The Best Movie Of Each Year From 1925-2025
71. 1955 - The Night Of The Hunter
Honourable Mentions: Bad Day at Black Rock, The Court Jester, East of Eden
Robert Mitchum's finest hour, 1955's The Night of the Hunter is a timeless Southern Gothic marvel from the great Charles Laughton, who brought to bear German expressionist influences on a distinctly pastoral American landscape and thusly conjured some of the most haunting imagery from the decade.
In the film, Mitchum takes on the role of a psychotic, repressed "preacher" who is in fact a serial killer, one who charms vulnerable women and then, like a parasite, worms his way into their home, travelling from town to town and leaving death in his wake, a wolf in sheep's clothing.
He also doubles as a bogeyman. For much of the film, Laughton enmeshes our perspective with that of the young children who are unfortunate enough to find themselves in his sphere of violence, making the already towering Mitchum appear positively statuesque. The end result is something terrifyingly disorienting - an Appalachian nightmare that, all too sadly, proved to be Laughton's sole directorial effort.