The movie is 1955’s The Night of the Hunter, an extraordinary collision of horror, Southern Gothic story, suspense thriller, and dreamlike fable. The actor who directed it is Charles Laughton, a stoop-shouldered, round-faced English performer, who hit a peak of fame in Hollywood in the 1930s with roles like Henry VIII in The Private Life of Henry VIII, Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty, and Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
