American Cinematographer - March 2003 - 111

motion

pictures &
television
by Ray Zone
Abbott and Costello Meet

Captain Kidd.
Night of the Hunter is famous
for its stunning black-and-white photog¬
raphy. However, Cortez felt it should have
been filmed in color. "I don't know why

& HELL

HEAVEN

The

TO PLAY WITH
f

The

:

-

Night of the Hunter

we

didn't

"even

use

Acting
Cinematography

Directing

color," he tells Jones,

though the picture

was

done in

Documentary

1954." Instead, Cortez used Tri-X, a

Music Videos

black-and-white Kodak film that had
been released. "The
X

the film

of the Hunter

...

by Preston Neal Jones
Limelight Editions

There

saw

The

Night of the Hunter"when he was young
and impressionable," and he still loves
the film. To create this in-depth look at
the making of the picture, he interviewed
many of the principals involved, including
Davis Grubb, the author of the novel on

based, stars Robert
Mitchum and Lillian Gish, art director
was

Hilyard Brown and cinematographer
Stanley Cortez, ASC.
Cortez's observations make this
book of

particular interest to cinematog¬
raphers. Jones interviewed the veteran
cameraman at length at the ASC Club¬
house in Hollywood, and the latter's
recollections about the creation of this
landmark film make for highly compelling

reading.
Cortez first met Charles Laughton,
director of The

Night of the Hunter, in
1949, when Laughton directed many
sequences for The Man on the Eiffel

a

Schumann, to the set

rare

so

synergy

color Ansco Color film stock. Cortez
worked with

Laughton again in 1952,

on

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that he could

off

artistically, but not at the box office.
Night of the Hunter bombed with
audiences, but today is recognized as a
masterpiece. It has been selected for the
National Film Registry at the Library of
Congress as one of the most important
The

films

ever

made.

Even

though he had worked with
great directors such as D.W. Griffith and
Laughton was his finest. "Photographing
The Night of the Hunter and the relation¬
ship I had with Laughton was the most

on

AA

more...

sequence musically.
Such collaborative invention paid

by Cortez with the then-new three-

filmed

and

interpret the visual

Orson Welles, Cortez felt his work with

was

Special Effects
Sound

of
creative impulses during the filming of
The Night of the Hunter. Cortez discusses
one instance when he was lighting a
particularly ominous scene in which
Mitchum's sociopathic preacher is plot¬
ting a murder. "Cortez, what in hell are
you thinking about?" inquired Laughton.
"Charles, if you really must know, I'm
thinking about a piece of music," replied
Cortez. The particular piece was lfalse
Triste by Jean Sibelius, and Laughton
found it so fitting that he immediately
summoned the film's composer, Walter
was

location in

Tower, which

Screenwriting

believer in black."

399 pp., $18.95
ISBN 0-87910-974-2
Preston Jones first

Producing

we were

using," he says. "I wanted those
deep blacks because I felt that it would
give me an added dramatic punch
when a sequence called for it. I'm a firm

Play With:
The Filming of The Night

Paris

on

used to

Heaven & Hell to

which the film

faster than

was

just
sensitivity on the Tri-

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American Cinematographer - March 2003

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - March 2003
