The Night of the Hunter 1955

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: One of the great movie horror tales, with one of the greatest of all movie villains. Read more

Jane Sumner, Dallas Morning News: One of the most chilling suspense films ever made, it's also the finest role of Robert Mitchum. Read more

Bosley Crowther, New York Times: All this has been crisply compacted into clear screen drama by the late James Agee and it is put forth under the direction of Mr. Laughton in stark, rigid visual terms. Read more

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: Ultimately the source of its style and power is mysterious -- it is a film without precedents, and without any real equals Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: One of the most frightening of movies. Read more

Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle: Laughton creates terrific tension between Mitchum and his prey, turning the preacher into a bloodthirsty wolf and Willa's children into tender lambs. Read more

TIME Magazine: It is a garish, unbelievable but fairly exciting nightmare. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: It's the most haunted and dreamlike of all American films, a gothic backwoods ramble with the Devil at its heels. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: This start for Gregory as producer and Laughton as director is rich in promise but the completed product, bewitching at times, loses sustained drive via too many offbeat touches that have a misty effect. Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: Though purely homegrown, Hunter contains no social critique -- the issues are elemental, the morality biblical, the trials Homeric. In terms of cinematic texture, it's a hound from hell. Read more