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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsI'm haunted by a lullaby in the movie I saw yesterday, "The Night of the Hunter" (1955)
A dark Depression-era story. The river scenes after the children run away from the wolf-in-sheep's-clothing-pycho-killer, their parents and the other adults of the town too foolish or weak to help them, they journey out into the wide world as orphans. Floating down the river under the stars, the river shimmering with moonlight, the sounds of night animals in the darkness, it reminds me of an illustration from a children's book of fairy tales. The little girl sings and we know her family members are the flies in the lullaby:
Once upon a time there was a pretty fly,
He had a pretty wife, this pretty fly.
But one day she flew away, flew away.
She had two pretty children,
But one night these two pretty children flew away, flew away,
Into the sky,
Into the moon.
Has anyone else seen something haunting lately?
Rhiannon12866
(205,363 posts)betsuni
(25,524 posts)Shadowy bad men chased me while I tried desperately to hide an enormous wad of money. Woke up scared, then relieved it was just a dream and there are banks and credit cards.
Rhiannon12866
(205,363 posts)Of those tattoos on his knuckles.
betsuni
(25,524 posts)He's perfect for the part of psycho killer!
Rhiannon12866
(205,363 posts)There are certain actors, and he's sure one of them, that I identify with one malevolent part so much that I just can't think of them otherwise. Ralph Fiennes, who played that horrific nazi in Schindler's List, is another one. I saw that at the movies when it first came out in the early '90s and I'm barely able to watch him now.
Tom Ripley
(4,945 posts)In addition to his Max Cady in Cape Fear, I also recommend his performance in A Killer in the Family. It is another, but little known, classic sonofabitch portrayal by Big Bob Mitchum.
Rhiannon12866
(205,363 posts)I'll have to check it out. Back in the day, I mainly watched movies on AMC, since what they were showing was better than anything on network.
Tom Ripley
(4,945 posts)the scary vibe a bit- "Bob, you will still want to play leading men after this picture is done"
It is a fantastic movie.
betsuni
(25,524 posts)And yet I hadn't seen it until now, for some reason. Glad I happened to catch it on TV.
cemaphonic
(4,138 posts)My favorite Love/Hate callback is from Do The Right Thing.
betsuni
(25,524 posts)Rhiannon12866
(205,363 posts)I remember now that the little girl who played Pearl in the play I was involved with actually wet herself onstage during the performance. We discovered that afterwards and nobody ever said anything, poor kid. I was a couple of years older and it scared me, too.
I'm not surprised it gave you nightmares, has to be one of the scariest old movies out there on so many levels. But it was only a dream, find something amusing to take your mind off it...
myrna minx
(22,772 posts)I love this film!
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,182 posts)....Holly Hunter does an excellent lullaby rendition of the folk song "Down in the Willow Garden", which is an incredibly dark and ironic song for a lullaby (but then again, lullabies are often darker than you'd expect. Case in point: Rock a Bye Baby).
I wish I had her version on Youtube but I can't find it.
The Coen Brothers are genius filmmakers.
cemaphonic
(4,138 posts)I've spotted references to NOTH in a bunch of their movies, including Raising Arizona. "Sometimes it's a hard world for little things" is almost a direct quote.
Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Though, The Man Who Wasn't There and True Grit all come to mind - I wouldn't be surprised if there are more.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,182 posts)Reading about it, there was a lot more focus on visual images than most of the films of its day. Just from the clip in the OP, you could tell that to be the case.
The Coens are extremely stylistic in their film making, so I wouldn't be surprised if they took some inspiration from that film, either directly or indirectly.
On edit:
This blog piece clearly saw the connections and inspirations:
https://moviecounterviews.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/the-movie-that-haunted-coen-brothers/
cemaphonic
(4,138 posts)A lot of the visual look of the film owes a strong debt to German Expressionism, monster movies and film noir (where of course Laughton was a huge acting star). The exaggerated physical acting and the presence of Lilian Gish also hearken back to the silent era.
Tom Ripley
(4,945 posts)German Expressionism and DW Griffith were heavy influences. Laughton deliberately avoided the contemporary 50s realism of Kazan, Stevens, Preminger, etc.
appalachiablue
(41,132 posts)Mitchum was one of a kind, remember what an influence he was as a kid. What a talent, the voice, expression, understated cool. His wife's family was from Delmarva, had a place in eastern MD with horses where the family and boys spent time. There was an upscale Mitchum's Steakhouse in a small town, Trappe/Cambridge for years that recently closed.
seveneyes
(4,631 posts)Skittles
(153,160 posts)after the death of Theo, Kee sings to her baby a lullaby from Ghana called 'Kaa fo', which means 'Baby do not cry' (I Googled); it is the very end of the movie
unfortunately it gets cut off in the youtube clip (she starts at 2:48)
very poignant
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,693 posts)the first time I saw it (it came on TV late at night when I was about 12). Robert Mitchum was about the scariest psychopath I've ever seen in a movie.
cemaphonic
(4,138 posts)It's a shame that it was considered a failure in it's day and Laughton never directed again. He clearly had talent, and a really unique visual style.
And yeah, there's something magical about that river scene.
LeftinOH
(5,354 posts)The real inspiration for Mitchum's character, "Harry Powell", was named 'Harry Powers'. And he even resembles the character Mitchum portrayed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Powers
betsuni
(25,524 posts)Serial killers are much scarier than fiction, ghosts, monsters, etc.
StarlightGold
(365 posts)by Steve Goodman. Soooo touching.