The Night of the Hunter

The Night of the Hunter (1955) is Charles Laughton's haunting noir thriller, and you can watch online on iFILM. The only film the celebrated actor ever directed follows Harry Powell, a murderer who hides behind a preacher's collar, with the words LOVE and HATE inked across his knuckles.

Set in West Virginia during the Depression, the story sends Robert Mitchum's drifter after stolen cash. He learns about it from a condemned cellmate whose two children, John and Pearl, are the only ones who know where the money is hidden. Powell marries their trusting widowed mother (Shelley Winters) to get close, and when that fails the children flee downriver, chased by a man who hums hymns as he hunts.

Dismissed on release, the film is now studied frame by frame. Cinematographer Stanley Cortez lit it like a moving woodcut of shadows and water, and silent-era legend Lillian Gish appears as the fierce old woman who finally stands between Powell and the kids. Stream The Night of the Hunter (1955) online on iFILM.