Night
Cats: Set Your Recorders| 
There is nothing like seeing a “man of God” have a knife shoot up through his pants during a burlesque show. No actor of his (or maybe any) generation could have pulled this off as well as Robert Mitchum. As Harry Powell, Mitchum brings a powerful psycho - sexuality to the role of the murderous preacher never before seen on screen up to that time (1955) or maybe even since. And the level of violence directed at the children in this movie is still edgy in 2007 (nothing like a killer preacher chasing two kids with his switchblade - something he refers to as “something cute”).
In his only Directorial effort, actor Charles Laughton created one of the most frightening visions of American gothic. I cannot doubt that David Lynch’s Blue Velvet was not severly influenced by this movie. The opening helicopter shot of lush rolling hills, pretty white houses and churches eventually zoom in on a dead woman’s legs all with a narration from Lillian Gish quoting the passage in the bible which discusses wolves in sheep’s clothing.
The performances (besides Mitchum) are all good. Shelly Winters in particular as a tragic newly widowed mother who falls for the charms of Harry Powell (as all the female characters in the movie do). The children’s performance are times awkward and stilted but have many moments of perfection. The deadpan response to seeing Harry Powell at dawn riding a horse off in the distance while singing “Lean on Jesus” is on the money. “Don’t he never sleep?” the boy says not really as a question but more as a statement, there is evil all around and there is nothing you can do about it.
I accidently saw this film when I was about 7. It was on channel 5 one sunday afternoon. I was mesmerized, my 5 year old brother ran screaming from the room. I do not recommend this movie for kids under 12. Mitchum gives one of the best performances of his career, one of the best in all of film history and definetly belongs in my catergory of “Should have been nominated”.
Saturday January 31� at 12:45 AM on Turner Classic Movies
