I'm haunted by a lullaby in the movie I saw yesterday, "The Night of the Hunter" (1955)

[betsuni]

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]

1. Oh God! I was involved with that play when I was a kid and it still can give me nightmares!

[betsuni]

2. I had a nightmare last night after watching it.

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]

3. I also saw the movie. I still can't watch Robert Mitchum without thinking

Of those tattoos on his knuckles.

[betsuni]

5. I thought he had those same tatoos in "Cape Fear" -- could've sworn.

He's perfect for the part of psycho killer!

[Rhiannon12866]

6. He is one scary dude! Guess that makes him a good actor, but I still find him threatening...

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]

8. Mitchum was very versatile actor, but he excelled at playing menacing characters

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]

9. I'm not sure if I've seen that one, thank you!

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]

7. And that was after Laughton told Mitchum to dial back...

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]

14. It is fantastic.

And yet I hadn't seen it until now, for some reason. Glad I happened to catch it on TV.

[cemaphonic]

12. De Niro had them in the Cape Fear remake

My favorite Love/Hate callback is from Do The Right Thing.

[betsuni]

13. Oh yeah, that was De Niro. nt

[Rhiannon12866]

4. BTW, this is bringing me back...

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]

10. I was fortunate to see this on the big screen in the 1990's.

I love this film!

[Tommy_Carcetti]

11. Speaking of haunting lullabies in movies, from the movie Raising Arizona

....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]

18. The Coen's obviously love "Night of the Hunter"

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]

21. Night of the Hunter was reportedly very ahead of its time stylistically.

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]

24. In a lot of ways, it's more looking back stylistically than forward.

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]

25. ^^^This^^^

German Expressionism and DW Griffith were heavy influences. Laughton deliberately avoided the contemporary 50s realism of Kazan, Stevens, Preminger, etc.

[appalachiablue]

26. Very interesting influences. I only saw the film in the last year. Outstanding.

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]

15. Haunting, like looking in the mirror and finally seeing the truth

[Skittles]

16. the end of Children of Men

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]

17. That movie totally creeped me out

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]

19. Such an amazing movie

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]

20. The novel on which it is based is inspired by a true story!

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]

23. Why it's so creepy!

Serial killers are much scarier than fiction, ghosts, monsters, etc.

[StarlightGold]

22. The Dutchman

by Steve Goodman. Soooo touching.

[Bosonic]

27. Please read

[betsuni]

28. Wut?

[WinkyDink]

29. One of the greatest movies ever. Children will abide.