"Another brilliant adaptation, this time of a Davis Grubb novel (a bestseller). It’s a gothic fairytale of childhood, full of shadows and silhouettes and countless images that linger in your head forever after. I first saw this as a kid, and the stupendously terrifying Robert Mitchum (as a murderous “man of god”) still hasn’t left my haunted unconscious."
"Charles Laughton’s only film as director, scripted by James Agee from the book by Davis Grubb. It’s a fairy-tale version of a crime-suspense drama, as two children are pursued through a magical, haunted landscape by a demented yet canny preacher (Robert Mitchum). There’s a grown-up story about a stash of stolen money, but Laughton’s masterstroke is to ignore that and present the human monster from the children’s point of view, as a remorseless bogeyman."
