Heaven & Hell To Play with- The Filming Of Night Of The Hunter
Written by Joe D on April 6th, 2008
All you would be directors out there, listen up! Check out Heaven & Hell To Play with- The Filming Of Night Of The Hunter. It’s a great book by Preston Neal Jones, written after years of painstaking research. It documents the creation of Charles Laughton’s only directorial effort. ( In Motion Pictures) through the voices of all the major players and through watching the recently unearthed outtakes at UCLA’s film preservation department with Robert Gitt. Let me say here and now that I love this movie. I grew up watching it on television and it was very influential to me. So if you haven’t seen it, go rent it now! Then read this book, it is not only inspirational, it also shows in great detail what goes into directing a film! What’s important! Laughton, a great actor and a great communicator got so much from his cast and crew by his way of working with them. He surrounded himself with talented people and inspired them to do ( in many cases) their greatest work. That’s a director’s primary job! Hats off to Mr. Jones for this great work, a real service to the Film Community. Also I’m looking forward to watching Mr. Gitt’s documentary on Night Of The Hunter made from the aforementioned outtakes.
Mexican Lobby Card from the Original Release, part of My Collection of Cool Film Stuff