Rebirth in America

Charles shot "The Night of the Hunter" quickly, there were no special effects that were difficult to shoot, and there were no particularly difficult scenes to shoot. After filming the outdoor sequences, the rest of the movie was shot on indoor sets.

The actors' performances in this movie still failed to lose their strong stage style, and both the lines and the storyline seemed very straightforward. However, what surprised Charles and others was that the siblings played by the Carpenters seemed much more natural and vivid.

This is not the first time for Richard and Karen to perform, and they are considered experienced actors. Especially Richard, who in addition to filming "The Sound of Music" also filmed "Little Fugitive". Technically speaking, he is also the protagonist of the movie "Little Fugitive".

The role of brother and sister in a film like "The Night of the Hunter" is not a problem for them. In the play, Karen also showed off her singing voice. For this clip, Charles originally planned to find someone to dub it. Unexpectedly, Karen's singing effect was even better than he thought.

During the filming, Alex visited the filming set many times. He wanted to see how his younger siblings would perform when filming other people's movies. The Carpenters also took time to see their children. In addition, they hired several people to take care of the Carpenters.

From what Charles said, Alex learned that the script was not like this originally.

The original script was written by James Agee, but he was unhappy with that script. So he paid the money, let Agee pack up and leave, and then rewrote the script himself.

Charles used to dislike filming scenes with children. He explained: "Because children always don't understand what you say, and they will cry and make a fuss after just a few scoldings. Only by finding ways to coax them can you achieve what you want." . It was a headache, but Richard and Karen were very nice and there was no problem communicating with them at all.”

"Yeah, maybe it's because they are very smart." Alex said with a smile.

"Yes, they are very smart. Sometimes, they can think of things that I didn't think of. It's amazing! There really are geniuses in this world. Well, yes! I watched that TV show, You three brothers and sisters are all geniuses."

Alex laughed and said nothing more. He also had a great chat with the film's leading actor, Robert Mitchum, whose transformation into a psychopathic priest was truly impressive.

Robert himself was a bit of a bad guy in real life. When he was a teenager, he dropped out of school and wandered around. In 1949, he was briefly imprisoned for smoking marijuana. It was perfect for this role.

According to Robert, this movie actually uses movie special effects. For example, the shot of the priest riding a horse in the distance is a fake perspective.

"At that time, we couldn't find a horse taller than one meter, so we could only ride a dwarf. After I rode on it, I found that it looked extremely awkward. It didn't meet Charles' requirements anyway, and finally someone suggested using a simple horse. Special effects solved.”

"Haha, right! It sounds quite interesting." Alex laughed.

Robert also thought he looked funny at that time. He added: "When I was interviewing, I was interviewing with a large group of people. There seemed to be more than ten people interviewing for this role, but Charles didn't come to interview one by one. He asked We explained that the pastor was a bad guy. I immediately responded and said, Hey, there's one ready right here!"

"Then he must be angry, actually interrupting when he was talking."

"No! He was very happy instead. He pointed at me and said, Hey, bad boy, come out and let me see how bad you are. Then I got this role, haha!"

Charles seems to like Alex quite a lot. As long as he comes to the set, Charles will always find time to chat with him, no matter how busy the filming work is.

At first, Alex thought that Charles wanted to use this method to show his favor. After all, he controlled a film company. Whether he was a director or an actor, Charles had motives. But after a while, Charles never took the initiative to talk about this matter, and Alex felt strange, but since the other party didn't mention it, he couldn't ask.

It's just that he always felt that Charles was so enthusiastic, a bit too courteous for nothing, and seemed to be either a traitor or a thief.

Sometimes, he really wants to use a spiritual puppet to probe the other person's thoughts, but it's too artificial, just think about it.

The film was shot quickly, the editing was not complicated, and it was released quickly. This is a major feature of independent production, which is small investment and short cycle. Under the joint operation of Midland Pictures and DreamWorks, "The Night of the Hunter" was quickly released in the United States.

Prior to its release, Alex was invited to an internal preview screening. After watching it, he felt that the quality of the movie was much better than he imagined.

"What do you think of this film? Will it be a big hit?" asked the person in charge of Midland Film Company.

Charles felt that the person in charge's question was an insult to himself, so he replied angrily: "I have spent so much effort on this film. Of course I think this film will definitely be popular. If it fails at the box office, I will try again." I won’t make movies anymore.”

Others had mixed opinions. Some were optimistic about the film, while others thought the style was too personal and the audience might not buy it.

Alex thought for a while, and he wasn't sure whether this movie would be popular. However, he felt that it was quite meaningful, as it was a film directed by the veteran actor Charles. The first film could have been shot so well.

The film is filled with various symbols, and contradictions are everywhere in the characters and the storyline. The director intends to use simple narrative techniques to cause the audience to think about the true meaning of the film.

The priest appears as a perverted murderer, the father appears as a criminal, the women appear as ignorant and weak, the friends appear as unreliable, and the public appears as blind obedience. In an era of economic depression and collapse of faith, fortunately, an angelic old lady was arranged to save a touch of brightness.

The priest suppressed his sexual desire and refused to consummate the bride even on the wedding night, which distorted his thinking. His dagger was a symbol of fertility worship.

He spelled the word "hate" on the fingers of his left hand and the word "love" on the fingers of his right hand. Later, it became a fashion trend among young people. Many people imitated the movie priests and spelled the letters "love and hate" on their fingers.

Although this is a very good film, although Charles has great confidence in himself. However, the cruelty of reality still dealt him a heavy blow. After the film was released, it received rave reviews and failed miserably at the box office.

Faced with such a tragic situation, Charles kept his promise and never directed any movies again.

Midland Film Company was also greatly disappointed with the failure of this investment. This film was originally owned by the two companies. However, in order to recoup the losses, the head of Midland Film Company approached Morris and offered to sell the rights to the film.

"In terms of price, we don't have high requirements, as long as we can recoup our costs. As you know, the film industry is in recession now, and many film companies have funding problems. So we..."

Regarding this movie, Morris went to see it when it was released and thought it was an excellent movie. It's a pity that the market doesn't buy it, and people are not very accepting of this kind of movie.

He thought for a while and still felt that it was worth buying, but he asked Alex about this matter.

After Alex received the call, he replied without hesitation: "Buy it!"

DreamWorks got all the rights to the film and the film used to shoot it, for which they paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, after getting the film, Alex happily re-edited the film, changed the name and released it again.

The name of the new movie is "The Nightmare". While the main plot remains unchanged, Alex has readjusted the rhythm of the movie's story and added some relaxing clips to relieve the audience's depressed emotions.

This film, which was re-released a year later, unexpectedly gained great popularity and triggered a movie-going craze.

When DreamWorks promoted it, they focused on the Carpenter brothers and sisters, and their strong popularity attracted many viewers to the theater. Coupled with Alex's clever editing and just the right plot rhythm, the audience was relaxed and nervous while watching. UU Reading www.uukanshu. net continues until the end. Everyone felt very satisfied when they saw the perverted priest hanged in the finale.

A high-quality movie, coupled with good publicity, strong popularity, and good reputation, the result is a miracle.

This film is hailed as the greatest American work of the 1950s. Even if those critics thought that the new version was indistinguishable from the old version, reality gave these ridiculous critics a loud slap in the face.

At this time, the newspapers that had criticized "The Night of the Hunter" a year ago had reversed their attitude and sang praises for the film.

Chicago Sun-Times: “Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter is one of the great American films, but it doesn’t get the attention it deserves because of a lack of proper packaging.”

Visual Weekly: ""The Night of the Hunter" reveals the truest and purest evil in the world."

San Francisco Chronicle: "'The Night of the Hunter,' a Horrible Fable."

International Film Magazine: "If you are too young when you watch The Night of the Hunter, you may have nightmares for the rest of your life."

The New York Times: “Alex transformed something from decay into magic, making a movie that audiences couldn’t understand once again be accepted.”

Empire Magazine ranked it 71st on the 500 Greatest Movies, and it is collected by the National Film Registry in the Library of Congress.

Before this film, some people suspected that Alex asked Morris to shoot "The Sound of Music". Since the success of this film, no one has said such doubts anymore.