Night of the Hunter

Actors: Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason, Evelyn Varden, Peter Graves, Don Beddoe, Gloria Castillo, Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce

Rating: 8 out of 10, Mitchum plays against type as a homicidal bible thumper in Appalachia during the depression. He is so cooly evil that he’s genuinely scary. The film itself is incredible as the staging of some of the scenes grabs the eye. Mitchum is hunting for money hidden by a soon to die father with his two children. Mitchum slimily inserts himself into their mother’s life and the killing begins. Gish is particularly effective as the counterpoint to Mitchum’s pervasive evil. A great watch.

MVP: Mitchem as the deranged Harry Powell

It Came From Beneath the Sea

Actors:  Kenneth Tobey, Faith Domerge, Donald Curtis, Ian Keith, Dean Maddox Jr.   
Rating: 7 out of 10, those dastardly Pacific Ocean hydrogen bomb tests create yet another monster in this black and white Harryhousen classic.  In this case it’s a huge octopus (with only six legs if you look closely).  This is the slowest moving monster in cinema history so it’s lucky the victims stop and scream long enough to be eaten or the poor thing would have starved to death before it could take down the Golden Gate bridge.  Pure 1950’s schlock, I loved it.
MVP:  Tobey as the horny sub commander in hot pursuit of Domerge and the monster that tried to eat his sub