The Hunted

Much has changed in the way that story lines are delivered. The movie ends in a bittersweet note, life has its challenges and there are scarifices to be made but the adopted family of Lilian Gish is just about to have their Xmas dinner. Although the film no longer has the luster it did when film noir was at its peak, this metaphoric language coming at the end of the film tells me what adopted mother mother knew about her latest orphans, they ran away from home, but they were chased by psycopathic killer dressesd up as a priest and played by Robert Mitchum.

Mitchum would revel in his story between good and bad especially when he needed a favor from the townsfolk in getting closer to the family where a certain amount of money lay hidden. The character weas no preacher, he was after the money left behind by a crook played by the late Peter Graves who later appeared in the Mission Impossible series.

Graves told Mitchum about the money before his hanging and that was what drove the fake preacher to Grave’s homestead where he found his widow and two children. He also made a point of wanting to convince the widow that she had to devest herself of holding on to any worldly wealth. On one hand he had the word love penned out in dark ink over his knuckles and on the other, the word hate was inscribed and he made it his business to show them off as though he were a reincarnation of the success that love had over evil.

The children promised never to tell where the money lay, but the truth came out eventually and the preacher knew although he did not come out with those words. He unlovingly antagonized the children,  pretending to be their guidance when he came back to general store after the disappearance of the widow, played by Shelley Winters. She knew that he had ‘joined’ her in matrimony because of the money and that addmission cost her, her life. Here the metaphoric language between the forces of good and evil shot out as Mitchum raised his left hand over his head as though evil would triumph that night.

The two children later fled once they managed to lock the preacher in their cellar. They jumped on a skid and headed down river. Here the plot lightened as the camera focused on the fauna they came acoss when the audience knew that they were being hunted. They stopped by a barn and the camera then focused out of the window and onto a prarie silhoette just as Mitchum was slowly passing by in the night. Then they knew that they could not rest, their assailant was relentless.

He followed them to Lilian’s home where she later confronted him and his story of love and hate. One could understand that although she played a severe guardian, she meant well and would lovingly keep her flock safe from the villain.