Mitchum as sadistic Max Cady
Cape Fear (1961) The other quintessential villain in Mitchum's pantheon. Max Cady, known to more people as played by Robert DeNiro in the1991 remake. It's a pleasant exercise to view the movies side by side. DeNiro's Bible-quoting monster owes as much to The Night of the Hunter as it does to the original Cape Fear. Mitchum's felon is vulgar, yes, but he has a firm grasp on reality, which makes his relentless terrorization of Gregory Peck and his family all the more frightening.
The Night of the Hunter Charles Laughton (U.S., 1955)
This film is as far away from the city as a fairy tale with the awe and trust of country innocence. In The Night of the Hunter set in the back-roads along the Ohio River, we have stolen money and a demon preacher ( Mitchum) who comes after it, chasing two lost children towards the homestead of Lillian Gish. As much as it draws on Hans Christian Andersen, D.W. Griffith, an German expressionism, The Night of the Hunter knows an isolated state of the union (Amerikana) where the icons of the Western have survived by becoming grotesque. Harry Powell's chosen weapon is a knife. But with LOVE on one hand and HATE on the other, he is a twisted descendent of the Western's violent men of righteousness. In Charles Laughton's American master- piece, that strain has driven Powell mad. The Night of the Hunter is all the more suggestive in arousing obsession in an actor (Mitchum) who had his own persona of laconic, stetson- shaded reliability.
Written by James Agee, from the novel by Davis Grubb. Photographed by Stanley Cortez. With Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, Billy Chapin. (91 mins, B&W, 35mm, From MGM/United Artists Repertory)
