Wednesday 3rd April 2002 - Betws Y Coed Memorial Hall
Night of the Hunter
Director: Charles Laughton 1955, 93 min, US

'Night of the Hunter' is the one and only film directed by Charles Laughton. Although now considered to be one of the greatest of all American films it was a box office failure in its time, and received poor reviews. Laughton was so disappointed that he never directed again. The screenplay, a faithful translation of Davis Grubb's novel, is written by one of the icons of American film writing and criticism James Agee. It was the last screenplay for Agee. He died of a heart attack in May 1955, just three months after the film's release.
This is a compelling melodrama in the form of a cautionary tale warning children of the fruits of evil. Set in the barren Mid West the preacher Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) is on the hunt for $10,000 the ill gotten gains of his cellmate Ben Harper (Peter Graves). Powell is a drifter who has 'had 25 wives and murdered every one of 'em'. When Powell starts lying about the whereabouts of Mrs Powell the tension begins to mount.
PREACHER (Robert Mitchum): 'Lord, you sure knew what you was doing when you brung me to this very cell at this very time. A man with ten thousand dollars hid somewhere, and a widder in the makin'.'

"One of the most daring, eloquent and personal films to have come from America" Derek Prouse

"A genuinely sinister work, full of shocks and over-emphatic sound effects, camera angles and shadowy lighting" NFT 1973

Bubblegum
Director: Peter Strickland 1996, 15 min, US/UK


An ageing groupie has a chance encounter with a low life fraud disguised as her favorite rock star in a New York toilet.
Starring Holly Woodlawn (Andy Warhol's 'Trash' + 'Women in Revolt') and Nick Zedd ('Police State', 'The Wild World of Lydia Lunch').

Compere: Bedwyr Williams