Aero Theatre Presents: Double Feature The Night of the Hunter & Crossfire

Double Feature: THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, 1955, Park Circus/MGM, 93 min. Dir. Charles Laughton. Robert Mitchum is astonishing as a sociopathic wandering preacher who uses his fire-and-brimstone fundamentalism to mask his schemes to blithely rob and murder gullible yokels – and puritanical Shelley Winters, left alone with her son and daughter and a stash of cleverly hidden loot, is a perfect target. Lillian Gish is rock-solid as the elderly matron who shelters the children when they flee from the homicidal Mitchum. Charles Laughton’s simultaneous debut and swan song as a film director.
CROSSFIRE, 1947, Warner Bros., 86 min. Dir. Edward Dmytryk. Robert Mitchum, Robert Young and Robert Ryan lead the cast in this noir-tinged drama, among the first Hollywood films to confront anti-Semitism. When a Jewish man is murdered, a homicide detective (Young) focuses on a group of former soldiers, while an Army sergeant (Mitchum) conducts a parallel investigation to clear his friend of the crime. Costarring Gloria Grahame, CROSSFIRE earned Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director.