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Robert Mitchum is not necessarily the most distinguished name a casual filmgoer would recognise from Hollywood's Golden Age but to a motion picture aficionado his talent as a thespian is certainly equal to (if not greater) than the Bogarts and Tracys of this world. After all, Mitchum defined how to portray a villain on screen, enticing the audience to emotionally engage themselves in the plot of a film even if his star would suffer as a result of him shunning the chance to play memorable heroes like Gable, Grant et al in favour of a walk on the wicked side. In essence, his quality as a baddie made the good guys look even better, especially in the trademark film noirs he became most famous for - the original Cape Fear is a perfect example of this as Gregory Peck's Sam Bowden comes across as a mythical messiah of righteousness in contrast to the sheer ruthlessness of the Connecticut-born actor's appearance as Max Cady. Similar to how Bond criminals are so wicked that 007's questionable actions regarding womanising and murder are pardoned, Mitchum personifies iniquitous actions with such a swagger that he jazzes up the most mundane of enemies to make them jump out of any screenplay and into the human consciousness.
The Night of the Hunter's Harry Powell is possibly Mitchum's most famous turn in the sole directorial effort of the legendary Charles Laughton. The performance of the antagonist is sheer class, and the same magnetism which critics and audiences failed to acknowledge on release all those decades ago has undoubtedly been inspiration for scores of filmic scoundrels ever since. Indeed, even the late Heath Ledger owes a great deal to Mitchum for his final role as The Joker in The Dark Knight. The common paradoxical dual paradigm of charming malevolence in an immoral characterisation was set in motion by Powell, a faux preacher who befriends and marries a widow (Shelley Winters) in order to retrieve the money stolen by her condemned husband. The two obstacles facing Powell in his role as stepfather are, amazingly, his infant stepchildren, played wonderfully by Billy Chapin and Sally Jane Bruce who see straight through his act. The LOVE and HATE tattoos transcribed on his knuckles, the suave facade of a debonair gentleman in every scene, and his unpredictable temper cement Powell in cinematic lore as one of Hollywood's greatest ever villains. Mitchum is tender yet animalistic and eloquent yet fierce on his desperate rampage to track down the cash in the film.
This leads to Laughton's superb direction. In partnership with Stanley Cortez's delightful cinematography, Laughton infuses numerous technical innovations; ambitious helicopter shots, deep focus, cutaway sets, underwater photography, in addition to the incredible use of light and shadow mostly captured in naturalistic or German Expressionistic methods. This adds to how the film is extremely tricky to pigeonhole into a genre. Though predominantly a crime thriller, the final scenes are influenced by Capra's It's a Wonderful Life with the family yuletide feel, elements of adventure shine through with the Huckleberry Finn-esque journey down the Ohio river, and Powell injects moments of joviality (talking to himself whilst driving) and horror (his terrifying shadow chasing the helpless children). There's a scene in which the children's guardian Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish) armed with shotgun in hand and wary of the threat of the reverend-turned-psycho watches an owl kill a small rabbit. The obvious connotations with how Powell, with his questionable religiosity, is hunting the young children, seemingly stopping at nothing, is a somewhat simple touch but perfectly appropriate. In fact, The Night of the Hunter is one of those films, like Scorsese's Raging Bull, which actually benefits from being shot in black and white as the motif aids the creepiness of the piece. With both the good and bad characters having an equal playing field in regards to camera positioning, Laughton gives his talented cast the ideal platform from which to exercise their acting chops. Even the youngsters understand how delicate eye movements, shifts in the tone of dialogue and even pauses can really facilitate various meanings. These noticeable nuances (to the trained eye) illustrate what a fine job the cast did assisting the virgin director on what was basically dismissed as a B-movie prospect at the time because of the chilling central theme of the plot.
The extras
Trailer.
The summary
The Depression-era Bible Belt has never been so compelling. A loose hybrid of nearly every genre, Laughton's film is one without any precedents. Robert Mitchum's performance is genius.
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