The Night of the Hunter

Until the other day, I was sure I had never seen The Night of the Hunter.  Yet, as I watched I had a few moments of déjà vu and it brought back my childhood weariness of boisterous preachers.  From the harping televangelist, to a broad rimmed hat spouting trite ideas on faith, I somehow grew up with an odd suspicion of many ministers, most of whom where probably very decent men.  Robert Mitchum’s character here is the is the icon of evil men who use religion as a cloak to lure the trusting masses in and I was ever mindful to not be the next chump.  It makes me wonder now if I might have seen The Night of the Hunter as a small child and have no solid memory of the event.  Is there such thing a repressed cinematic memory?

In the movie, the phony preacher learns of a newly widowed woman, whose husband hid ten thousand dollars he stole somewhere near their home.  When this man, Harry (Mitchum), finds the widow and her two children, he turns on his preacher-man charm and wins over everyone but the son, John (Billy Chapin).  Skeptical John and his doll-faced little sister, Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce), know where the money is hidden, but promised their dead father they would never tell anyone where, not even their mother.  After Harry marries their mother (Shelly Winters), he becomes even more menacing and inescapable.  The more he asks where the money is, the more he pits their naive mother against the children.  Eventually, the children have no choice but to run, joining other wandering children of the depression era.  But Harry is a cunning and tireless hunter, always pursuing them.

Mitchum created one of the most unforgettable characters in classic cinema in The Night of the Hunter.  Harry is perfectly menacing with his booming voice.  The way he can almost always keep it so calm and cheerful with every word patiently elongated only heightens the tension he creates, especially in his threats.  And the respectable Reverend act he puts on to gain trust everywhere he goes is despicable.  Loosely paraphrasing a bible story, singing and letting little ones sit on your knee seems like the small town trifecta for acceptance.  And the songs he always sings always have a lingering air of dread in them.  I get chills just thinking about him singing, “Leaning… leaning… leaning on the everlasting arms.”

The film is full of haunting images, a few of which contributed to that bit of déjà vu.  Some of them make the film have an oppressive feeling, like a horror film.  One that people remember most from this movie are the tattoos on Harry’s knuckles, reading LOVE on the right and HATE on the left.  Part of me is afraid to wonder if there is a different story as to how Harry got those.  The image of Harry on a horse in the distance is wonderfully unsettling, especially when you think about how far away he is and how close his voice sounds.  And without giving anything away, that underwater shot has the same kind of eerie beauty present in the opening scene of Sunset Boulevard.

It is interesting to think of the film as an odd type of modern fairy tale.  It focuses on the children, their struggles and most of the adults around them are useless against Harry, who is the obvious monster.  A wolf disguised as a sheep if you will.  Many times, the point of these types of stories back in Grimm’s time was to give children guidance against good and evil.  Perhaps The Night of the Hunter serves to help children uncover evil lurking under clever disguises.

Unfortunately, The Night of the Hunter was received so poorly, it made Charles Laughton vow to never direct another film again.  And sadly, he stuck to that promise.  It did not earn any Oscar nominations.  No awards at all for that matter.  However, it is in the National Film Registry.  Today, classic film buffs still clamor about the wonderfully artistic images throughout the film and revel in Mitchum’s magnificent character.

“I can hear you whisperin’ children, so I know you’re down there.  I can feel myself gettin’ awful mad.  I’m out of patience children.  I’m coming to find you now.”

The Sundowners

Based from Jon Cleary’s novel, The Sundowners tells the story of a nomadic sheep droving family in the Australian outback.  Paddy (Robert Mitchum) enjoys this lifestyle of always being on the move and only needing enough money to get drunk and gamble.  His wife, Ida (Deborah Kerr) and teenage son, Sean (Michael Anderson Jr.), would rather settle down on a cozy farm and secretly start saving money towards a down-payment on a home.

The film portrays the outback much like the old west: flat, dusty and a haven for restless men on the move.  Instead of cattle driving and coyotes to worry about, here it’s about sheep herding and protecting them from dingoes.  The occasional cute koala shot, jumping kangaroo or emu running across the dirt road help remind us of the setting.

This Australian outback is a man’s world, perfect for Paddy, but Ida and Sean have to just deal with it.  The men just wonder around wherever they want and don’t want to be bothered or bogged down by all the conventions and responsibilities of a home, a farm or normal family life.  They just want to work for a season, get loud and drunk with their time off and ride away into the wilderness when the season is over, or sooner if they so choose.

It seems they just ignore the problems that the women deal with for them.  While the family is staying with a group of sheep shearers, one young man’s wife makes the long journey out to be with him during her pregnancy.  She shows up unannounced and afraid she’ll only be turned away by all the men, but Ida and the only other woman kindly ask her to stay.  On the night all the men ride into town, Ida knows the baby is too near birth for her to leave and tells a disappointed Paddy to go on without her.  While all the men enjoy their time in town and getting drunk, Ida and the only other woman are assisting in childbirth.

Throughout Sean’s young life, it seems he has hardly received any proper schooling.  This does not seem any concern to Paddy, in fact he’s satisfied that Sean can read and write.  Ida reminds him that Sean wouldn’t even be able to do that if she had not taught him herself.  We assume Paddy has taught his son the basic skills men on the move need, but we also see that Sean has been greatly influenced by his mother and has a greater sense of responsibility than Paddy.  When Ida asks the room full of men if any would help peel some potatoes, no one budges, but moments later they excitedly run to make a gambling game.  It’s only Sean who hesitates, with a sense that he should help his mother, but she dismisses her son to happily be with the men.

In case you haven’t noticed, it was hard for me to like Paddy.  I got the sense that he was just a selfish old cowboy not willing to give up his carefree lifestyle and take some responsibility for what his family really wanted.  The most bonding we see him do with his son is giving him his first beer, which only infuriates Ida.  She is a saint for not just taking that jar of cash and hopping on a train.

Honestly, the film is a little boring until the last third full of horse races and lost funds, but the unbalanced role of power in the family makes it interesting.  Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr have a good chemistry even when their characters are pulling for different things.  If you want a film about a family at the mercy of the patriarch’s unsteady whims, The Sundowners is perfect.

“I think you’re a dingo, for running out on mom and me.”

The Longest Day

Many of my generation have grandfathers who served in WWII.  Each have their individual stories, whether they were in the Pacific, Europe or just waiting.  My Papa never talked about it, but he was one of the thousands of men who stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.  Knowing that has always sent a sense of pride and a chill of reality whenever I see a film depicting that historic day.  The Longest Day chronicles the events just before and through the D-Day invasion.

Throughout the film, we are shown the events as they unfold from multiple perspectives.  There are British and American troops waiting anxiously on whether or not they will invade, some in the rain on cramped boats for days.  We see German officers more interested in their war games, not expecting the Allies to take the risk of invading in bad weather.  There is also the French resistance, waiting for codes over the radio.  From seeing each angle, the cause and effect is very clear and gives the viewer a wonderfully informed look at D-Day.

Sadly, to depict all angles of the invasion,the film sacrifices nearly all character development.  Though the film boasts its large cast with big name actors, there is not enough time spent with any one character to make him more than a flimsy caricature.  John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Sean Connery, Red Buttons, Richard Burton and Robert Mitchum are only a small fraction of the cast.  The main problem is that there are simply too many characters to show in this small space of time.  Directors Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki and Darryl F. Zanuck seemed to realize this might be a problem, so they tried to help us out by putting up each character’s name and rank as they are introduced in the beginning.  I applaud the effort, but there’s still too many to keep track.  One historical day, from multiple vantage points, boiled down to three hours of film can only show these characters as vague figures such as British paratrooper, American Private, German officer, and French civilian.

The visual aspect of The Longest Day is absolutely astounding.  The black and white cinematography and thought out camera angles bring out the perfect details of the many sets.  One image that sticks in my mind is the German slogans carved in a wooden beam in a building where German soldiers are shooting at the Allies from as they are moving into the town.  Multiple times we are shown aerial long-shots of soldiers moving up the beach or into towns.  These shots really reflect what a large scale this film was made on, how many nameless extras worked together with no CGI.  And the action scenes are filmed precisely, with real explosions sending dirt and smoke flying into the air, again with no fancy computer tricks.

I would suggest seeing The Longest Day if you are interested in an in depth view of D-Day from multiple perspectives.  While the individual stories are sub-par, the film does an excellent job of showing the cause and effect of each event throughout D-Day.  The classic actors aren’t shown enough to really draw a fan in.  I believe Henry Fonda has only one scene, and Sean Connery has less then five minutes of screen time.  Your fair-weather viewer would probably prefer Saving Private Ryan, with its modern effects, more heartfelt story and strictly American point of view.  However, film and history buffs should see The Longest Day, if not both.

“You remember it. Remember every bit of it, ’cause we are on the eve of a day that people are going to talk about long after we are dead and gone.”