Harry Powell projects as a self-declared reverend, but he is really a woman-hating killer. He marries widows and kills them for money, justifying the act as necessary to carry out God’s will. In prison (on a car theft charge), he meets Ben Harper. Harper is in for murder and the theft of $10,000 (a big sum in 1932, when our story takes place). Harper meets his end in prison, so when the Reverend is released, he travels to the Harper residence in search of the $10k. He woos and weds Willa Harper, the distraught widow of Ben. But Willa doesn’t know the money still exists—it’s her son John and daughter Pearl who know where the money is hidden. When the Reverend learns this, he tries to squeeze the info out of them with kindness and vitriol . When Reverend realizes that Willa heard him threaten Pearl, he kills Willa. Now orphaned and with no one in town to trust, kids hit the river to escape the Reverend. He pursues on horseback on a nighttime hunt...hence the name.
This is a totally weird, totally workable film. It’s like “The Grapes of Wrath” crossed with “Home Alone”, crossed with “The Silence of the Lambs”. There is a wholesome Americana to the setting, juxtaposed with the pure evil of Reverend Powell. The story is ultimately about an authority figure abusing the trust of his title to commit evil acts. In a pre-Watergate, pre-me-too, pre-mainstream-serial-killers world, this must have been crazy-shocking to see. And yet, for all of the aforementioned reasons, the story is still resonant. Robert Mitchum is brilliant and terrifying as Reverend Powell. You both see how easy it is for him to con an entire town, and see the cracks emerge in his persona as the film rolls. And there’s some really great and eerie imagery, such as the Reverend’s Exorcist-like arrival in the fog (18 years before “The Exorcist” was a thing), Willa’s hair waving peacefully underwater, and the Reverend’s silhouette on a barnyard horizon. Despite looking like an innocent ‘50s kid show, there was tremendous tension and suspense throughout the film. I thought it was great.