May 22, 2017
Film historian, professor James Naremore returns to discuss Charles Laughton’s dark southern classic, The Night of the Hunter (1955). We ask ourselves if it’s love or hate we feel for the film, and unpack how absolutely bonkers it is; a dark fairy tale that climaxes in a showdown between an evil bible-thumping Robert Mitchum and a shotgun wielding Lillian Gish. A commercial and critical failure upon its initial release, we ask ourselves if its worth of the 63rd position on The Sight & Sound List. Taking inspiration from Night of the Hunter being Laughton’s first (and only) directorial venture, we spend our second topic discussing some other great directorial debuts.
And as you’d expect, we close things out with some Final Notes of Positivity.