Harry Powell

hello everybody welcome back to the golden hour film podcast yes we are finally covering the night of the hunter we have talked about covering this film since we first started over two years ago now and when i say we i'm referring to both not both myself and shane that's weird i'm not schizophrenic but i am referring to shane my co-host not guest us shane how are you

I am very excited for this episode like I said it's been a long time in the making I think every time we've thought about covering it we've decided against it or there have been maybe other movies that would fit a particular maybe genre more so we've decided against it but yeah we're here now and yeah Preacher Harry Powell is one of cinema's great villains that's just a fact

Absolute Alzheimer.

Love on one hand, hate on the other.

But yeah, it's just...

I think there's like a dreamlike quality to this film, but then it's also like it's on the edge and it becomes, it slips right into nightmare on multiple occasions.

But I think it just deals with kind of the cult of personality in such an interesting way because he's such a charismatic character, Preacher Harry Powell.

And Mitchum's performance is so iconic that, yeah, it's...

Let's start with a 1955 classic, The Night of the Hunter.

This is based on the novel by Davis Grubb, and it features a serial killer named Harry Powell, played by Robert Mitchum.

Such a menacing performance.

So menacing.

but he's knowing he wants more and more and more so eventually he has to give the names of the people involved in this bank robber gang and then they become aware of the fact that he's passed information on because there's another character in it as well he plays the character of Dylan he also is working for Foley as well as an informant you know he's passed information on and he ends up putting a hit out on Robert Mitchum's character of Eddie Coyle and eventually has him has him killed Another interesting fact about it, too, is in the, you know, in the film as well, he's referred to as Eddie Fingers because his fingers were all bust up because he was previously tortured by some gangsters and his fingers were bust.

And that kind of makes reference back as well to the character of Harry Powell in a famous film.

He was in Night of the Hunter, you know, Robert Mitchum was in.

And if you ever remember seeing that film.

And there's the, the preacher is the, the big-time villain.

Harry Powell, the preacher? Yeah.

Yes.

So he's in the prison cell with him, and he's kinda needling him and trying to get the info out of him about where the money is.

Yeah

... literature.

So he's this outsider, Harry Powell, who arrives and is able to kind of swindle and charm all the adults, but not the children.

Right.

The only thing standing in his way? her two young children.

The preacher's name in the book was Harry Powell.

Not exactly subtle.

And that book became the source material for a new kind of movie, one that audiences were not prepared for in 1955.