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  • Filming ground to a halt one day because Mitchum had gotten so high on marijuana that he could barely see straight. Laughton gave him and earful,and Mitchum proceeded to walk right over to Laughton's care and pee on the front seat. According to Laughton himself "he zipped up and gave me a look like it was just the dearest thing he'd ever done."

  • Wrote an essay on this at Uni last year, and I still adore it. <3 ~

  • They need a fishing equipment and cook up some

  • 08:45 - 09:26

  • @mikolajjj thanks

  • The most hauntingly poignant few minutes in all cinema. Such a tragedy that it was not recognized as such until so much later!

  • "don't he ever sleep?" i'm sorry, but i had to laugh. i want to watch this movie.

  • saw this in school for visual media class, so im writing an essay. Wish me luck!

  • The greatest film scene of all time.

  • Don't he never sleep?!

  • With the cinematography and score - that is one of the eeriest scenes in cinema history.

  • Did you realize the coincidences between this scene´s character and the other at "cape of fear" ??? Night and river-killer and innocents... and the same Great actor (of course)...

  • May be the best 10 min in film history

  • Rober Mitchum's initial scream of frustration is probably one of the scariest screams in cinema history.

  • i just heard the soundtrack with the story being told by laughton himself and its amazing! someone provided it at megaupload or something. if you love the film, check it out, can recommend it!

  • Gawd...why can´t actors have this depth anymore ??...Don´t tell me....CGI, big post production vans and a even bigger ego ??...Rest in peace,anti hero ...You will not be forgotten.

  • My favourite movie ever - and this section of the film is just incredible!

  • yes i remember watching this in black and white when I was a kid and being so terrified after that of people in black suits and who looked like James Mitchum. Grief, anyway, it was great to find it on here. I came to look for the movie and just remembered mitchum acted in it and here it is. Thank you to whoever put it on here, it was a great movie and worth watching. They don't make movies like this anymore, it is all just gore, blood, and lots of crazy folks with guns, knives, sighs

  • No matter how often I watch, I am always blown away by how scary the 9:10 scene is. "The Night of the Hunter" taught me so much about movies. I am 19 now and I finally understand why my mom calls today's films "poor." Oh, how much I would love to go back in time and thank Laughton for this masterpiece! (Guess I would not come back to 2011, though ... :)

  • a classic

  • Sad that Charles Laughton never directed another film because it got slated when it first came out. The imagery in this film is genius, wish he could have lived to receive the praise this is worth! One of the greatest films. Beautiful.

  • This is one of my favorite movies. It's so haunting and this might be the best photography that's been in a black and white movie

  • leeeeeeeaning...leeeeeeaning..­.

  • As scary as he is, I can't help but be in love with his voice. <3

  • These scenes are really well done !

  • One of the greatest sequences in film history, poetic.

  • 1:14

  • haha I sat at my desk and roll-away chair and watched the first one and a half minutes of this,and at 1:10 I actually started to roll away from my computer. I was several feet away before I realized what I was doing.lol

    Mitchum is so damned scary in this!

  • Powell's a predator.

  • I saw this entire movie last night, and his scream 1:16 reminds me a little of Gollum. Oh, and I simply ADORE the design of the barn, so simplistic and child-like. Also it reminds one of silent film.

  • 0:19 RUN! Get away from that mad man who's trying to kill you... Just be sure that you don't get your feet too wet while escaping. That's some sticky mud.

  • Certainly one of the greatest horror movies of all time. Has a way of conjuring that haunted feeling of the past that you cant put your finger on.

  • fun fact: In the horseback riding scene they used a midget on a small pony to get the proportions to match:) !

  • The is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I just saw it for the first time today. its darn near perfect

  • @HelterSkelter67 I couldn't agree with you more

  • Has there been scarier music in film than at 0:54?

  • Laughton seemed to be on par with Welles as a director.

  • That scream itself identifies this movie.

  • @izlude2

    Right up there with Peter O' Toole's scream in The Ruling Class.

  • I'd always thought that the scene of the woman singing the lullaby (starting about 6:00 in this video) is one of the most haunting scenes in movie history... ruined by the little girl talking.

  • Excellent film! Director Charles Laughton's only film! Excellent film!!

  • this is one ot the best american movies forever. great masterpice movie.

  • Una película de extraordinaria maestría que se adelantó a su época.

    Una genialidad de trama, suspenso, ¡una tremenda película!

  • Yes, a truly beautiful masterpiece of a film. What a shame that it got panned by the critics when it was released. Charles Laughton never got to direct another film. Like so many others, his genius was not recognized in his own lifetime.

  • I love this film.

  • a masterpiece!

  • One of Mitchum`s finest performances.

  • "MmmmmmmmmmmmmAGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH­!!!!!"--Robert Mitchum

  • should be up there with Psycho 

  • I remember I was about 10 years old the first time I saw this movie. It still sends chills up my spine at 1:13 when Harry Powell makes that noise. It seems to start out as a whine but then evolves into an inhuman sounding roar that echoes across the river. Any linger doubts that Powell was a madman could be erased in that scene.

  • mmmmyaaaaaahhh!!

  • One of my favorie movie scenes, ever!

  • Greatest ten mins in film history. I've watched it a thousand times and it still fills me with horror, bewilderment and an intense childlike fascination. OMG get in that damn boat already!

  • So effin scary.

  • @snoops4ever Being brought up in a generation centered around being afraid of gore and blood and such, this movie is certainly scarier because of the mental terrors. This is so much scarier to me, and I'm hardly scared of horror movies these days.

  • Amazing sequence.

  • One of the most beautiful scenes ever filmed - incredibly cathartic after what has gone before. What a great (and still sadly undervalued) movie this is!

  • @kareace123 i HAD to get this on dvd ; unique film and great to see a happy ending for Pearl and John with this Scum getting his just desserts !

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  • I read that Mitchum based his character for this movie on his real experiences from a period where he was a drifter, wandering through the backwood's communities of America-small, isolated towns where people really would believe any word said by a man with a bible in his hand.

  • Still looking for the river boat...

  • Holy crap i hate the person who made this vid (not really). Okay, I'd already seen the scene where the old lady is singing witht he creeper on the rock. Now, it's very late here and i was watching this video and dosed off about 1 min through. I woke up like 7 mins later to that creepy song (it is very dark and noone else is home at my house), i freaked out, screamed and ran to turn on the lights, tripped over a wire, ran to turn on every light i could find and grabbed my baseball bat. It sucked

  • @SuperiorSwagon1 You're really weird.

  • uh huh always wanna blame a Gypsy

  • that scream

  • the sad thing is that the film was slated and he never directed again

  • This film gave me nightmares when I was a child. It is amazing. I have never understood-is it supposed to be so surreal?

  • @n8rules Me too. I remember being 11 or so and watching it until I saw "LOVE" and "HATE" and then I was out of there. One look at those knuckles and even as a kid I understood that anyone who did that to himself was deadly threat to kids.

    What a briliant device those jailhouse tattoos were! Of course that was the work of the book's author, Mackinley Kantor. But Laughton's visualization of it made everyone instantly recognize that there was something terribly broken in the preacher.

  • @jum1801 The book's author was Davis Grubb.

  • @60Cascade Hah! For 40 years I've thought it was Kantor. I was wondering why I thought Kantor was the author, and remembered I read it in a Reader's Digest Condensed Book volume. I looked it up ( the January 1954 volume!) and it turns out Kantor wrote the story which was just after NOTH in the volume. *sigh* Funny how our mind and memory work. Thanks, or I would have gone to my grave wrongly giving Kantor the credit for this minor masterpiece of "Depression Gothic".

  • song says that the children are flies, we see a spider; spiders eat flies. we see a frog; frogs eat flies.

    we see an owl, who later eats a rabbit. we next see a turtle, and the boy says 'we can make soup out of them.'

    animal imagery: predators and their prey on this night of the hunter.

  • @tankerchamper interesting observation. Thank you for that insight.

  • One of my fav movies ever!

  • Esta escena del gran Charles Laughton en "The Night of the hunter", es sin duda una poesía visual, bellísimos encuadres, la inocencia acechada por las criaturas de la noche, que bella película!

  • This scene loos like a nightmare. :O Really scare.

  • orson welles wanted touch of evil to be" unreal but true. theatrically styilized but cinematic truth. like any Cagney performance" laughton and co. caught that poetic essense with this dark beauty.

  • I can't think of another movie that uses this kind of mixing of natural settings with highly stylized, almost bare sets. Laughton intended the stark, exaggerated lighting to look like theater. It is a brilliant imagining and it evokes the terrible threat to the kids. The striking images are among the most iconic on film. This movie did poorly in release because moviegoers then wanted full, rich color. But I think color would have totally destroyed it.

    Laughton's film is a work of sheer genius

  • the sad thing is that the film was slated and he never directed again

  • @jum1801 the sad thing is that the film was slated and he never directed again

  • @hammypoos A great example of why you should never listen to critics. A great actor, and could have been a great director too, still at least we have this film, a classic in the true meaning of the word!

  • One of the best movie ever made.....and probably the best movie ever made actually !!

  • oh come on, you're telling me he couldn't reach the boat? gotta love the quick edit to the boat being in deep water right after the boy pushed on the banks with the paddle.

  • best movie ever made - just unreal!

  • Most oniric film ever seen. And so poetic!!

  • I wish to introduce Robert Mitchum into my Vagina!

  • @peymaania O_O OMG

  • One of the best scenes ever seen and one of the better songs ever listened, IMO.

  • Wow! that is the best scream ever.

  • In my opinion, one of the best scene ever seen.

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  • I love the imagery in this film...it's like watching a child's nightmare, but it is strangely beautiful too.

  • @EveHarrington1

    Genius!!!!

  • @garantuan

    Thanks! This really is a beautiful scene. :)

  • I can't figure out the sequence to finish the movie but it's a great movie.

    Sorry Laughton got disheartned and didn't direct any more. It's a superb portrayal of a psychopath.

  • the minute she starts to sing i start to cry everytime i see this scence i get emotional

  • Captivating scene that pulls you in and keeps you there. Its like a dark fairy tale in the way the children escape the villian then are lulled to sleep across the river under the starry night. The animals seem as if they are keeping watch, while Pearl sings that beautiful, yet eerie lullubye. "...one day she flew away...flew away..." That guttural scream? OMG. Then the classic line, "Does he NEVER sleep?"  Truly a masterpiece in film.

  • Fantastic movie. Far ahead of it's time.

  • What's funny is that the horseback sillohuette is actually a midget on a pony to give the illusion of the preacher being farther away becuse of limited studio space. Wonderful fim, truly terrifying :o

  • i love trivia like that!

  • The Night Of The Hunter and Out Of The Past are my two all time favorite Mitchum films,

    nobody could do dark characters quite like he could.

    I remember reading somewhere Kathrine Hepburn had said to his face that she didn't think he was a good actor compared with Spencer Tracy, LOL

    to each their own.

  • One thing I don't understand; if Charles Laughton disliked children so much (as I keep reading) why did he choose to direct such a child-centric story?

  • What's truly frightening about Mitchum's preacher is that adults trust him because he says all the things they like to hear.

    But the children instinctively don't trust him because they don't listen to what he says-they pick up on his vibe being all wrong.

  • that scream still spooks me

  • OMG. I can't believe this is on here. This is one of the most beautifully directed and lighted movies ever made. The scene at the end (of this clip) with mitchum singing on horseback in silhouette is sheer perfection!

  • it really is! this is one of my very favorite sequences from one of my favorite movies

  • Comment removed

  • sorry lol I didnt watch the whole clip before the comment. :P

  • mitchum rocks!! thanx for the upload!!

  • Me and my mum watched this together, when he was chasing them we were both screaming hysterically. I love this lullaby too, I can't believe its here.

  • a classical movie of film noir!

    great!

  • Watched a bit of this in English class. It was wicked XD

    Want to watch the rest of it :D

  • what's the name of the song she sings?

  • Once Upon a Time There Was a Pretty Fly

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  • Un film absolument aérien et génial. Entre le rêve et la réalité un chez-d'oeuvre qui touche à la vérité la plus profonde de l'enfance, dans ce qu'elle porte d'angoisse et d'aspiration héroïque à se surpasser.

  • Damn, Robert Mitchum was sexy. And I love this movie. My mom watched it with me years and years ago when I was a kid. Thoroughly creeped me out.

  • the first time i saw this movie it really creeped me out. especially when i saw him screaming; it sent chills down my spine! whoaaaa!

  • I love Pearl's lullaby...

  • I saw the second half of this movie AMC and It was so good this part with the children is beautifully shot. Cant wait to rent it and watch the whole movie.

  • Pearl sings soooo beautifuly! the scream is creepy

  • This is my favorite Robert Mitchum movie. He played a real maniac; thanks for the post.

  • There's a farm near where I live with a barn and rail fence very similar to the ones in this scene. When I drive by at dusk and see their silhouette against the sky I always think of this film.

  • @gandy74 I love this comment because it is a testimony to the power of good cinema-to stay with you for many years after you have watched the film; to seep into your consciousness-and influence ever so slightly, or maybe more, the way you see the world. I love this film too, those scenes are etched into my memory too; I can never forget them. From time to time I too will see a snippet of the film played out in real life-especially if it is dusk or late at night!

  • what a creepy movie that was

  • Children!  Children!

  • wowser, one of my favourite movies of all time, robert mitchum is wonderful, the river boat scene is amazing, the stars in the night sky are visually stunning, magnificent movie!

  • this scene and this music always makes me cry...I think, like other have said in another vid, this secene is for all the children. One of my favourites. I love this film so much...and it music

  • Masterpiece .

  • amazingly shot

  • Wow, interesting. Was she in touch with Billy Chapin? Did she have any good memories of Mitchum or Shelly Winters Or Laughton? One of my favorite movies, too.

  • I will never get over that scream. Gives me the chills.

  • Pearl surely has an amazing acting and singing talent! This is really an amazing movie!

  • The part where Pearl sings is my favorite. Was this little girl in any other movies? She has such a clear voice.

  • This is the best film ever made.

  • Agreed 1000%%. This film has a really mesmerising, beautiful quality to it. It's also one of the scariest things ever made.

  • Part movie...part fairy tale!

  • The most blood curdling scream ever.

  • The book "The Wind In The Willows" has a similar scene where Rat and Mole search for a lost baby otter on the river at night.

  • This could easliy have been a Guy Madden movie. He wouldn't have to remake it or anything, just slap his name on the credits.

  • That terrible, id scream, followed by the surreal river escape. Dreamy. This film shows predator and prey in nature's rawness. Love the lynch mob at the end, lead by Dicey. I believe the Cohen brothers allude to a couple of scenes from this fillm. One of the best scenes in film.

  • The river scene is one of my favourite scenes ever!

  • Holy crap what a scream. Have not heard many like that...

  • My God that scream. Perfect....

  • You're definitely right about "yonder willow". If I may add, perhaps the lyrics are "angel folds(as in wings)will keep you safe".

  • The movie helps you understand how dangerous religious fanatics are.

  • Good grief!

  • Robert Mitchum's scream is one of the most terrifying things ever put on film.

  • This scene changed my whole perspective on both cinema and storytelling. To me, it really is beautiful in every way - even the 'outdated' peril.

  • I watched this late at night years ago. It just came on, I knew nothing of it and I was gripped. I remember being amazed that it used techniques to build terror and tension that I'd only previously seen in much more recent films e.g. the remake of Cape Fear.

  • Estoy deacuerdo:impactante y subyugante papel de r.mitchum. preciosa canción. una delicia para los ojos y los oídos

  • Surreal, hypnotic, beautiful. Truly one of the greatest films ever made.

  • I love Bjork and her cool videos.

  • So right!  I wonder if she was inspired.

  • this scene of the little girl singing made me cry ...and it keeps doing it. I love the story!

  • Hello, I was trying to write down the lyrics of the lullaby the children hear when they stop on the land and settle in the barn for the night(starts at the 6th minute) but I still miss a couple of words. "Bird will sing in your ??" then "angel ?? will keep it safe". Thanks!

  • I think it is: "Bird will sing in your under willow" and "Angel post will keep it safe"

  • Thanks! But I think I've got it figured out, it could be "in yonder willow" and "angel close"

  • You can be the miridian vaaaasee...~

  • I also suggest to the audience another black and white movie:"Shock Corridor" by Sam Fuller

  • magical and mesmerizing

  • Best movie of all time??? And I think the ONLY movie Charles Laughton ever directed.

  • RoBERT a chanter cette chanson !! magnifique

  • I forget the name, but I was watching a movie once that totally ripped off this scene, complete with children floating downstream in a boat, and the single animal shots, one by one, including bullfrog and spider! And I had just seen this wonderful movie so I was shocked. Wish I could remember the movie. And kinglear, I wish there was a soundtrack too!

  • Lawton's film was a Masterpiece, unfortunately, WAY ahead of it's time in terms of concept & delivery. Way behind the times in terms of using black n whaite, old film techniques (iris in, swipes etc). Mitchum's greatest performance IMO.

  • I love this movie,I wish the rest was on here.

  • lindo,beatiful

  • Ten of the greatest moments in film in my opinion. Not to mention the rest of the film, of course! Very very few films make me cry, but this one does every time, twice. Thanks for the post.

  • i've watched this in my film history class back in 2004 while i was in high school. I'm so glad that I did. It's an epic! And a classic!

  • that girl looks just like her doll

  • Okay, I messed up typing that other message. I meant to write that sometimes the tastes of audiences are terrible. Or sometimes, audiences don't consider something good until decades later.

  • This film is great.

    What´s that song called that begins at 6.20?

    Is that some traditional lullaby?