Rhapsodies

This week I watched artistic thrillers about serial killers. ones that were stylistic enough that it’s hard to call them horror films, no matter how hard you try.

The first film on my list. Charles Laughton’s “The Night of the Hunter,” tells the story of John, a boy who has been told by his father to hide his stollen money and give his word never to tell anyone. This is made all the harder when his father’s cellmate the Reverand Harry Powell, Robert Mitchum, a conman, murderer and definitely not a holy man, comes looking for the money.

Powell marries John’s now widowed mother, taking control of both her and the town with his preaching. Now it is a cat and mouse game for John to keep his word and to keep himself and his sister Pearl alive.

Night of the Hunter was the only film Laughton ever directed, and I see this as one of the great tragedies in the history of film. It is visually brilliant with some of the camera shots feel like illustrations. My favorite being the reveal of the fate of one of John and Pearl’s mother drifting underwater, which is as beautiful as it is horrific.

Just as great as Mitcham’s performance as the preacher. He plays Powell as charming, charismatic and driven as he gaslights his flock and relentlessly hunts John and Pearl as they escape down the river. It’s easy to say without too much hyperbole to consider fun one of film’s great monsters. Almost as good is Lilian Gish as Rachel Cooper. The woman who takes John and Pearl in and stops Powell once and for all.

The next film on my list Michael Powell‘s Peeping Tom tells the story of Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm) a voyeur Filmmaker who prefers to look at the world through his camera. Even when he’s killing prostitutes.

This was a difficult film to watch. Powell makes us identify with Mark as much as his victims. And we find ours ourselves fearing for anyone who interacts with him be it Helen Stephens (Anna Massey) his downstairs neighbor who befriends him or her blind mother (Maxine Audley) who confronts him.

Aesthetically this film was fascinating I don’t know if it was on purpose or a limitation of the technology, but the high contrast colors especially the reds were, incredibly effective.

A little side note. It feels like one heck of a coincidence that the director of the second film I watched has the same last name as the villain in the first.