Metascore

Universal acclaim - based on 6 Critics What's this?

User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 53 Ratings

  • Starring: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters
  • Summary: In this re-release of 1955's eerie meditation on good and evil, a demented preacher (Mitchum) relentlessly torments two small children in the Depression-era Bible Belt in order to get at their dead father's stolen fortune.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 6
  2. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. This is the only film Laughton ever directed, and he packed it with a mixture of eerie chills, ingenious suspense, and absurdist humor. It's a genuine classic.
  2. 100
    One of the greatest of all American films, but has never received the attention it deserves because of its lack of the proper trappings. Many "great movies'' are by great directors, but Laughton directed only this one film, which was a critical and commercial failure long overshadowed by his acting career.
  3. Part fairy tale and part bogeyman thriller -- a juicy allegory of evil, greed and innocence, told with an eerie visual poetry.
  4. Reviewed by: Staff (Not Credited)
    60
    This start for Gregory as producer and Laughton as director is rich in promise but the completed product, bewitching at times, loses sustained drive via too many offbeat touches that have a misty effect.

See all 6 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 14
  3. Negative: 1 out of 14
  1. 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 d
    evelopment. 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. Expand
  2. 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. Expand
  3. 8
    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? Expand
  4. DHE
    2
    Overall, this movie is a mess. It was badly acted, badly directed, and the plotting was plodding. Suspenseful? Give me a break. The child actors were especially annoying and the extras were just plain silly. I like classics, so it's not just that it's an old movie. This could easily be the worst movie I ever watched all the way through. I would give it a zero except for some interesting camera work (for which Laughton may or may not deserve credit). Expand

See all 14 User Reviews

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