THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER

GETS A CLOSER LOOK

On Tuesday, May 14, Center for Contemporary Arts’ Closer Looks series will screen The Night of the Hunter (1955), the only film actor Charles Laughton ever directed and truly a stand-alone masterwork.

A horror movie with qualities of a Grimm’s fairy tale,itstarsasublimelysinisterrobertmitchumas a traveling preacher named Harry Powell whose nefarious motives for marrying a fragile widow, played by Shelley Winters, are uncovered by her terrified young children.

Graced by images of eerie beauty and a sneaky sense of humor and telling its chilling story through visual fantasy, this ethereal, expressionistic American classic — featuring the contributions of the great silent actress Lillian Gish and renowned writer James Agee — is cinema’s most eccentric rendering of the battle between good and evil. For his first effort, Laughton made a film like no other before or since, and with such confidence it seemed to draw on a lifetime of experience as a director.

A talk and slideshow by Paul Barnes about The Night of Hunter will be given before the screening; after, he will be joined by Closer Looks co-curators David Meyer and Cinema Director Justin Rhody for a conversation about the film with the audience.