A psychopathic preacher with LOVE and HATE tattooed on his knuckles goes after 2 children who know where their father hid stolen money. It is the only film Charles Laughton ever directed. It is also one of the boldest films ever made in terms of style, part expressionist nightmare and part fairy tale.
Night of the Hunter is a 1955 drama, film noir and thriller film directed by Charles Laughton. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (2 cinematography and 2 narrative), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Nightmare Alley uses several of the same techniques.
Lighting a scene with strong contrast between bright light and deep shadow, a style borrowed from old paintings called chiaroscuro. How lit a character is hints at their moral or mental state.
How this film uses it
Stanley Cortez's photography, working with Laughton's expressionist vision, gives the film its dreamlike look. Chiaroscuro is strong contrast between light and dark. You see it in the Preacher's silhouette against the night sky and in the underwater shot of Willa's body, with her hair flowing like water plants. You see it again when the children float on the river in darkness. The lighting suggests threat. It also makes the film's world look like a myth.
Where to see it
The Preacher on horseback against the night sky. In silhouette, the villain stops feeling like a man and feels like a force of nature. The light and shadow turn his psychology into a mythic image.
Returning to the same physical object again and again until it means more than what it is. It moves the plot and also stands for the film's main ideas.
How this film uses it
The money hidden in Pearl's doll is the film's MacGuffin, the object everyone in the plot is chasing. It is also the film's moral object. The doll moves through the story as both a prize and a burden. It caused the father's death, the Preacher hunts it, the children protect it and John finally bursts it open over the Preacher as he is arrested. The main irony is how physically small it is compared to how much of the story rests on it.
Where to see it
Pearl clutching the doll. You know what is hidden in it, and Pearl is just innocently attached to her toy. All of the dramatic irony sits in a single object.
Having an actor perform in the big, physical style of silent movies, where gesture and facial expression do the work of dialogue. In a sound film, it marks a character as out of their time.
How this film uses it
Robert Mitchum plays the Preacher in the big, theatrical style of a silent film villain. He shows off the LOVE/HATE hands like a preacher's props. His singing of 'Leaning on the Everlasting Arms' becomes a way of stalking the children. His body fills the frame, and nothing in the performance is toned down to look natural. Laughton directs him as a figure from a child's nightmare, larger than life in every physical sense.
Where to see it
The Preacher's LOVE and HATE monologue. He puts his hands on display and the theatrical style is announced. A single physical gesture sets up the film's expressionist visual world.
Ending the film where it started, or with a scene that echoes the opening. The repeat shows what has changed, or suggests the cycle will keep going.
How this film uses it
The film opens with Rachel's voice speaking about children's need for protection, and it closes with her repeating the thought. By then, John and Pearl are safe in her home, so the return shows you how much the children have survived. A fairy tale needs that return. The children have to come home, and the closed circle confirms that the nightmare has an end.
Where to see it
Rachel's closing speech. The film goes back to the tone of its opening. The fairy tale's circle confirms that the children have passed through the nightmare and come out of it.
Questions
Night of the Hunter: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Night of the Hunter use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Night of the Hunter (1955): Chiaroscuro Lighting, Symbolic Object, Silent Film Performance Register and Circular Structure.
Who directed Night of the Hunter?
Charles Laughton directed Night of the Hunter, released in 1955.
What films are similar to Night of the Hunter?
Films that share techniques with Night of the Hunter include Nightmare Alley (2021), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), Carnage (2011), The Darjeeling Limited (2007).
