"A masterpiece visually and in so many ways, but also a tragedy as Charles Laughton only directed this one film. Robert Mitchum is so rivetingly magnetic."

"The first one I’m going to go with is a Robert Mitchum film called Out of the Past. Classic noir. You’ve got to see it. It’s cool as s—."

"Robert Mitchum is one of my favorites, and I’ve had the pleasure of working with and becoming a friend of Peter Yates. Both were in top form with this one."

"Let’s see, what other movies do I like… Night of the Hunter. It’s a great movie, with Robert Mitchum doing that kind of creepy voice [mumbles]. I really love that movie."

"A very theatrical construct of noir. Black humor, nursery rhymes, expressionist lighting, a zoological boat ride, Shelly Winters underwater, and Robert Mitchum cackling when getting shot. I can hear Charles Laughton chuckling in every scene. Best use of frightening artifice. If Mitchum only acted in one movie, if Gish only appeared in one movie, they should be proud for this to be the one. As it is, Laughton only directed one."

"I also love — another Robert Mitchum movie — Out of the Past, which I think is kind of neck and neck with another fantastic film noir, Double Indemnity. Double Indemnity is amazing; Out of the Past is another one, but I think it ranks up there."

"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 brilliant introduction (and also swan song) as a film director, which is a terrible loss for all of us. He fearlessly plunges us into impressionism and surrealism, where few in Hollywood have ever ventured. One can only imagine where he would have gone if he’d continued to direct. With a never-better Robert Mitchum, and a drowned Shelley Winters, yet again."

"When I first came to town, in 1989, I was hired to work on a sitcom starring Robert Mitchum. Yes, really. And at the first writers’ meeting, I mentioned to the more senior staff members that I was kind of excited to meet him. Well, most of the other writers had never seen Mitchum in anything, so I invited them over to watch a video of The Night of the Hunter, arguably one of the great pieces of art in movie history. It’s somewhat surreal and heightened and theatrical, and they laughed at it. I knew then I was in a world of trouble. It’s the only movie directed by Charles Laughton and one of the only screenplays written by James Agee. Mitchum is an evil “religious” fraud, and Lillian Gish is the embodiment of good. The movie scares you, then makes you cry at how beautiful it is. The sitcom was cancelled after seven episodes."