Heavy on Spanish moss and sick behavior. An evil giant in this movie; a  slithery, completely corrupt, malevolent force. Along with his role as the crazed preacher in The Night of the Hunter, this is arguably his finest performance. A vicious ex-con, Mitchum shows up in the small North Carolina town where Gregory Peck is the chief prosecuting attorney. It was Peck who put Mitchum away for eight years for a hideous sex crime and Mitchum has used that time well, plotting his revenge on Peck through Peck's wife and daughter. The art is in the details, the gradual build- up of  fear, Mitchum is the angel of death-with-pain, put on earth to give men pause.