''The Night of the Hunter'' is a

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yug ...

thriller novel Thriller is a genre of fiction, having numerous, often overlapping subgenres. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. S ...

by American author

Davis Grubb Davis Alexander Grubb (July 23, 1919 – July 24, 1980) was an American novelist and short story writer, best known for his 1953 novel '' The Night of the Hunter'', which was adapted as a film in 1955 by Charles Laughton. Biography Born in M ...

. The book was a national bestseller and a finalist for the 1955

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

Story line and development

Murderous ex-convict Harry Powell misrepresents himself as a prison chaplain upon his release from prison. Acting on a story told to him by his now-dead cellmate, "Reverend" Powell cons the cellmate's widow, Willa Harper, into marrying him in hopes that her children will tell him where their father hid the money from his last robbery. After killing their mother, he embarks on a hunt for the children, who have sensed his evil and are running from him. Grubb explores the presentation of the American South during the Great Depression. He uses tropes of the

Southern Gothic Southern Gothic is an artistic subgenre of fiction, country music, film and television that are heavily influenced by Gothic elements and the American South. Common themes of Southern Gothic include storytelling of deeply flawed, disturbing or ...

genre to explore issues such as social corruption and instability.

Inspiration

The plot was based on the true story of Harry Powers, who was hanged in 1932 for the murders of two widows and three children in Quiet Dell, West Virginia.

Editions

Harper Brothers Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...

, 1953. * Dell Publishing, 1955. #D149. * Dell Publishing, 1963. #6386. * Penguin Books, 1977. * Simon & Schuster, 1988. * Lightyear Press, 1993. * Blackmask.com, 2005.

Screen and stage adaptations

In 1955, the book was adapted by Charles Laughton and James Agee as the film '' The Night of the Hunter.'' The film version has earned ranks in numerous movie lists and was added to the

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...

in 1992. Despite its critical success, ''The Night of the Hunter'' remained the only film ever directed by Laughton. Lyricist-librettist Stephen Cole and composer Claibe Richardson started working on a musical adaptation sometime in the late 1990s, releasing a concept album in 1998 through the Fynsworth Alley label. Cole wrote preliminary forms of the book and lyrics, which earned him the 2000 Kleban Award for Most Promising Librettist, while Richardson composed a score. After going through a workshop revision phase, the show was premiered at the Willow's Theatre in

Concord, California Concord ( ) is the largest city in Contra Costa County, California. According to an estimate completed by the United States Census Bureau, the city had a population of 129,295 in 2019 making it the eighth largest city in the San Francisco Bay ...

, on September 24, 2004. It was directed and produced by

John Bowab John Bowab (born October 22, 1933) is an American director and producer of television and theatre. Career Bowab began his career in theatre, directing a number of stage productions, such as ''Mame'' (1983), '' The Night of the Hunter'' (2003), ...

, and starred Brian Noonan (from the original workshop cast) as Harry Powell and Lynne Wintersteller as Willa. The show received mixed reviews, but received four awards from the Bay Area Critics Circle. The show moved on to the

New York Musical Theatre Festival The New York Musical Festival (NYMF) was an annual three-week summer festival that operated from 2004 to 2019. It presented more than 30 new musicals a year in New York City's midtown theater district. More than half were chosen by leading theate ...

in 2006, the last performance being on October 1. The cast included Brian Noonan,

Carly Rose Sonenclar Carly Rose Sonenclar (born April 20, 1999), who performs under the name Carly Rose, is an American singer, songwriter and an actress. In December 2012, she became the runner-up on the second season of ''The X Factor''. Early and personal life ...

Dee Hoty Dee Hoty (born August 16, 1952) is an American actress known for her work in musical theatre. Over the course of her career, she has appeared in numerous Broadway productions and earned three Tony Award nominations for Best Actress in a Musical, ...

as Willa,

Beth Fowler Beth Fowler is an American actress and singer, best known for her performances on Broadway and for her role as Sister Ingalls, on ''Orange Is the New Black''. She is a two-time Tony Award nominee. Life and career Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, ...

as Rachel Cooper, and others, some of whom were in the original workshops.

References

Bibliography

* ''Heaven & Hell to Play With: The Filming of 'The Night of the Hunter by Preston Neal Jones. New York: Limelight Editions, 2002. In this well-detailed behind-the-scenes look at the film, Jones interviewed many of the principals, including

, producer Paul Gregory, cinematographer Stanley Cortez, art director Hilyard Brown, and actors

Robert Mitchum Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for ''The Story of G.I. Joe'' (1945), followed by his starring in ...

Don Beddoe Donald Theophilus Beddoe (July 1, 1903 – January 19, 1991) was an American character actor. Early years Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Beddoe was the son of Dan Beddoe, a Welsh classical singer, and his wife Mary. He graduated from the ...