![]() ![]() In the film, John grows quickly, and the adults are fools. The book, though, is an acute vision of the emotional and spiritual devastation of this young boy in the wake of a crime. Like the movie, The Night of the Hunter, the novel, is really the story of John Harper, the boy, whose travails mature him beyond his years. Though played by Shelley Winters–a great, great actress–the cinematic Willa is nothing more than a silly cow, someone to be pitied. ![]() As is Willa’s floundering in the wake of his death. Their passion makes Ben’s decision to rob a bank, and his execution, heart-wrenching. They were real, a family that bickered, laughed, who lived in a house that needed paint and foundation work, who struggled with money, and, after the children were asleep, went to bed themselves and had a good time. Grubb took a few pages to show us that Ben and Willa Harper were a good couple, not too bright, but a simple family struggling to get by. There’s not time in the movie to develop the complexities of this family. It is about how the Depression ruined a family, that’s one.ĭon't ask me where to find this creepy copy. Since I’m going to read from the book but talk mostly about the movie, I’ll give you some insights here.įirst, Davis Grubb’s The Night of the Hunter is about many things. Chop Suey will have a few copies, and of course I always encourage a trip to the public library. Was screenwriter James Agee moved in the same way? Or director Charles Laughton? Read the book yourself… if you can. In fact, the book ruined a good many evenings, and got to the point where I literally couldn’t read ten pages without crying. It makes the film more moving, as you’re able to go deep into the mind of its hero, John Harper. Reading Grubb’s enriches Laughton’s great adaptation. That’s the scenario that will meet you on Sunday evening. But what about those rare moments when a movie is so good that it overshadows a decent source novel? And then there are those times, rarer still, when a great movie’s shadow casts its darkness over a forgotten book that turns out–surprise!–to be superior in every way to the classic film. Now, we all know of great novels that have been turned into awful movies. I’ll be introducing the movie and doing a reading from the brilliant and beautiful Davis Grubb novel of the same name. I’m going to have the distinct pleasure of schooling you young ‘uns at this screening. Unless they’re murderous preachers, of course. Well after most preachers have gone to bed. Is it appropriate to have a screening of Charles Laughton’s classic The Night of the Hunter on a Sunday evening at the Grace Street Theater? Call us blasphemers, but that’s the score, friends: Laughton’s masterpiece–hell, it was his only movie!– at 9:00 in the pm. The Night of the Hunter is a classic film, but the book might be even better. ![]()
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