starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish
directed by Charles Laughton
92 minutes
Two children, John and Pearl, go on the run from Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), a homicidal man of the cloth, after he marries and murders their mother (Shelley Winters) and then finds out that they have the stolen money that their father gave them. They eventually find safety with Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish) a kind old woman who has taken in a number of other orphans.
Peter Graves plays the father of John and Pearl. He is only seen in the first 10 minutes of the movie.
I'm not terribly impressed by the acting of the two child actors. Mitchum’s performance as Harry Powell seemed over the top, to the point of silliness. Shelley Winters performance as the mother made her seem like a caricature.
There were aspects of the story that made little or no sense to me. The two children have an uncle who discovers their mother’s body and then does nothing about it for fear that he will be accused of killing her. The children run to him for help when they are trying to escape from Powell. The uncle is drunk and unable to help them. That’s the last time he is seen in the movie.
There’s a moment when Rachel is guarding her home from Powell, who is sitting outside singing. She starts singing with him until she suddenly stops. Why did she join in and sing with him?
The scene where Powell finally gets arrested was also kind of strange. John loses it. He starts hitting Powell with his sister’s doll. The doll breaks open revealing the stolen money.
I do not understand the high praise that this movie has received. It isn’t awful but I don’t see what makes it great. The cinematography is beautiful at tines but that's not enough to convince me that this is a great film. I’m glad that I can check it off my list. I’m not sure if or when I will watch it again.
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