The Night of the Hunter (1955)

It’s a hard world for little things.

In Depression-era West Virginia, a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children who know the whereabouts of a stash of money.

Directed by: Charles Laughton

Written by: Davis Grubb, Charles Laughton, James Agee

Music by: Walter Schumann

Starring: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce, James Gleason, Evelyn Varden, Don Beddoe, Peter Graves, James Griffith

Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller

Released: 1955-07-26

Runtime: 93 minutes

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The Night of the Hunter (1955): trivia & fun facts

Fun facts

• According to Lillian Gish, Laughton was very unsure of himself on set as this was his first time directing a film, and when someone would give him a suggestion he would start talking about fears that his whole vision was wrong.
• At first, Grubb was being considered to write the screenplay himself, but the studio wanted to hire someone with experience writing for films.
• Lanchester, for reasons unknown to Laughton, declined the role, suggesting silent movie star Lillian Gish for the role.
• The film has two original songs by Schumann, "Lullaby" (sung by Kitty White, whom Schumann discovered in a nightclub) and "Pretty Fly" (originally sung by Sally Jane Bruce as Pearl, but later dubbed by an actress named Betty Benson).
• The screenplay by James Agee is adapted from Davis Grubb's 1953 novel.
• Paul Gregory argued "absolutely no money was spent on promotion" however, claiming "United Artists didn't have the muscle, desire, or intelligence to handle the picture."
• The Night of the Hunter was banned outright from premiering in Australia due to "blasphemy".
• Deadline reported in a 2026 retrospective compilation that The Night of the Hunter opened at $6,233 and grossed $12,800 worldwide.
• The film was also banned in Memphis, Tennessee, by the city's head of censorship, Lloyd Binford.
• In 2008, it was ranked as the 71st greatest movie of all time by Empire magazine in its issue of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.
• In 2012, Sight and Sound magazine's decennial "Greatest Films of All Time" poll ranked it as the 63rd greatest film ever made; in 2022, the same poll put it at No. 25.
• The Night of the Hunter premiered on July 26, 1955, in Des Moines, Iowa, a special event to raise money for the YMCA in Gregory's hometown, which included a parade and a broadcast on The Tonight Show.

Source: Wikipedia

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