Customer Reviews

Night Of The Hunter

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Night of the Hunter," directed by Charles Laughton, was unsuccessful at the box office when it was released in 1955. Having gone through a cult-status period, the film, the only one Laughton ever directed, is now hailed by many critics as a classic. Almost lost in the shuffle is this recording, originally released by RCA Victor in 1955, which has since become a collector's item, and justly so. Unlike most soundtrack recordings, this one integrates the film's music with a reading by Charles Laughton of the story, beautifully written for the recording itself. "Beautiful" may be an odd word to apply to the story of a lunatic evangelist who murders the widow of a bank robber and pursues her children in his attempt to obtain the loot for his own ends. Nonetheless, in the capable hands of Laughton and supported by the music of Walter Schumann, "The Night of the Hunter" is riveting, not to be listened to late at night unless you are sure! the doors and windows are all locked.

"The Night of the Hunter" has now been re-released on CD by Bear Family Records. The booklet enclosed reproduces several posters and a lobby card from the film, contains the complete script of Laughton's reading, and lists the musicians. Uncredited are the vocals by Robert Mitchum, the star, and Kitty White, along with an unnamed chorus of children's voices. Neither the CD booklet nor the original LP liner notes give any information on the source of Laughton's reading script, but I suspect that he wrote it himself. He was a man of many talents.

Firstly, it must be said that this is a lush, beautiful, haunting, eerie, mesmerizing, sonorous, hypnotic, and truly remarkable score (phew! That's a lot of adjectives). It ranks among my favorites, and it was written for one of my all-time favorite films (too bad Charles Laughton never directed another film, for Night of the Hunter is a masterpiece of lyrical, chiaroscuroed lubricity and cinematic poetry). However, over the orchestrations, Laughton provides the listener with narration from the novel. Although Laughton's deep, measured voice may please some and compliment the music, others may find it unnecessary. If you want the soundtrack as to just have the score to listen to, this is certainly not for you. Yet this is an undeniably great score, and if you don't mind the narration, this may very well be worth a purchase.

This was released around the time of the film release. It has Laughton narrating portions of the novel over the musical soundtrack to the film.
Unfortunatly, it's NOT just the music to the film. Does the original soundtrack of the music exist out there somewhere?? Maybe in a recording studio, or in some vault? or is it lost. such beautiful music. & that off-screen lullaby...what a voice.....

Having made several DVD's with Patrick Stewart and worked on a one man show with James Earl Jones, I like to think I know something about the mixing of narration and music. Charles Laughton, who directed the film, "The Night of the Hunter" (which Roger Ebert called one of the "greatest American films of the 20th Century") lends his voice to this mesmerizing, surreal story of good and evil. His performance is simply fantastic as is Walter Schumann's beautiful lyrical score. So for those of you who resent the intrusion of voice over music, I say that this is not a soundtrack but rather very sophisticated story telling, the kind that has awed the imagination of generations. A clean soundtrack was never produced, largely because the film was financially unsuccessful and the producer and rights holders made a business decision not to pull out and remaster the original M & E tracks.

This version was originally made as a story record for children. Unlike most of the story records of that era (which appeared in 78 RPM on Capitol Records), this one is a masterpiece. I have looked for years to replace the original LP, which was given to me by an Uncle (who was a rather famous composer of movie scores from about 1935 to 1970). He was not fond of praising other composers, but he told me that this is what the spoken word should sound like when properly scored. How can I argue with a man who was nominated for eleven Academy Awards?

Love the Fly Song and the Hush little baby, Hush. Don't care too much for the extra commentary. Love the movie!

When I first watched this movie as a child, I was completely mesmerized by the musical score (as well as by the film itself). I, too, have sought the uncut music soundtrack (without dialogue) for decades: to no avail. I finally gave up and simply downloaded the film to my iPod, then recorded as much of the music (sans dialogue) to a CD. If someone--anyone--has any info about how to gain access to the uncut musical score (without dialogue), please post it. Thank you.