The Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb

 

Reviewed by Christy

            I saw the 1955 Robert Mitchum film The Night of the Hunter many years ago. I loved it so much that I immediately bought the DVD as well as the 1953 novel it was based on. I put it on my bookshelf, and there it sat year after year, collecting dust. Recently, however, one of the podcasts I listen to just so happened to do an episode on the movie. Unspooled originally started as a podcast where the two co-hosts would watch every movie on the American Film Institute's top 100 films, and discuss whether it deserved to be there. Now that they've finished the list, they've moved on to other movies: classics, blockbusters, foreign films, underappreciated gems, etc. I love hearing behind-the-scenes tidbits about the movies, and I always come away with a new understanding on how the movie could be perceived (whether I agree with that perception or not, it's still fun).

            The episode was the push I needed to finally pick up the book, and I’m so glad I did. It kind of took me by surprise how much I ended up loving it. It was very slow and methodical, and I’ll admit early on I struggled to return to it. However, when it picked up the pace it started to read like a modern-day page-turner. Having seen the movie, I knew what happened, and I still found myself holding my breath at certain parts.

            It’s the Great Depression, and Ben is desperate for money. He robs a bank, and is arrested shortly after. Before the “blue men” take him away, he hides the money and makes his young son John promise to never, ever tell anyone where it is. Not even his mother. Ben’s cellmate knows about the money, however, and he will do anything to get it.

            Grubb’s prose is beautiful and touching when you least expect it. I found myself re-reading sentences throughout just because they were so lovely. My favorite section of the book is the last fourth, when a new character is introduced: Rachel Cooper. Rachel’s story-within-the-story is sudden (and heartbreaking) but she is written with such tenderness and depth, that it doesn’t feel particularly jarring to jump into her life with so little of the book left. I loved her immediately.

            I’m very excited to re-visit the movie but I’m so glad I finally read the book. The ending is much more warm and hopeful which, to be honest, I definitely needed after the bleakness of the novel.