The Night of the Hunter (1955) | The Only Film Charles Laughton Ever Directed and Why That's a Tragedy | MNWD Ep. 15

Riley and Mark take on The Night of the Hunter — Charles Laughton's one and only film as a director and one of the strangest, most beautiful thrillers ever made. They dig into what Robert Mitchum's preacher is doing that makes him so deeply unsettling, how Laughton's own theatrical background shaped every frame of this film, and why it bombed on release before becoming one of the most influential pictures in American cinema. Laughton never directed again — that fact hangs over the whole conversation.