The Night of the Hunter - the river and children's music

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

A great movie.
Directed by:
Charles Laughton
Starring:
Robert Mitchum (at his best)
Shelley Winters
Lillian Gish
Music:
Walter Schumann

This is a bit of a desecration, but this video is four scenes from the children's river journey. This video cuts out the scenes that don't have the children's musical themes.

Thanks to a question in the Comments section, I will now add that the song sung by Pearl at the beginning of this video is called "Pearl's Dream." That is according to the track listing from the soundtrack CD.

[The soundtrack CD is interesting in that the clips one can hear on Amazon include what sounds like a narration of the movie (not used in the movie, of course) by Charles Laughton himself. What a great voice, great actor, and, in his sole attempt, great director. It was very intereting to read about Laughton and his work on the movie Spartacus, especially his jealousy of Olivier.]

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Night
• of
• the
• Hunter
• Robert
• Mitchum
• Charles
• Laughton
• Walter
• Schumann

[flanklymusic]

whats the name of the song sung by the little girl Pearl?

x

[Straussian]

"Pearl's Dream" is the song sung by Pearl according to the Amazon track listing of the movie's audio CD. Thanks for asking--I should have thought to post this in the More Info section.

[flanklymusic]

can you get it off itunes? because it only comes up with Bat For Lashes Pearl's Dream and i really want this. sorry :)

x

[Straussian]

I don't use iTunes, but I got the same result on Napster (that is, I got the Bat for Lashes song which is completely different). Doing a search for 'Night of the Hunter' did not find the soundtrack--but iTunes might have it. Of course you could buy the CD from Amazon and rip it to your favorite digital format. Good luck.

[ritsaert11]

The first time I saw this movie, I didn't know what happened to me: a horror story became a fairytale. And everytime I see it again, it gets better. This movie is not about two children. This movie is about all the children.

[gandy74]

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.

[hassNpheffer]

According to IMDB it's titled "Once Upon a Time There Was a Pretty Fly (Lullaby)" by the actress Sally Jane Bruce who played Pearl. Music by Walter Schumann and lyrics by Davis Grubb.

At first it's obviously dubbed but since the singing was so "mature" sounding I thought it was someone older singing it.

I can't get this out of my head. It's the most haunting and beautiful song I've ever heard in a film.

Plus it reminded me of Bjork. :)

[GunnarMcGriff]

6:07 I love the ominously low orchestral accompaniment to "Leaning."

[iangordoncraig]

The song Hush Little One Hush was covered by a band in about 2005. I used to have a copy.

Can anyone PLEASE tell me who that was? It's driving me mad!

[eurostraightsix]

Wondeful mix of a fantastic movie ! so sad the original soundtrack is not available without Charles Laughton's voice...I'll have to do same as you with my CD burner : select the "music only" parts and make a kind of compilation...by the way, the song was "dubbed by an actress named Betty Benson" (from Wikipedia) for it sounds obvious this was not sung by a children's voice. Definitely a masterpiece. I recently discovered it on a french channel (after having heard a lot about it) and LOVED it !!!

[MissMyrnie]

I discovered this film only about 3 years ago. It is mesmerizing. I've watched it over and over again. I ADORE little Pearl in this film! She is so darned cute!! I just want to pick her up and squeeze her. :) The acting and cinematograhy in this movie is excellent and Shelley Winter, Robert Mitchum and Lillian Gish and Uncle Birdie ae all amazing. This is a classic film noire. Five stars!!

[billjoe39]

@flanklymusic Record clip you want in real time with Mp3MyMp3 3.1, or Windows Sound Recorder after setting your sound recorder with Stereo Mix option and putting volume settings to the max

[billjoe39]

Wonderful music and movie which makes me wish I had seen this on the screen when it first came out.

[belartful]

SURREAL!!!!!!!

[thewiseking]

magical realism. way, way ahead of it's time.