John and his little sister Pearl are “lucky” to see their father being taken away by the police for robbing and killing two people. Their father is sentenced to death and hanged, leaving the children a legacy of stolen money, which his father hid, having made John and Pearl promise that they would not tell anyone about the stash, not even their mother. In prison, he meets preacher Harry Powell, and in fact, a ruthless murderer, obsessed with religion, with the words “love” and “hate” tattooed on his fingers. Powell decides to get to the stash and marries a gullible widow to do so.
4k movies reviews
The most controversial masterpiece
…because if you think about it, it was a guaranteed failure. An actor who suddenly decided to try his hand at directing; a dubious script; strange stylistics; starring a famous Hollywood hooligan and a former silent film star. But it stuck. Contrary to everything turned out ambiguous, controversial in some ways, but certainly a solid and unique work of fiction. As a separate bonus, the best (in my opinion) night shots in the history of cinema. Those stars in the river, those hares, owls, toads, shadows, glare are simply mesmerizing. Many thanks to the cameraman.
The genre of the film is still being debated, but from underneath all the eclecticism one can clearly see the long ears of Fritz Lang. German expressionism with its contrast, suspense and at times pretentiousness is organically intertwined with Hollywood action and the narrative’s fairy-tale/pretentiousness. A special ‘fantasy’ flavor paintings emphasize a brother and sister – just Masha and Vitya from the famous domestic fairy tale.
Louton disliked children and could not work with them, but then came to the rescue came three-father Robert Mitchum and worked well with the little actors. In general, Mitchum ‘made’ this film on a par with Lawton: his noir appearance, ‘black’ charisma and velvet bass-baritone were simply ideal for the role of a maniac preacher, and the role itself became a star for the actor (Mitchum later secured his ‘maniac’ success in ‘Cape Fear’ brilliantly).
‘Night Hunter’ does not fit into any framework and canon, it is contradictory and harmonious at the same time. Lawton had the wisdom not to continue his experiments as a director: it can only happen once in a lifetime, by the special grace of the tenth muse. You may or may not like this film, but it is a must-see.
Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (98.2 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles
English SDH.
