found a safe haven. The strong-headed Rachel has built her home from her sensible views on the Bible, using it as a guide but not a roadmap, allowing John and Pearl, and all of her orphans, to become independent. They follow their sense of morality—as opposed to values inscribed by a corruptible institution such as organized religion, police, or, to an extent, even parenthood. And it is Rachel’s saintly virtue that ultimately confronts Preacher (with a shotgun, no less) and leads to his demise. In the end, Rachel admits, “It’s a hard world for little things.” But she knows that despite the hardships of the Harpers, children remain resilient creatures. John and Pearl will abide.

The dire, horrific circumstances of the film’s first half, embodied by Preacher’s sadistic villainy, open up to a safer realm where Rachel becomes an impenetrable obstacle, against which Preacher seems almost buffoonish—certainly less threatening. His antagonizing, murderous characterization in the film’s first half and the hopeful message made through children in the second result in an uncanny combination of tonal shifts from the film’s beginning to end. Tragic supporting characters fill the backdrop, bringing further substance to the film’s interchanges between Preacher and the children. Willa remains sympathetic for her desperation—even after she learns that Preacher wants her late husband’s loot, she still believes his godliness will be her salvation. And Uncle Birdie Steptoe (James Gleason), a local drunk befriended by John, promises the boy help should he ever need it. But when Preacher kills Willa and then comes for the children, Uncle Birdie hides in a bottle when the children need him most. Such complex characterizations, taken directly from Grubb’s novel, are infused with rich Southern Gothic traits of deeply flawed and tortured human beings.

However, while Grubb’s memorable dialogue finds its way into the film, Laughton’s most impressive feat in honoring his source was the imagery used to evoke the author’s prose on film. Consider the same example of Willa’s submerged and waterlogged body. Makeup artist Maurice Seiderman created a wax dummy for the ghostly scene, sparing no detail, not even the slit throat. Seiderman’s dummy, submerged in a tank along with the car, looks shockingly like Shelley Winters. A hose spraying into the tank created the illusion of a current, while massive lamps give the image a wraithlike feeling of poetic beauty yet grim unease. It remains among the most striking visuals in this or any film. Or consider the appearance of Preacher suddenly in Ruby’s home when he steps on her cat: “He rocketed suddenly upward before her very eyes, his twisted mask caught for one split second in the silver moonlight like a vision in a photograph negative,” wrote Grubb. Mitchum likewise bursts onscreen to achieve the film’s most startling jump, a moment perfectly in synch with the writer’s description.

Though Laughton’s ability as a film director was untested, he could not help but identify with many of the novel’s themes and emphasize them onscreen. While making cuts to Grubb’s text, he maintains that the book was, in essence, a condemnation of the church. Laughton revolted from his firm Roman Catholic background in his early years and, throughout his life, opposed the idea of organized religion. Yet, for all its talk of religion, Grubb’s novel contained a message that, for Laughton, argued faith was better practiced by a kind old farm woman than a man who called himself “Preacher” and justified his criminality in the name of the Bible. Laughton stresses that the blind trust for religion is a folly of the characters duped by Preacher, leading several religious groups and censors to condemn the film for its particular portrait of religious sanctities, such as marriage. And yet, the film ends on a pleasant Christmas morning, where religion is no longer distorted into something dangerous and perverse. At the center of the narrative is the spiritual conflict between good and evil, where Laughton emphasizes the warning that either party can use religion to serve their cause. Still, he concludes the picture with the novel’s hopeful ending.

Placing Robert Mitchum in the role of Preacher was Laughton’s stroke of casting genius. Though the director had initially sought Gary Cooper, who turned the offer down for fear that it would tarnish his public image, his second choice was Mitchum. The experienced and pointedly enigmatic actor’s reputation and onscreen persona were already that of a Hollywood hellraiser, albeit a charming one. After Mitchum’s arrest for marijuana possession in 1948, the tabloids cemented the actor’s status as a bad boy. But regardless of his criminal ways, he remained a popular star—if for the thrilling sense of authentic danger he brought to the screen. Playing the charming yet devilish Preacher, Mitchum’s mannerisms and public reputation became qualities employed by Laughton to enhance the role’s sexually repressed yet religiously motivated duality. Both the actor and his part contained charismatic qualities, backed by an underlying sense of calm and collected danger. Yet, Mitchum lends the performance frighteningly unhinged displays of rage and howls of almost comic lapses of composure.

Mitchum is so charming yet disturbing in the scene when he demonstrates the battle between Love and Hate with his two opposing hands, or when he calmly threatens John by tightening his collar in front of everyone at a picnic. His physical mannerisms reflect the abnormal person underneath his good looks, from how he contorts his body in a twisted S-curve when reaching toward the heavens just before killing Willa to the way he bows his head in false sorrow over her death. Such menacing, intentional behavior from Preacher deteriorates when he loses control or faces an emergency. For example, when he chases the children upstairs from the cellar, they slam his fingers in the door. He yelps and then sucks on them in a moment of absurd frailty. When the children escape on their father’s skiff downriver, his total loss of composure grows into a madman’s scream. When he takes a shotgun blast from Rachel, he runs off, hollering like a wounded hound dog. His human vulnerability makes the character more than just evil but a personification of the human beast at its worst, complete with human flaws and weaknesses.

Laughton also hand-picked his crew to support a production grounded by artistic collaboration. Many historians attribute Laughton’s allowances of creative freedom to his lack of technical expertise as a film director; he knew what he wanted to see on the screen, just not how to manufacture it. Cinematographer Stanley Cortez shot The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) for Orson Welles; although, the classicized style of that film was a complete contrast from the theatrical staging and chiaroscuro light he uses in The Night of the Hunter , both testaments to Cortez’s versatility within his craft. Composer Walter Schumann was given unique freedom as a composer when Laughton demanded that his score not re-emphasize what the actors should already be conveying; rather, Laughton instructed him to build on the power of the narrative by affixing an additional layer. Since Laughton the Actor came with a reputation for being difficult and demanding, if not ruthlessly committed to his artistic ideals, the collaborative atmosphere he created on set was unprecedented in his career. He was noted for shouting out, “What do I do now” or “I’m confused,” yet he was also the undisputed leader on set, a democratic captain ever open to ideas. He may not have been able to articulate in filmic technical terminology what he had wanted before filming had begun, but when it was over, The Night of the Hunter was just as Laughton had envisioned.

Laughton’s direction resulted in a limited number of shots per scene, bringing to mind the precision of a silent filmmaker. The influence of German Expressionists and the spatial understanding of D.W. Griffith have undeniable influence over Laughton’s direction—as mentioned, he relished the days of growing up with Gish’s many appearances in Griffith’s films (nearly forty between 1912 and 1921). Laughton encouraged his crew to see key Griffith silents prior to filming—titles like The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916), and Broken Blossoms (1919). His use of Griffith-esque tracking shots and crisp photography replicated what the director hoped was a cinematic classicism not attained since the Silent Era. Laughton told Gish, “When I first went to the movies, they sat in their seats straight and leaned forward. Now they slump down, with their heads back or eat candy and popcorn. I want them to sit up straight again.” Even so, his uncommon directing approach served actors and enriched performances—those were his origins, after all. He kept the camera rolling between takes and allowed his actors to try the scene again as he talked them through it.

Each dynamic set-piece keeps the audience on edge. Scene after scene, the sets present a playful exchange of styles, forcing viewers to ask how the filmmakers created this unnatural storybook. Cortes shot many of the interiors in the style of German Expressionists, casting grave shadows with sharp angles and high contrasts. He shot exterior scenes with the dreaminess of a rural haven inspired by Griffith. The cellar where Preacher tries to capture the children and the A-framed bedroom where he kills Willa were detached set pieces, made small to suggest a claustrophobic and deadly environment. What is more, Cortes frames the rooms in pitch darkness for dramatic effect, sometimes relying on no more than a single candle as a light source. The same sets could have been placed on a stage had The Night of the Hunter been a Laughton theater production. In the former example, the surrounding black of the cellar isolates the children with the approaching Preacher; in the latter, the A-framed bedroom suggests a cathedral space that has become holy with the Preacher’s presence—certainly no place for a husband and wife to engage in “dirty” acts.

In keeping with the stylized, exaggerated quality of the picture, Mitchum presents Preacher Harry Powell as a monster both in his actions and the dialogue about him, far beyond just a twisted killer using the pretense of godliness to gain the trust of his victims. The title refers to him as a “hunter” of the “night,” not unlike a vampire. The rhetoric used by Rachel is most revealing: When Preacher retreats after being shot, she describes him like an animal to the police: “Get your state troopers out to my place. I’ve got somethin’ trapped in my barn.” The imagery evoked here suggests Preacher is some nocturnal wild animal hungry for flesh. When he chases the children up the stairs from the cellar, his arms are stretched out straight, rigid and reaching, like the monster from James Whale’s Frankenstein of 1931. Likewise, in the finale, a lynch mob out for the Preacher’s blood recalls the one from Whale’s film, carrying torches in the night to expel the evil from their sleepy community.

The film’s storybook effect also comes from Walter Schumann’s music. Schumann had previously worked with Laughton on a stage production of John Brown’s Body , on which he sung an eerie a cappella score with his choral group, called the Voices of Walter Schumann. When Laughton hired him again for The Night of the Hunter , their collaboration became a close working partnership, more so than most director-composer relationships. Schumann remained on set during production, writing music before a scene and playing it for the cast and crew to set the mood. Schumann even made vital suggestions on the set, such as how Mitchum should call for John and Pearl, saying “Chil-dren” with just the right octave inflection mid-word to make it menacing. Laughton called Schumann his “right hand” and offered the composer unparalleled control in the film’s construction, as this is a picture shaped by music. To be sure, Schumann captures the film’s paradoxical quality through musical contrasts. When Preacher is onscreen boasting his false Christian ideals, Schumann plays a “pagan” motif; when an ominous night sky suggests something sinister, he introduces a lullaby to defuse the image.

Such contrasts gave way to the film’s elusive quality, and Gregory knew that the marketing approach had to be equally unique to sell the film to American audiences. He originally wanted to take the film on a roadshow, selling it in specialized screenings, versus unleashing an artistic curiosity before the entire nation and hoping it comes out all right. Gregory understood that such an atypical picture required an equally nonconforming approach to succeed. But the distributors at United Artists, who did not consider the project worthy of specialized attention, pushed for the standard release strategy and ultimately won. Within a few short weeks after the quiet premiere, the film was placed on the bottom of a double-bill. The initial reviews received The Night of the Hunter with understandable perplexity. Though the critics were impressed with Laughton’s direction, Mitchum’s performance, and the production style, the material left many critics unconvinced, despite the novel being a national best-seller two years prior. Laughton’s close collaboration with Grubb meant the film captured the book’s stranger qualities in enhanced visual reality, but seeing those qualities brought to life onscreen is something no audience can fully grasp in a single screening. The New York Times critic called the film “weird and intriguing,” though evidently puzzling as he remains indifferent. The dubious Los Angeles Herald review called it simply “curious.” These typical assessments, wrought by uncertainty yet distant admiration, would grow over time into enthusiastic praise.

It took years for the initial bafflement over the film to pass. Gradually, a film once shamed as being too arty and employing far too many styles was seen through different eyes after New Wave cinema hit France and the rebel filmmakers of the 1970s struck Hollywood. Truffaut, Martin Scorsese, Jean-Luc Godard, Roman Polanski, Robert Altman, and many other filmmakers began to work in a style that Laughton predicted—a class of directing in which influences are transformed and repurposed by auteurs into something altogether new. The Night of the Hunter became a lost masterpiece, now rediscovered with renewed perspectives from an era defined by its innovation on earlier styles. The Library of Congress has since selected it for the National Film Registry’s preservation of “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important” films. It has also appeared on countless “best films” lists, including its high ranking on the British film magazine Sight and Sound ’s critics’ and directors’ polls.

That The Night of the Hunter was Charles Laughton’s first effort as a director is remarkable. That it was his only film behind the camera is one of cinema’s most unfortunate tragedies. Laughton made a picture that does not reveal every facet to the viewer upon first viewing; instead, the first watch only implants a desire to explore it further. The film percolates with memory and time, cultivating a place in the unconscious mind, one watch after another, until it becomes fixed. The effect is comparable to Welles’ Citizen Kane , in that Laughton’s directorial debut constructed a film so masterful, so complex, few viewers could fully appreciate its full effect in its day. The film proves so uncommon that it demands further assessment just to understand the many ways it deviates from the norm. Each aspect of the film’s production—from the idyllic cinematography to the incredible performances to the contrary uses of cinematic stylization and narrative—presents an interplay of opposing ideas through a sophisticated, haunting, and strangely buoyant whole. It endures as an enchanting American folk tale ripe with intricate melodrama and almost mythic symbolism, which no moviegoer can easily shake.

Bibliography:

Bergreen, Laurence. James Agee: A Life . Dutton, 1984.

Callow, Simon. Charles Laughton: A Difficult Actor . Methuen, 1987.

Callow, Simon. The Night of the Hunter . BFI Film Classics.BFI, 2000.

Couchman, Jeffrey. The Night of the Hunter: A Biography of a Film . Northwestern University Press, 2009.

Grubb, Davis. The Night of the Hunter . Harper, 1953.

Higham, Charles. Charles Laughton: An Intimate Biography . Doubleday, 1976.

Jones, Preston Neal. Heaven and Hell to Play With: The Filming of ‘The Night of the Hunter.’ Limelight, 2004.

Kramer, Victor. James Agee . Twayne, 1975.

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The following is an excerpt from Roger Ebert's "Great Movie" essay on "The Night of the Hunter" (1955), which opens today at the Music Box Theatre in Chicago with an archival print to mark its 50th anniversary. Read the full review here .

Charles Laughton 's "The Night of the Hunter'' (1955) is one of the greatest of all American films, but has never received the attention it deserves because of its lack of the proper trappings. Many "great movies'' are by great directors, but Laughton directed only this one film, which was a critical and commercial failure long overshadowed by his acting career.

Many great movies use actors who come draped in respectability and prestige, but Robert Mitchum has always been a raffish outsider. And many great movies are realistic, but "The Night of the Hunter'' (1955) is an expressionistic oddity, telling its chilling story through visual fantasy.

What a compelling, frightening and beautiful film it is! And how well it has survived its period. Many films from the mid-1950s, even the good ones, seem somewhat dated now, but by setting his story in an invented movie world outside conventional realism, Laughton gave it a timelessness.

Everybody knows the Mitchum character, the sinister "Reverend'' Harry Powell. Even those who haven't seen the movie have heard about the knuckles of his hands, and how one has the letters H-A-T-E tattooed on them, and the other the letters L-O-V-E. Many movie lovers know by heart the Reverend's explanation to the wide-eyed boy ( "Ah, little lad, you're staring at my fingers. Would you like me to tell you the little story of right hand/left hand?'')

The story, somewhat rearranged: In prison, Harry Powell discovers the secret of a condemned man, who has hidden $10,000 somewhere around his house. After being released from prison, Powell seeks out the man's widow, Willa Harper ( Shelley Winters ), and their two children, John and the owl-faced Pearl. They know where the money is, but don't trust the "preacher.''

But their mother buys his con game and marries him, leading to a tortured wedding night inside a high-gabled bedroom that looks a cross between a chapel and a crypt.

Robert Mitchum is one of the great icons of the second half-century of cinema. He is uncannily right for the role, with his long face, his gravel voice and the silky tones of a snake-oil salesman. And Winters, all jitters and repressed sexual hysteria, is somehow convincing as she falls so prematurely into, and out of, his arms.

The supporting actors, including the great Lillian Gish and James Gleason , are like a chattering gallery of Norman Rockwell archetypes, their lives centered on bake sales, soda fountains and gossip. The children, especially the little girl, look more odd than lovable, which helps the film move away from realism and into stylized nightmare.

Charles Laughton showed here that he had an original eye, and a taste for material that stretched the conventions of the movies. For his first film, Laughton made a film like no other before or since, and with such confidence it seemed to draw on a lifetime of work. Critics were baffled by it, and the public rejected it.

But nobody who has seen "The Night of the Hunter" has forgotten it, or Mitchum's voice, as it coils down those basement stairs: "Chillll . . . dren?"

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

James Gleason as Birdie

Evelyn Varden as Icey

Peter Graves as Ben Harper

Robert Mitchum as Rev. Harry Powell

Lillian Gish as Rachel

Billy Chapin as John

Don Beddoe as Walt

Sally Jane Bruce as Pearl

Shelley Winters as Willa Harper

Screenplay by

Charles Laughton

Produced by

Paul Gregory

Based on the novel by

Davis Grubb

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The Night of the Hunter

A self-proclaimed preacher marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real dad hid the $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery.
It's the Great Depression. In the process of robbing a bank of $10,000, Ben Harper kills two people. Before he is captured, he is able to convince his son John and his daughter Pearl not to tell anyone, including their mother Willa, where he hid the money, namely in Pearl's favorite toy, a doll that she carries everywhere with her. Ben, who is captured, tried and convicted, is sentenced to death. But before he is executed, Ben is in the state penitentiary with a cell mate, a man by the name of Harry Powell, a self-professed man of the cloth, who is really a con man and murderer, swindling lonely women, primarily rich widows, of their money before he kills them. Harry does whatever he can, unsuccessfully, to find out the location of the $10,000 from Ben. After Ben's execution, Harry decides that Willa will be his next mark, figuring that someone in the family knows where the money is hidden. Despite vowing not to remarry, Willa ends up being prey for Harry's outward evangelicalism; she is a pious woman who feels she needs to atone for her sins which led to Ben doing what he did, especially as Harry presents himself as the preacher who worked at the prison and provided salvation to Ben before his death. Harry quickly figures out that John and Pearl know where the money is. Conversely, John doesn't trust Harry, John who first tries not to show to Harry that he indeed does know where the money is, and then second constantly reminds a more-trusting Pearl of their promise to their now-deceased father. With Willa devoted to her new husband, John and Pearl become more desperate in evading Harry's veiled threats. — Huggo
On a diabolical mission to eradicate sin, the misogynistic serial-killer preacher with the sharp switch-blade, Reverend Harry Powell, discovers the secret of the condemned bank robber, Ben Harper. With $10,000 hidden somewhere around Harper's decrepit farmhouse, silver-tongued Powell embarks on an evil quest to woo Ben's poor widow, Willa, and above all, talk the deceased's little children, John and Pearl, into letting him in on the exact location of the loot. However, as John stubbornly refuses to reveal his father's secret, the irrepressible lust for gold starts to take over, and no one is safe around the psychopathic gospeller. And, in Powell's mind, all women must suffer in the name of the Lord. Who shall live and who shall die in the night of the hunter? — Nick Riganas
Harry Powell marries and murders widows for their money, believing he is helping God do away with women who arouse men's carnal instincts. Arrested for auto theft, he shares a cell with condemned killer Ben Harper and tries to get him to reveal the whereabouts of the $10,000 he stole. Only Ben's nine-year-old son, John and four-year-old daughter, Pearl know the money is in Pearl's doll and they have sworn to their father to keep this secret. After Ben is executed, Preacher goes to Cresap's Landing to court Ben's widow, Willa. He overwhelms her with his Scripture quoting, sermons and hymns, and she agrees to marry him. On their wedding night he tells her they will never have sex because it is sinful. When the depressed, confused, guilty woman catches him trying to force Pearl to reveal the whereabouts of the money, she is resigned to her fate but the children manage to escape downriver, with Preacher following close behind. — alfiehitchie
Night of the Hunter opens in the stars, where Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish) tells the children (and the audience) a Southern Gothic parable regarding the importance of childhood and the dangers of "wolves in sheep's" clothing. Several children play hide and go seek near a farmhouse. One of the kids finds a prime hiding spot: the cellar. However, when he opens the door, the twisted legs of a young woman appear on the top steps. Miles away, the perpetrator, Reverend. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) drives a stolen Model-T as he talks to the Lord about his earthly mission. He feels convinced that he is being led to punish some of the most wicked segments of society - "vain women", who use lust to ensnare men. At a peep show, Powell's disdain grows evident as his knuckles clutch his thigh - the words "LOVE and HATE" tattooed on his fingers. His weapon of choice, a switchblade rips through his pocket as the woman performs her striptease. However, the police stop the Preacher for car robbery, and he is charged with a thirty day stay in Moundsville Penitentiary. In another part of town, little John (Billy Chapin) and his young sister Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce) play in their front yard; Pearl dresses her doll, Miss Jenny. Their father, Ben Harper (Peter Graves) rushes to the lawn clutching wads of money: $10,000. He has stolen the money, and is on the run from the police. Harper hides the money in a secure location off camera. He forces John to swear to protect his sister, and to never reveal the location of the money. As the police arrive on the front lawn to arrest his father, John clutches his stomach, "Don't...don't!" He exclaims. Ben Harper is tried, and sentenced to be hanged for murder. Awaiting his execution, he is incarcerated with Harry Powell, who learns of Ben's financial gain. While Ben does not disclose the location of the money, Powell thanks the Lord for giving him the opportunity to find Ben's future widow and supplying him with funds. The town's children taunt John and Pearl by singing a hangman's song. They draw chalk outlines of hangmen. Ever vigilant, John takes Pearl away from the school, stopping to admire a watch at the store, and continuing home past the local ice-cream parlor, Spoons. Despite the temptations of the watch or candy, John resists the urge to spend the money, and makes Pearl swear not to reveal the location. In Spoons, Willa (Shelley Winters) the mother of John and Pearl, talks about how she is not in any rush to marry. A train ominously steams towards the town - bearing the now freed Reverend Powell. That night, John tells Pearl a story about a King, who is captured leaving his son and daughter gold and orders to defend their treasure. As he tells the story, the foreboding silhouette of Reverend Powell almost supernaturally appears in their bedroom. He ominously sings the hymn "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms." The next day, John visits his friend, an outsider living in a house boat named Uncle Birdie. Uncle Birdie had been working on repairing Ben Harpers river skiff. John arrives at Spoons where Reverend Powell tells Icey (the store proprietor), Willa, and Pearl, how he had ministered with Ben Harper in his final moments. He explains the meaning of the tattoos on his fingers. His left hand has the word "HATE", and the right hand, "LOVE." They are in a constant struggle against each other since the fall of man, with "LOVE" winning out over all. Icey invites Reverend. Powell to come to the town picnic. John immediately dislikes the Preacher. At the picnic, Icey attempts to play matchmaker between Willa and the Reverend. He reassures Willa that Ben told him the money was at the bottom of the river. John knows this is a lie. That night John walks home from a visit with Uncle Birdie - the skiff not yet repaired - past the ice cream parlor. He sees his mom and Icey, ebullient over something. When he returns home, Reverend Powell corners him in the cramped hallway. Powell tells John that he is going to become his father and tries to convince him to reveal the location of the money. Pearl wants to tell; she has grown an affinity towards Powell. On the night of the honeymoon, Willa wears a negligee and tries to sleep with the Reverend. Powell humiliates her, forcing her to look into the mirror. Powell emerges from the darkness, illuminates himself for a minute, turning on a naked bulb, and once again floods the room with darkness as he chides her lust. Willa looks into the mirror uttering, "Help me to get clean.'' On the newly repaired skiff, Uncle Birdie and John are fishing. Birdie reassures John that if John is ever in trouble, he can come for help. That night, it is Willa, fanatically leading a revival meeting, testifying how Reverend Powell had saved her. The torches in the foreground illuminate her zealous face. The next night, Pearl is cutting paper dolls out of the money. It is revealed that the money was hidden in her doll, Miss Jenny. John quickly scolds her for playing with the money, but is interrupted as Rev. Powell appears in the doorway. The two children are able to hide the money, and Powell does not notice the paper dolls swirling next to his feet. Willa's trust begins to split as she realizes that Powell has been questioning John. Powell manipulates Pearl into coming to the parlor to tell him the location, Willa hears the exchange outside of the window as Powell gets increasingly violent. She cannot accept this turn of events, and lies in bed helplessly. She deludes herself that they are a happy family. In their bedroom, which looks church like due to the shadows and triangular architecture, Powell slits Willa's throat. John is awakened that night by the sound of a sputtering engine. The next morning at Spoon's, Powell is devastated that his wife Willa had "run away." He claims that Willa had turned him down on their honeymoon night, and was a drunk. He decides to stay for the children. The truth is revealed, as the camera transitions to a beautiful shot of seaweed swirling under water, mingling with Willa's hair. Willa sits serenely underwater in the passenger seat of her car as light streams over the body of both the woman and the car. A fish hook tugs on the frame of the windshield. It is Birdie, who has discovered the remains. An iris shot reveals Powell calling for the children, as he moves into the house. Pearl and John hide in the cellar. Reverend Powell corners them, until Icey arrives with dinner for the trio. When she leaves, Powell deprives them of dinner until they tell him what he wants to know. Uncle Birdie is convinced that if he tells, he will be accused of murder. He begins to drink. When Rev. Powell threatens Pearl with a knife, John lies and says that the money is hid under a stone in the basement. Powell lights a candle and leads the children into finding the money. When he discovers that the floor is made of concrete, he grabs John the hair and threatens to split him open like a pig. Pearl spills the secret, but John knocks a shelf of preserves onto Powell. The kids run out and lock him in the cellar. They run to the drunk Uncle Birdie who is non-responsive. John puts Pearl in the boat, with Rev. Powell hot on their heels. As the little boat gets away, Powell lets out a shriek of anger and frustration. As the boat floats down the river, Pearl sings to Miss Jenny. Many woodland animals appear in the foreground of the camera. Powell has commandeered a horse, making his black preacher's suit look even more menacing contrasted with the white steed. The kids beg door to door, finding refuge in a barn. As the crescent moon rises high in the sky, John spots the Reverend singing his trademark song: "Leaning. Leaning. Leaning on the Everlasting Arm..." The two run back to the boat where they are found by Rachel Cooper, a woman who has adopted many abandoned children at the turn of the depression. The oldest child of Ms. Cooper's clan, Ruby, has a rebellious streak, going off to town to flirt with the boys. When Rev. Powell appears in town to woo her, she is ironically inspired by the preacher, and feels compelled to confess her wrong doings to Rachel. Powell rides to Cooper's ranch where he comes to reclaim Pearl and John. Pearl runs to hug him, but John is able to grab the doll before Powell can get his hands on it. Cooper forces Powell off her property with a shotgun. That night, Powell intimidates the family by singing on Cooper's front porch. The "Leaning" duet between Cooper and Powell symbolizes the standoff. When the light goes out, it becomes clear that Powell is inside the house. When a cat scares him, Cooper wounds him with a shot, cornering him in the barn. When Powell is arrested, John has mixed feelings. As the police tackle Powell to the ground, John once again clutches his stomach, and murmurs "don't!" He then runs towards Powell, beating him with the doll, throwing the money at the arrested clergyman. Icey leads a fiery lynch mob against Reverend Powell, but even in court, John will not point out his mothers murderer - afraid of the consequence. Ruby is still enamored by the mystique Powell had held over her. While the state guards lead him from the back to avoid the mob, the children head home. It is indicated Pearl and John are now safe from Powell and can move on.

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Night Of The Hunter Essay

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The Night of the Hunter Essay

“The Night of the Hunter” Anna N. Beach Paper #1 March 7, 2011 “The Night of The Hunter” is a thriller written by Davis Grubb in 1953. It is imaginably chilling and disturbing. The book is based upon a true story of a frightening man who was hung for murdering two women and three children. One of the main characters portrayed as the murderer, plays the role of Harry Powell, who was just released from prison, but describes himself as a man of God, and a preacher of the word. His psychotic inclinations lead him to a journey of a desperate pursuit of money, left behind by his prison mate Ben Harper. The story leads to an anticipating tale, of a dream-like fantasy. Written to be an adult novel the two main characters, John and …show more content… She was absentminded and didn’t realize what she was responsible for, when it came to the protection of John and Pearl. She went behind Rachel’s back and began meeting with Harry Powell, telling him information that wasn’t necessary such as, the whereabouts of John and Pearl. She was at the prime in her life, and thought that she was “in love” with Mr. Powell. This put John and Pearl in great danger. The character in the story that should be given the most sympathy should be little Pearl. Pearl is fresh, and innocent. Even though she is naïve, she has a right to be. She doesn’t really understand what is going on; she just does as she is told. She has been taught in her young life to listen to her elders, but when it gets to the point of trusting the mistrusting she doesn’t know right from wrong. She trusts Mr. Powell, because she has been told by her mother that he is a good man, a man of God. But when John tells her to do things against what Mr. Powell expects of her, it confuses her and she doesn’t want to do anything to upset him. This novel demonstrates a child’s power to tolerate and bear things in life. It is a God-given ability. The capability of healing so quickly even though badgered and harassed is something that an adult would struggle with. John and Pearl even though hunted all throughout the novel by a “demon” are able to abide and heal through the help of an “angel” Rachel, who cares Show More

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conquerors. Sundiata’s father liked righteous men in particular as well as hunters. A hunter had approached him one day so he invited him in for dinner. This hunter came to deliver a very strange message though and told him that a woman will come into his life soon that he must bear a child with to pass the throne onto. He left as two other hunters came up to him who were also invited in for having righteousness. These two hunters also say that they must marry this handmaid (the king later finds out these…

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Night Of The Hunter Analysis Essay

This film has an endless amount of the hidden meaning to influence the audience to feel bad for what John and Pearl are going for. Some of these major meaning in this specific scene are the backlit silhouette of the bird in the cage , the view from behind the cows, the non-diegetic music, Harry riding the mule on the horizon, and the river. At the beginning of the scene when John and Pearl exit their boat and walk up to the house, they both stare into the window where the silhouette of the bird is. The audience gets a close up shot of the bird in the cage.

Often time, birds can be represent freedom, and the ability to do as one wishes. The saying, “spread your wings and fly” is referring to someone setting off on adventure and, being away from what they are comfortable with. But the close-up of the bird in the cage may represent the way John and Pearl are feeling captured. They feel like Harry is keeping them in a cage in the beginning of the movie, and now they can’t seem to escape from his grasp. The next part of the scene follows John and Pearl through the bottom level of the barn where the cows are.

When this scene is shot, the audience gets a tracking shot from under the cows. We are able to clearly see the cow’s dripping utters and hear a woman singing, “Hush my little ones”. This scene represents how John and Pearl are missing the motherly figure in their lives that Harry took from them. The cows utters are able to represent that close relationship that a mother a child have from birth. The relationship of a mother taking care of her children and protecting them as they grow into adulthood.

The non-diegetic woman singing during this scene appears to have the voice of a protective and strong mother. The song makes that audience feel like she is singing them a lullaby during the night. After Harry kills their mother, John and Pearl are orphans who must learn to fend for themselves and must learn how to survive while Harry is perusing them. John and Pearl lie down for the night, but after the audience experiences an elliptical shot and can see the moon moving through the night sky , John wakes to the diegetic sound of dogs barking in the distance.

During this scene the audience hears the diegetic sound of dogs barking. This often represents a hunt or a chase happening. Jails would often use dogs as a way to track down escaped criminals. John and Pearl might feel as if they were being hunted by Harry, but the dogs might also represent that Harry was getting close because he was the criminal and the dogs were “perusing” him. We then see and extreme long shot of Harry entering the scene on a horse. It then cuts to a long shot of the silhouetted Harry riding what appears to be a smaller horse or mule.

The director appeared to have switched the horse with a mule while John was watching him to make Harry appear much larger in a closer shot. This was done to make him scarier and more intimidating to the audience. The audience is then able to get a long shot of a John and Pearl leaving the barn and retreating back to their boat on the river. In this part of the scene, John and Pearl are back on the river, trying to escape from Harry. The river seems to be a motif in the film as John and Pearl always retreat back to the river, and it gives the impression that it’s the only safe place for them.

When children are in their mother’s stomach, they are incased in water based membrane, which protects the child from harm while being developed . This river appears to almost be like the membrane protecting the children from Harry. This part also refers back to the children feeling like orphans as they have recently lost their mother. They don’t exactly know how to be independent and survive on their own, so they are reverting back to their primal instinct of the water being a place of comfort and safety.

In conclusion, this scene is filled with hidden meanings that help to persuade the audience to fear for the children’s safety and also empathize for them because they have lost their mother. These seem to be two major themes in the film and especially in this scene from the movie. In the beginning Night of the Hunter, the children’s mother is very protective and cares a lot about her children. But then after she is killed, it appears that the environment begins to act as their protector. It helps to keep them out of reach from Henry, and provides the necessities for them to survive.

All of these different meanings appear to make the children feel scared and worried about what to do next. It’s important for the audience to share these same feelings with the characters, as it keeps the audience on the edge of their seat and interested in what is going to happen next . All of these elements were necessary for making the scene as important as it was. This film was filled with these hidden meaning and did a great job in helping the audience feel for the children along their journey.

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The Night Of The Hunter Analysis

When children endure high-level stress situations that mix with a lack of loving, supportive relationships, children endanger their brain's and can achieve permanent brain damage . In Davis Grubb's gothic novel, The Night of the Hunter, a blameless child named Pearl experiences traumatic situations and lacks a supportive relationship. The Preacher’s perfect storm causes Pearl to back-track and makes her figuratively experience short-term memory loss. Thourgh the character of Pearl, Grubb suggests that in order for our minds to function properly, we must have at least one relationship which is supportive and loving.…

Comparing Frankenstein's Fairy Tales And A Dose Of Reality

Many children grow up with fairy tales at their fingertips, and these fairy tales aid the development of the child. The lessons that children take away from these fairy tales consciously and subconsciously change the way that children view certain circumstances. In “Fairy Tales and a Dose of Reality,” Catherine Orenstein states that the presence of fairy tales has resulted in an indistinct view of reality. Orenstein considers the television shows and movies that portray love at first sight and what constitutes a happily ever after. As a result of this mode of media, many people have an image of what love should look like, but unfortunately life cannot meet these hopes. On the other hand, Maria Tatar claims in “An Introduction to Fairy Tales” that fairy tales “construct the adult world of reality” (307). Both Orenstein and Tatar discuss how fairy tales shape views of reality, but Orenstein develops her thought that they cause a blurry…

Inhumanity In Night Essay

Elie Wiesel recalled a moment where he felt devoured by reality when he saw that, “men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent!”(Wiesel 55). Knowing that there were people that could’ve avoid this situation can acknowledge anguish ness. Two sententious themes for inhumanity is the loss of religious faith and the animalization of humans.…

The Night Of The Living Dead Essay

Ben, played by Duane Jones, is a representation of the civil rights movement in the…

Eliezer was one of the few survivors of the Holocaust and his experience left him thinking what compelled Hitler to do this, what stopped people from helping them? Many people think that hatred is responsible for the events in the book Night, and the Holocaust but in reality indifference was responsible for what happened. The indifferences that were the main causes of the Holocaust were how the Jews felt about the Nazis and God, how the townspeople felt, and how the Jews dealt with the warning signs.…

How Do Adult Interpret Fairy Tales

Fairytales: when someone says that word, the first thing that might come up in your mind is probably kid’s reading Cinderella. Fairytales’ simplicity and accuracy in delivering a moral to young kids and adults is wonderful. We’d give an adult a eerie look if we caught them reading a kids book on the train to themselves. The reason behind our thought is cause it’s a kids book why would an adult read it but behind all this is the difference of interpreting stories for adults and children. Stories like Juniper Tree, Snow White, and Little Red Cap include hidden messages through violence and imagery and dialogue. Fairy tales teach children how to grasp the meaning and power behind storytelling. In this paper I will discuss the vast ways in which a child and adult interpret fairytales. Its…

Essay on Night

In the poems “We grow Accustomed to the Dark” by Emily Dickinson and “Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost, both poems talk about night time in a way that also contrasts to life and its difficulties, and how people are sometimes ignorant to things when they are in the dark.…

Night Of The Hunter Analysis

In the film Night of the Hunter, young John and Pearl are trying to escape from a preacher named Harry who wants the money that their father stole for them when they were young. In this specific scene, the audience see them floating down the river coming to shore where there appears to be a small house with a backlit window, as well as a very large barn to the right of the house. The audience soon learns that John and Pearl would like to spend the night of the water, where they can actually lay down. This film has an endless amount of the hidden meaning to influence the audience to feel bad for what John and Pearl are going for. Some of these major meaning in this specific scene are the backlit silhouette of the bird in the cage, the view from behind the cows, the non-diegetic music, Harry riding the mule on the horizon, and the river.…

Fairytales In Little Red Riding Hood

Fairytales. When we hear or see that calming word, we automatically think of beautiful expensive ball gowns, charming handsome Princes, pumpkins turning into carriages, and the infamous ending of true loves first kiss. When growing up, many of us had these wonderful tales read to us before bed or at school with all of our friends. Fairytales, having been around for centuries, sends all kinds of important moral messages from being a child to facing the ‘beautiful’ world of adulthood. Growing up and being placed in the adult world, we come to terms that fairytales aren’t the classic stories of Little Red Riding Hood, Briar Rose, or Cinderella that we all know and love, its much more than that. We are surrounded by Fairytales, almost as if they…

Night Witches And Goblins Hunt Essay

On a night just like tonight witches and goblins dance under a pale moon light.…

Argumentative Research Paper: Should children read fairy tales?

As a first argument, supporting that fairy tales should be read to children, it must be mentioned that fairy tales and stories in general, help to develop the young people's imagination and therefore their cognitive development, which will be useful to them throughout their lives. Also, that the children can use their imagination to learn from something they're being told and haven't experienced directly. Researches have proved that, and more specifically a research made by two professors of the Ohio University where they suggest that when young children listen to a story from an a person, they can later be able to produce their own stories. According to Piaget (1970) this ability to create their own stories leads to cognitive development. When children want to tell a story they must attempt first to do it mentally. Therefore by exercising the ability of story telling, the children are developing their mental abilities and skills and are working on their imagination (Geist Eugene, Jerry Aldridge 5). All these mentioned above, prove that the reading of fairy tales to children help the development of their minds, the advancement of their imagination and their story structuring skills. Additionally, in the article entitled "Monsters, Tooth Fairies, God, and Germs!" it is stated that young children are receiving an enormous volume of information - from…

The Night Of The Hunter: The Preacher

The Night of the Hunter: The Preacher When describing the preacher, John says, “His name is Harry Powell. But the names of his fingers are E and V and O and L and E and T and A and H and that story he tells about one hand being Hate and the other hand being Love is a lie because they are both hate and to watch them moving scares me worse than shadows, worse than the wind.” This description shows the absolute essence of the preacher's character in Davis Grubb's The Night of the Hunter. The preacher's real intentions are the hate of the left hand, and he rationalizes his evil through the false facade of the love of the right hand. Even though he may appear good and holy to some …show more content…

In Powell's sick and twisted mind, God had merely changed His mind when Preacher's life was in danger. There is a contradiction in “God's words” and clearly the preacher is merely using his “conversations” to aid in his own egotistical self-interest. The fact that Preacher lies to most people that he meets is a way in which he puts up the holy act to mask his evil soul. He is an expert in sandwiching lies between truths, weaving them in a tangled and intricate web and thus making his lies all the more difficult to discover. When he first rides into town, he tells the people that he knows Ben Harper because he was the preacher at the jail that held Ben. In actuality, he and Ben shared the same cell. Powell does not want anyone to know he stole a car and he can substantiate his lie because he knows things about Ben from being in the same cell. As a result, the people (except John) do not suspect Preacher to be the malicious murderer that he is. The preacher also tells people that Ben told him that he threw the ten-thousand dollars he stole into the river. Harper actually never leaked his secret and even stuffed a sock in his mouth to keep himself from telling. This lie made practically everyone believe the money was gone and no one (except John) anticipated the preacher's greedy plan to steal it. In addition, Powell also lied after he killed Willa. This time his lie was intended to conceal an act rather than a motive. He said that Willa

Essay about The Minister's Black Veil by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Minister's Black Veil" embodies the hidden sins that we all hide and that in turn distance us from the ones we love most. Reverend Hooper dons a black veil throughout this story, and never takes it off. He has discerned in everyone a dark, hidden self of secret sin. In wearing the veil Hooper dramatizes the isolation that each person experiences when they are chained down by their own sinful deeds. He has realizes that symbolically everyone can be found in the shadow of their own dark veil. Hooper in wearing this shroud across his face is only amplifying the dark side of people and the truth of human existence and nature.

Compare And Contrast The Minister's Black Veil And Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God

Nathaniel Hawthorne's “ The Minister's Black Veil “ and Jonathan Edwards “ Sinners In The Hands of An Angry God” are writings that have much significance to religion, having a strong belief in god. “The Minister's black veil “ and “Sinners In The Hands of an angry god: may seem similar since they talk on the behalf of religion, they have differences such as the punishment, damnation, and who the sinners are. Edwards agrees that everyone is predestined and anyone no matter who you are can go to hell. However, Hawthorne believes that everyone carries a secret sin in their hearts and how terrible humans can be on the inside. These two authors have different ties but their main ideas still have ties.

Essay on Loss of Religion in Night, by Elie Wiesel

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What is religion? The dictionary states that religion is: “Possessing beliefs concerning the nature and purpose of the universe and the supernatural” (A student’s Dictionary 268). Different cultures have different definitions for the word religion. However, they all have one characteristic in common, faith. The Jewish, for instance, believe in God and that the Messiah will come in the future to bring them once again to the land of Israel. They continue to wait for Him to come. Over time, the Jews were shunned by many people. Hitler pushed all the blame for his, and his people’s troubles on the Jewish people, which then started the holocaust. The holocaust annihilated millions of people many of which were Jews. Six million Jews, making up

Night John Steinbeck's Nightjohn: Showing Love Through Pain

Night john escaped slavery but came back to teach young slaves how to read and

Feast Of Fear By Stephen King Essay

Named "King of Horror" and author of 60 books, Stephen King in an excerpt from an interview, "Eyeglasses for the Mind" from the book, Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King, explains the importance of the different perspectives artists have. King's purpose is to show why nobody has the same worldview and how he has a childlike perspective. He adopts a reflective tone in order to make the readers understand that artists have creative thinking because they have a variety of perspectives on everything. Stephen King uses repetition by repeating the word child around seven times in his interview, in the book, Feast of Fear: Conversations with Stephen King. He says "I'm childlike" and says about others that they are "writers who look like children", "the face of a child", and "eyes of a child" (King).

Comparative Essay of Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now

evil. The good does not always triumph. Sometimes the dark side overcomes what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature." This quote explains what General Corman

The Early Church Essay

Over the past years of my life I have seen many changes, some for the good and others not as good. Change can be demanding and also crucial. The early believers would encounter this. One can see that significant change happened, when reading through the gospels and the book of acts it is obvious to the reader that the believers who followed Jesus would never be the same again.

Essay On The Forsaken: A Hero's Journey

Killing people isn't easy ... or so they say. But I never saw it that way. Ever since I was a kid, people said I lacked empathy, that something was wrong with me ... as I grow older, I come to realize the same myself.

The Nuns Priest's Tale Essay

In Geoffrey Chaucers' The Nun's Priest's Tale, he uses a stories-within-stories to explain a very important moral lesson. The tale begins like that of a mock-heroic tale but takes a turn when Chanticleer, the main character, gets a disturbing vision of his death. When he tells one of his wives, Pertelote, she shames him for his cowardice nature and how dreams only have a significance to tell you that something is wrong with your body, and even gives him a medicine that should cure his ill-health. Pertelote uses an elevated language to get her point across, and when she does this she then turns herself into the antagonist and stands in Chanticleer's way. While Chanticleer wants to believe her, he then goes into detail of many authors, and people who

The Vampyre By John Polidori Essay

In John Polidori’s short story “The Vampyre”, a strong emphasis is placed on its depictions of pastoral countrysides and old aristocracy. We see these depictions in the travels of Aubrey through the pre-industrial states Italy and Greece and in his occasional partner Lord Ruthven. Through these depictions, the story appears to be responding to the times it was published in, times of immense social and technological change which Romantics such as Polidori tackled through their writings. The drivers of this disruptive change during Polidori’s time are two revolutions, that is, the Industrial and French -- both of which brought the Romantics much cause for lamentation or celebration. As such, a couple questions appear when considering these depictions, that is, what is Polidori doing with these depictions, is he lamenting the changes that are to come throughout these quaint countrysides? Is he criticizing old aristocracy through his depiction of the licentious vampire Lord Ruthven?

Chronicle Of A Death Foretold Religion Essay

The first signs of religion date back to 230,000 B.C.E and it has been an influential factor in the decision making in communities since the Neolithic era. Religion is continually used to this day to create moral frameworks for communities, give a sense of togetherness for communities and to give comfort in those in need. However, religion has caused thousands of wars, racism and has created very controversial creational topics that are still debated about today. It is an undisputed fact that religion has an incredible influence on the decisions of society and influences the thought process of a population: “Religion is the opium of the people” – Karl Marx. Is this the end of your introduction? Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a novelette that takes place in Latin America during the 1920’s; it is a non-linear story about the murder of Santiago Nasar. The story explains in a

Symbolism In Ancient Greek

The lord asked him why we was here and told him about the murder symbols

Essay on Symbolism and Characterization in Jackson’s The Lottery

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comes to show the symbolism in his name. The young fools who have not experienced

Fr. John Gerard's The Autobiography Of A Hunted Priest

In the book, “The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest”, Fr. John Gerard, a Jesuit priest in sixteenth century England, tells of the many struggles he must face in a time when Catholics are imprisoned and martyred for their faith. In order to avoid imprisonment, Fr. Gerard disguises himself as a country gentleman and travels in secret to the houses of the faithful, saying mass, and ministering to them. However, the constant threat of being found and captured was his greatest challenge. In spite of this, Fr. Gerard was able to evade authorities and secret advisors to the queen for some time. Eventually, however, he was captured and imprisoned by cruel Anti-Catholic adversaries. After completely refusing to disclose information on the whereabouts

Essay on “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale”: An Analysis

The “General Prologue” provides us with no evidence as to the character of the Nun’s Priest. Only in the prologue to his tale do we finally get a glimpse of who he might be, albeit rather obtusely. As Harry Bailey rather disparagingly remarks: “Telle us swich thyng as may oure hertes glade./Be blithe, though thou ryde upon a jade” (p.235, ll2811-2812). I say this cautiously because much criticism has surrounded the supposed character of the Nun’s Priest, his role in the tale, and his relationship to the Canterbury Tales as a whole. One example, in my opinion, of an unsatisfactory reading is exemplified by Arthur Broes’s 1963 article “Chaucer’s Disgruntled Cleric: The Nun’s Priest’s Tale.” Broes argues that the Nun’s Priest is an “erudite

Essays on The Night Of The Hunter

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Walt Nauta told grand jury that Trump threw documents 'on the floor' every night: filing

David McAfee

Senior editor, david joined raw story in 2023 after nearly a decade of writing about the legal industry for bloomberg law. he is also a co-founder and a commissioning editor at hypatia press, a publisher that specializes in philosophical works that challenge religion or spirituality..

Walt Nauta told grand jury that Trump threw documents 'on the floor' every night: filing

Walt Nauta, Donald Trump's valet and co-defendant in the classified documents criminal case in Florida, told a grand jury that his boss would throw papers "on the floor" when he "would leave for the evening," according to a new filing in court.

Nauta, who has so far stood by Trump's side in the case being overseen by the Trump-appointed jurist Aileen Cannon, was apparently more candid in his grand jury testimony than some might expect.

In a filing made public on Friday, citizens got their first look at certain grand jury testimony by Nauta himself, according to a reporter.

ALSO READ: ‘Fraudulent’: Trump tormentor Lincoln Project loses big money in cybertheft scheme

Alan Feuer of the New York Times flagged one particularly interesting section of the court transcript.

"Walt Nauta, Trump's valet, recalls in his grand jury testimony that officials in the White House Office of Records Management would pick up 'all the papers' Trump 'threw on the floor' each 'time he would leave for the evening,'" Feuer reported Friday.

In the section Feuer is alluding to, Nauta is asked what he remembers "about interacting with the records management people."

"What I recall is every time he would leave for the evening, they would come up, and they would collect all the papers that he threw on the floor; or that -- at the time, we understood that he didn't need any more," Nauta said.

Stories Chosen For You

Should trump be allowed to run for office, 'she knew more than she admitted': trump insider says potential witness has goods on him.

What Hope Hicks knows is certainly more than she's let on.

Former "Apprentice" contestant and White House adviser Omarosa Manigault Newman appeared on CNN to point out that former President Donald Trump's trusted confidante Hope Hicks is very aware of the intricacies involving the allegations being raised in the historic criminal hush money trial of a scheme to manipulate the 2016 election by buying the silence of a woman alleging she had an affair with Trump .

"Well, there's no question that she knew every single aspect of it," Newman said. "In fact, it was her job to know and it was also her job to manage it and then manage the messaging around it."

ALSO READ: Revealed: What government officials privately shared about Trump not disclosing finances

It's this reason that Newman was puzzled by Hicks' initial coy response when pressed about how much she knew about the six-figure sums paid to porn star Stormy Daniels in the run-up to when Americans were going to cast their vote for president.

"So I was really surprised when [Hicks] initially asserted that she knew nothing about it," Newman noted. "But now all of the information that's coming out and the evidence shows that she knew more than she admitted."

In 2019, Hicks' through her attorney stated that any suggestion she was privy to conversations about “hush money” or knew payments were being discussed “are simply wrong.”

“Ms. Hicks stands by her truthful testimony that she first became aware of this issue in early November 2016, as the result of press inquiries,” Robert Trout said at the time.

It's anticipated that Hicks, who held the position of White House Communications Director, is going to be called by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's prosecutorial team in the weeks to come in the trial accusing Trump of falsifying financial records.

The former president's longtime fixer and attorney who has since turned witness for the prosecution, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges for committing campaign finance violations for orchestrating the funds — $130,000 through a shell company to Daniels — to keep her from going public.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges lodged against him and denied the affairs.

Watch below or click the link here.

This simple four-word text from Stormy Daniels' lawyer is 'ominous' for Trump: expert

A single, short text message discussed during former President Donald Trump's hush money trial in Manhattan carries an "ominous" sign for the former president, legal expert Norm Eisen explained in a writeup for CNN on Thursday.

The text came about during the testimony of Keith Davidson, an attorney who represented adult film star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal. Both allege they were sexually involved with Trump , and received payments to buy their silence. The Daniels payments, and the alleged illegal methods Trump took to conceal them, form the basis of the prosecution.

"Although Davidson is just a supporting actor in this drama , his role in negotiating the alleged payment to Daniels makes him an important witness to lay down the basic facts of the alleged 'catch and kill' plot — and to corroborate the details that former American Media, Inc. CEO and National Enquirer publisher David Pecker established and Cohen will ultimately testify about," wrote Eisen. "Perhaps the most dramatic moment of Davidson’s morning testimony came when he was asked about an election night 2016 text message exchange with Dylan Howard — a former editor of the National Enquirer who helped broker the negotiations for the story. The prosecution asked Davidson to explain the meaning of a text he had sent to Howard that evening. As the election was about to be called for Trump, Davidson sent a text to Howard asking , 'What have we done?'"

This matters, Eisen wrote, because the whole foundation of the trial is not just about hush payments, or business fraud — it's about the allegation Trump did all of this as a means of defrauding voters, to prevent them from having certain information about him when they went to the polls.

"Without the intent to cover up another offense, falsifying documents is just a misdemeanor," wrote Eisen. "The reason Trump has been charged with felony document falsification here is because it was allegedly done with intent to cover up a payment in excess of campaign contribution limits that was made in order to impact an election."

Prosecutors don't need to prove that this scheme swung the election to prove Trump guilty, Eisen wrote — but this nevertheless highlights the fact that unlike his schemes to overturn the 2020 presidential election, being charged in separate cases, Trump's 2016 scheme may have been successful. "I was watching the jury closely when Davidson spoke, and they were riveted," he wrote. "The prosecution is constantly finding ways to tell jurors that they are giving weeks of their life to weigh a matter that is not trivial, but critical for the honesty of our elections and our democracy. We will see if they agree when they ultimately deliver their verdict."

Trump perked up at trial when he saw 'there is some solid evidence against him': expert

Donald Trump perked up when he heard his own voice played aloud in court.

"That was the voice we heard first," said legal analyst Terri Austin during an appearance on CNN's "Out Front." "We were all surprised. I thought we were gonna hear [Michael] Cohen or [Keith] Davidson or someone else — but we heard Trump and I think everybody looked up including Donald Trump because he heard his own voice."

The startling moment came on another day in the Lower Manhattan court where former President Donald Trump is defending himself against 34 charges of fudging business records to hide six-figure payments to an alleged mistress in order to keep sexual tales quiet and manipulate the 2016 election.

The recording is about two minutes long and dated Sept. 6, 2016.

It was captured by Trump's former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen. Both men can be heard conversing.

"I need to open up a company for the transfer for all of that info regarding our friend David," Cohen said in the secretly recorded phone call. "I am all over that, and I spoke to Allen [Weisselberg] about it when it comes time for the financing."

"What financing?" Trump counters.

"We'll have to pay him something," Cohen said.

Cohen was explaining in cryptic terms the purchase the rights to McDougal’s story from The National Enquirer parent company American Media Inc., (AMI).

"Pay with cash ... check," Trump stated, according to the transcript .

Cohen cautions: “No, no!”

Trumps attorney Emil Bove attempted to question the legitimacy of the recording, suggesting because it was coming from Cohen's phone, it may have been "subject to the risk of manipulation."

Austin believes the shift in Trump's body language in court when he heard his own recorded voice amplified for everyone — especially the jury — to listen to was significant.

"I think it means that he knows that there is some solid evidence against him," she said.

Watch below or click the link.

Trump-nominated FEC leader: let political donors hide their identities

Marjorie taylor greene is buying stocks again. some picks pose a conflict of interest, ‘lord of the flies’: inside mtg’s effort to oust speaker mike johnson.

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The Night of the Hunter (1955)
95 min. Release Date. 07/26/1955. ( This essay was originally published on November 23, 2010. It has been edited and expanded.) The Night of the Hunter is a strange film. Nothing quite compares. Its unusualness draws influence from German Expressionism and Mother Goose. Yet the story, set in a Southern Gothic backdrop, explores how religion can ...
The Night of the Hunter movie review (1955)
Read the full review here. Charles Laughton 's "The Night of the Hunter'' (1955) is one of the greatest of all American films, but has never received the attention it deserves because of its lack of the proper trappings. Many "great movies'' are by great directors, but Laughton directed only this one film, which was a critical and commercial ...
Film Notes -The Night of the Hunter
His essays, like his 1930s analysis of the Tennessee Valley Authority for Fortune magazine, have the incisiveness of the surgeon's knife. And his reportage, like the iconoclastic Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, ... In THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, Mitchum plays "'Preacher' Harry Powell" a charismatic pretender who seduces and murders in order to ...
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
The Night of the Hunter—incredibly, the only film the great actor Charles Laughton ever directed—is truly a stand-alone masterwork. A horror movie with qualities of a Grimm fairy tale, it stars a sublimely sinister Robert Mitchum as a traveling preacher named Harry Powell (he of the tattooed knuckles), whose nefarious motives for marrying a fragile widow, played by Shelley Winters, are ...
The Night of the Hunter (film)
The Night of the Hunter is a 1955 American film noir thriller directed by Charles Laughton and starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish.The screenplay by James Agee was based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Davis Grubb.The plot involves a serial killer (Mitchum) who poses as a preacher and pursues two children in an attempt to get his hands on $10,000 of stolen cash ...
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
A self-proclaimed preacher marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real dad hid the $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery. It's the Great Depression. In the process of robbing a bank of $10,000, Ben Harper kills two people.
The Night of the Hunter Free Essay Example
Download. Essay, Pages 4 (783 words) Views. 256. The Night of the Hunter is a 1955 thriller directed by the great Charles Laughton. This one-time director had already been recognized as an Oscar winning actor for The Private Life of Henry VIII, and famous for playing Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Even though Charles never directed ...
Night Of The Hunter Essay
Night is an autobiography by Elie Wiesel, which chooses the Nazi Holocaust as the background. Eliezer is the narrator of Night and the stand-in for the memoir's author. Chapters 8 and 9 were the most depressing and remorseful for me, and it's so worth to read. In chapter 9, "From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me.
The Night Of The Hunter Analysis
The Night Of The Hunter Analysis. Imagine coming face to face with someone who you think is your friend but really it's all just an act just so they can get closer to what they want. In the short story "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe and the movie The Night of the Hunter directed by Charles Laughton they both have main ...
The Night of the Hunter Essay
"The Night of the Hunter" Anna N. Beach Paper #1 March 7, 2011 "The Night of The Hunter" is a thriller written by Davis Grubb in 1953. It is imaginably chilling and disturbing.
Textual Analysis Of Barton Fink And The Night Of The Hunter Essay Examples
When he speaks with Charlie for the first time, and Charlie attempts to offer his experience as the common man ("Well, I've got some stories-") Barton interrupts him constantly to prattle on about his idealistic desires for theater. Here, the self-absorption of Barton is clear; Barton is a high-class intellectual who is unable to actually ...
Night Of The Hunter Analysis Essay Essay on Film, Movie
Night Of The Hunter Analysis Essay. In the film Night of the Hunter, young John and Pearl are trying to escape from a preacher named Harry who wants the money that their father stole for them when they were young. In this specific scene, the audience see them floating down the river coming to shore where there appears to be a small house with a ...
Night Of The Hunter Essay
The Night Of The Hunter Analysis. When children endure high-level stress situations that mix with a lack of loving, supportive relationships, children endanger their brain's and can achieve permanent brain damage . In Davis Grubb's gothic novel, The Night of the Hunter, a blameless child named Pearl experiences traumatic situations and lacks a ...
The Night of the Hunter Essay.pdf
Matt Johnson ENG 202.1003 Alissa Surges 02/28/2022 The Night of the Hunter Review Essay Charles Laughton ' s The Night of the Hunter showcases an incredible array of talent as well as directing in this dramatic film noir. Robert Mitchum ' s Harry Powell makes for an unforgettable villain and Billy Chapin exhibits incredible acting skills for only being 12 years old at the time.
The Night Of The Hunter: The Preacher
906 Words 4 Pages. The Night of the Hunter: The Preacher. When describing the preacher, John says, "His name is Harry Powell. But the names of his fingers are E and V and O and L and E and T and A and H and that story he tells about one hand being Hate and the other hand being Love is a lie because they are both hate and to watch them moving ...
The Night Of The Hunter Essay Examples
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Walt Nauta, Donald Trump's valet and co-defendant in the classified documents criminal case in Florida, told a grand jury that his boss would throw papers "on the floor" when he "would leave for ...
Essay On The Night Of The Hunter
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