Awesome lone directorial effort by the great Laughton.

Heart-pounding. Mitchum's spine-tingling performance is one of the greatest performances ever.

One of those movies that if I had seen as a child it would have terrified me to no end, and having seen it now, it just sits eerily in the back of my mind. It is truly a perfect thriller.

It is too bad that Chas never got to direct again. This is one of America's great films.....told as a fairytale "once upon a time" style. I saw it on late night T.V. in the 60's and have seen it many time since, (big time screen and T.V.) and it never gets old. One of Mitchum's best and unusual turns. There is nothing mediocre about this film at all. Doesn't get any better than this!

Pretty much as brilliant as movies get. Mitchum plays the serial killer preacher(his favorite role he said) with absolutely no morals(except get money). The scene on the porch at night is probably THE most brilliant movie scene in history. Good acting, good story, good movie. this is film making at it's very best. A suspenseful masterpiece. there are moments where i am actually worried that he would catch the kids. An excellent film. I particularly like how he would fool his victims and their friends. He has more or less memorized the basics of Christianity and he uses that for his own ends. He is so evil that you like him a lot. also I like how this was Laughton's first attempt at directing. It was his first time and he came up with this. the only other time that I have seen that is with Citizen Kane. A masterpiece that will never fade into the ages. It has and will continue to stand the test of time.… Expand

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One of cinema's miracles.
This movie put in me in a trance mid-way. It just sucks you in. The plot, directing, acting, casting, character development. I could go on and on. A most classic of classic movies. Might not be for every person in the world, but, to me, this movie is just as important to cinema as The Wizard of Oz or 2001: A Space Odyssey. Right up there with them.

Robert Mitchum gives a blistering and bone-chilling performance as a psychotic preacher, but the twist of the film as a whole, is that the movie isn't even about him. It's about two children, forever plagued by the sins of the father.

Mitchum's performance is excellent, although the rest of the cast is a bit mediocre. The river boat night sequence, however, is absolutely beautiful!!!

This is a very odd, mannered film which takes highly-stylized stage-like settings and turns them into an eerie montage of a sinister but familiar upcountry banality moved by the singular obsession of a mad preacher man searching for his stepchildren - who have their murdered mother's money hidden in a doll. Mitchum is superb and looney. A moody film with unexpected riches.

Great movie. A lot of tension in it. Very good acting. The plot is a little bad regarding the money: it's the link that put all the movie in one piece but in the end it is not mentioned what happened with the money; did the police took the money or did John keep them?

It would rate as a classic thriller but for the schmaltzy final 15 minutes.