The Night of the Hunter is an American Southern Gothic horror-thriller film starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, and Lillian Gish. It premiered July 26, 1955, in Des Moines, Iowa, to negative reviews. It is Charles Laughton’s only directorial feature. Over the years, the film has been reevaluated positively and is considered one of the greatest films ever made and a defining work of the Southern Gothic genre.
