Charles' "Hunter's Night" was filmed quickly, there were no special effects that were difficult to shoot, and there were no particularly difficult scenes to shoot. After the outdoor footage was filmed, the rest of the film was shot on an indoor set.

The actors' performances in this movie still fail to get rid of the strong stage style, and both the lines and the storyline seem very straightforward. However, to the surprise of Charles and others, the pair of siblings played by the Carpenter siblings seemed much more natural and vivid.

It's not the first time Richard and Cullen have performed, and they're experienced actors. Richard, in particular, filmed The Little Fugitives in addition to The Sound of Music. Strictly speaking, he is also the protagonist of the movie "The Little Fugitive".

The brother and sister characters in films like "Hunter's Night" can't be difficult for them. In the play, Cullen also showed his singing voice. In this clip, Charles was originally planning to find someone to dub it. Unexpectedly, Cullen's singing effect was even better than he thought.

During the filming, Alex visited the set several times, and he wanted to see how his younger siblings would behave during other people's films. The Carpenter also took time out to see their children, and they also hired a number of people to take care of the Carpenter siblings.

From Charles's mouth, Alex realized that this script was not like this.

The original script was written by James Agee, but he was unhappy with the script. So he paid the money, let Edge roll up and leave, and then rewrote the script himself.

Charles used to dislike filming children's scenes, he explained: "Because children always can't understand your words, they will cry and make a fuss if they scold a few words, and only by finding a way to coax them can they achieve their desired goals." It was a headache, but Richard and Cullen were fine enough to communicate with them without any obstacles. ”

"yes, maybe it's because they're smart." Alex said with a smile.

"Yes, they are very smart. Sometimes, they can think of things that I didn't think of. What a surprise! There really is a genius in this world. Well, yes! I've watched that TV show, and all three of you siblings are geniuses. ”

Alex listened to Ha Lu Ha Da Lang laugh and didn't say anything more. He also had a good chat with the film's male lead, Robert Mitchum, and this guy is really expressive about the evolution of the priest.

Robert himself is a bit bad in real life, he abandoned school as a teenager and wandered around, and in 1949 he was briefly imprisoned for smoking marijuana, which is just the right role.

According to Robert, the film actually uses special effects from the film, such as the shot of the priest riding a horse in the distance.

"At that time, we couldn't find a horse that was more than a meter tall, so we had to ride a short **. When I rode it, I found it looked awkward. No matter how you look at it, it doesn't meet Charles's requirements, and finally someone proposes to solve it with a simple special effect. ”

"Ha Lu Ha, yes! Sounds like a lot of fun. Alex laughed.

Robert also thought it was funny to look at the time, and he added: "When I interviewed, I interviewed with a large group of people. At that time, it seemed that there were more than a dozen people who wanted to interview for this role, and Charles did not meet one by one. He explained to us that pastors are a bad breed. I immediately replied to him, hey, there's a ready-made one here! ”

"Then he was so angry that he interrupted him while he was talking."

"No, no! On the contrary, he was very happy, pointed at me and said, "Hey, you come out, bad seed, let me see what bad has become." He then I got the role, haha! ”

Charles seems to like Alex a lot, and whenever he comes to the set, Charles will always find time to talk to him, no matter how busy the filming is.

At first, Alex thought that Charles wanted to show favor to him through this means, after all, he had a film company in his hands, whether he was a director or an actor, Charles was motivated. But after a while, he never saw Charles take the initiative to talk about this matter, and Alex felt strange, but the other party didn't mention it, and he couldn't ask.

It's just that he always feels that Charles is so enthusiastic, a bit of a casual and courteous, and he looks like a traitor or a thief.

Sometimes, he really wants to use spirit puppets to probe the other party's thoughts, but this is too contrived, just think about it.

The film was shot quickly, the editing was not complicated, and it was ready for release in no time. This is one of the major characteristics of independent production, that is, the investment is small and the cycle is short. Under the joint operation of Midland Pictures and DreamWorks, "Hunter's Night" was soon released in the United States.

Prior to its release, Alex was invited to watch an internal test screening. After watching it, he felt that the quality of this movie was much better than he imagined.

"What do you think of this film, can it be a big hit?" The head of Midland Pictures asked.

Charles felt that the person in charge was insulting to himself by asking, so he replied angrily: "This film has cost me so much effort, and of course I think this film will definitely be a big hit." If it fails at the box office, I won't make any more films. ”

Others are gossiping, some are optimistic about this film, and some people feel that the style is too personal, and the audience may not buy it.

Alex thought about it, and he wasn't sure if the film would be popular. However, he thinks it is quite connotative, and it is not a film directed by the veteran actor Charles. The first film was also made so well.

The film is full of all kinds of symbols, contradictions are everywhere in the characters and the storyline, and the director intends to use a simple narrative technique to arouse the audience's thinking about the true meaning of the film.

The priest appears as a perverted murderer, the father appears as a criminal, the woman appears as ignorant and weak, the friend appears as unreliable, and the public appears as blind obedience. In an era of economic depression and the collapse of faith, fortunately, an angelic old lady was arranged to save a bright color.

The priest repressed his sexual desires and refused to have sex with the bride even on their wedding night, which distorted his thinking, and his dagger was a symbol of fertility worship.

He spelled the word "hate" on the fingers of his left hand and the word "love" on the fingers of his right. Later, it became a fashion trend among young people, and many people imitated the movie pastor and spelled the letters "love and hate" on their fingers.

Even though it's a good film, and even though Charles has a lot of confidence in himself. But the cruelty of reality still gave him a heavy blow, and after the film was released, there were a flood of bad reviews and a box office fiasco.

Faced with such a tragic situation, Charles kept his promise and never directed any more films.

Midland Pictures was also disappointed by the failure of this investment. The film was originally shared by the two companies, but in order to recover the loss, the head of Midland Pictures approached Morris and said that he wanted to sell the copyright of the film.

"In terms of price, we don't ask for a lot of money, as long as we can get back on our money. You also know that now that the film industry is in a recession, many film companies have financial problems. So we ......"

For this movie, Morris went to see it when it was released and thought it was an excellent movie. It's a pity that the market doesn't buy it, and people are not very accepting of this kind of movie.

He thought about it for a while, and still felt that there was value in buying it, but he asked Alex about it.

When Alex received the call, he replied without hesitation, "Buy it!" ”

DreamWorks got all the rights to the film and the film used to shoot it, for which they paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, after getting the film, Alex re-edited the film with great interest, changed the name and released it again.

The new movie is called "Foggy Night Terror", and with the main line unchanged, Alex has readjusted the pace of the film's story, and has installed some light-hearted scenes in it to ease the audience's depressed emotions.

The film, which was re-released a year later, was unexpectedly hugely popular and sparked a movie-watching boom.

When DreamWorks was promoting, it focused on the Carpenter siblings, and with their strong popularity, they attracted many audiences to the cinema. Coupled with Alex's ingenious editing and just the right rhythm of the plot, the audience was relaxed and nervous for a while when watching, and it lasted until the end. When seeing the perverted priest being hanged in the finale, everyone felt very enjoyable.

A movie of good quality, coupled with the publicity in place, strong popularity, and a good reputation, the result is a miracle.

This film has been hailed as the greatest work of the 50s of the 20th century in the United States. Even if those critics thought that the new version was indistinguishable from the old one, reality gave these ridiculous critics a resounding slap in the face.

At this time, the news newspapers that criticized "Hunter's Night" a year ago all reversed the attitude of 180 and sang praises to the film.

Chicago Sun-Times: "Charles Lawton's 'Hunter's Night' is one of the greatest American films, but, for lack of proper packaging, it didn't get the attention it deserved. ”

Visual Weekly: "Hunter's Night reveals the most real and pure evil in this world. ”

San Francisco Chronicle: "Night of the Hunters, a fable of horror. ”

International Film Magazine: "If you're too young when you watch Hunter's Night, you're probably going to have nightmares for the rest of your life." ”

The New York Times: "Alex turns decay into magic, and re-embraces a movie that audiences can't understand." ”

Empire Magazine ranked it 71st among the 500 Greatest Films and is in the Library of Congress by the National Film Registry.

Before this movie, there were also suspicions that "The Sound of Music" was asked by Alex to be made by Morris. Since the success of this film, no one has said anything like this.