Just like John Garfield, Robert Mitchum is considered one of the kings of film noir with its dark themed subject. Even in life, Mitchum and Garfield got had a brush with the law - Garfield for links with the Communist movement during the McCarthy era which cost him his livelihood and probably premature death fro m ischaemic heart disease; Mitchum with charge of assault for which he was incarcerated.
Robert Mitchum has that God given good looks at the same time looking mean with a dark past! Here, he acts as a preacher, Harry Powell, with a deviant understanding of the religion who doubles as a serial killer and goes after rich widows.
After his last duty from God (of killing yet another widow - he lost count), he is arrested for possession of a stolen car. He is found guilty and is jaiiled.
Ben Harper (Peter Graves, of Mission Impossible fame) is his cell mate. He is a condemned prisoner who had murdered two men and had hidden his stash of cash under the vowed silence of his kids in his daughter's rag doll. He kept his silence until the electric chair.
Harry earlier overheard Ben mumbling in his sleep something about his loot. Sensing that Ben's son John knows about the whereabouts of the money, Harry courts his widow Willa (Shelly Winters) after his release. They marry and Willa falls prey to his religious mumbo-jumbo.
Harry tries various ways to find out the hiding place of the money from Willa and the kids.
One day Willa overheard Harry beating her daughter to get the truth. Both children, however, stay steadfast to the promise they made with their biological father.
Quite a gripping movie with excellent acting from Mitchum as a bad dude. Somehow, he was more menacing as Max Cady in the 1962 Cape Fear.
Even though many of the shots were done in studio, they were many outdoor shoots along the River Ohio. The speech is quite different referring to the way it must be spoken along the Bible Belt states. There are a lot of Biblical references spoken in a sing song way like these...
Reverend Harry Powell, travelling to a new town, talking to himself...
' "Well, now. What’s it to be, Lord, another widow? How many’s it been, six? Twelve? I disremember. Lord, I am tired. Sometimes I wonder if You really understand. Not that You mind the killings.'Harry, on his wedding night, refusing to consummate with his sexually deprived bride..
"But then the evil shows through, building in a speech which ends on a note of lip-curling, disgusted viciousness:
‘But there are things You do hate, Lord: perfume-smelling things - lacy things - things with curly hair.’ "
' "What do you see, girl? You see the body of a woman. The temple of creation and motherhood. You see the flesh of Eve that Man since Adam has profaned. That body was meant for begetting children. It was not meant for the lust of men.’ "
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