The Night of the Hunter (BFI Film Classics)
Simon Callow
Language: English
Pages: 79
ISBN: 0851708226
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The Big Sleep (BFI Film Classics)
Double Indemnity (BFI Film Classics)
The Thin Red Line (BFI Modern Classics)
The Films of Josef von Sternberg
The Triumph of Propaganda: Film and National Socialism, 1933-1945
but, as his letter proves, he was glad of it in the end.. The first question Laughton must have asked concerned the nature of the material, or, to put it more crudely, what was the novel about? One of the things that it was about was very clear to Laughton from the beginning.. 'Hollywood has been looking for forry years, Davis,' he told Grubb, 'to find a story about the church, what it is and what it does, and 24 you've found a way of doing it that we can put over.' Laughton certainly had
Preacher's eviL The description in the book is crystal clear: 'She was old and yet she was age1ess - in the manner of such staunch countrywidows. Gaunt, plain-spoken and hard of arm, she could stand up to three of the toughest shrewdest cattle dealers in Pleasants County and get every penny she thought her hog was worth' Here again Laughton had a number of thoughts.. As we have seen, he was enthusiastic about Jane Darwell (Mrs Joad in The Grapes of Wfath, whose line 'Can't nobody lick us, pa
turn, with courtly graciousness. When Stanley Cortez referred t,o her in her pres ence as 'Gish', Laughton lOld her Stan uses the word GIsh not to be impolite, but rather out of respect for he would use the word Caruso, or Michelangelo - the great artlsts. James Gleason - Un,cle Birdie -- said 'Charles is just terrific.. He has a br and new way of handlmg people.' Peter Graves that far J?hn he ,had dared to say to the great duector Thls part 1 m playmg: 1 thmk- , to which Ford had replied: 'Don't
his special attention: telling Billy how to chase his sister, he shouted 'Go get her!' Then, says Gould, 'he falIowed through with :he action himself.. He roughed the little girl up, then her m a hug (not in the script!) befare dropping her back mto the camera posmon on the rickety, dirty COl..' There were limits to his h?wever.. Mitchum reported that he had one day, in Laughton's h:anng, glven the boyan acting note, asking him: 'Do you think John's fnghtened of the Preacher?' 'Nope' replied
John doesn't know who she is. She spots him and Pearl in a café and points them out to the crowd, but John has no idea why. In the courtroom, the prosecutor indicates Preacher but John refuses 10 look at him; all this is described in John's inner monologue. The novel then switches to an equivalent monologue for Ruby, who is still sweet on Preacher.. 'Well, he don't make fun of me and laugh at me like them boys used to do and he don't want to do the dirty thing.' She becomes aware of a mob heading
