When the film begins we — looking at the stars — are given a short introduction with the yet to be introduced character of Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish) speaking to the children. She says:
Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly, they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.
Immediately we cut to Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) driving down the road in a car talking to himself, or more specifically God asking him for what he shall send him next to keep him afloat so that he can preach the “good word”. It’s understood within those first few minutes that while Powell wears the clothes of a holy man he does not live the life of a holy man. Carrying those hands of LOVE and HATE he carries a different kind of religion with him and a different morality that we must fear.
John (Billy Chapin) and Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce) have been entrusted with the secret of where their father hid the $10,000 that he stole from the bank before being caught by the police. While in prison, before being hanged, Harry Powell happens to be his cellmate and learns of the existence of the money. Upon leaving the prison Harry sets his sights on the now widowed Willa Harper (Shelly Winters); this is where the story begins.
Just as stark as the much beloved speed from Mitchum of LOVE and HATE, which was then referenced in Do the Right Thing, the film is one of contrast. There is the contrasting religious preachers of Harry Powell against Rachel Cooper, who ends up taking in John and Pearl while they flee the mad preacher hunting down this money. The film also finds ways to contrast the faces of Powell in the eyes of the children versus the rest of the town. John, keeping his word to his father, refuses to give up the location of the money and this causes Powell to be more terrifying than we could imagine. We are given a glimpse into the terror to come from the initial moments of meeting Powell, with his knife sticking out of his pocket at the titillating show and how his shadow looms over the children at night when he first comes upon the Harper family, but somehow when we see the terror that’s being enacted on these children it feels a lot more nightmare-like than anything else.
In the final act we see Pearl and John actually go on the run down the river and Powell is left in the town. When we see him getting on his horse to head off we feel that at this point he could finally be saying to himself that this is a lost opportunity and he’s set off on a directionless journey again hoping to come across his next chance at continued prosperity. However, as we follow John and Pearl on the river we still see Powell looming in the distance. John even comes to say “does he ever sleep” as if to see Powell as more than a man, he’s the essence of their fears. Thanks to this man entering their life they have skipped over being scared of the boogey man, or the odd looking guy down the road and all that’s left is Harry Powell, the crazed preacher who turns their mother against them and is always ever present in their path.
While the thematic terror is an element that creates approximately 80% of the tension in the film, more than any acting greatness that is Robert Mitchum or the narrative, it’s the visual sense that the film gives that pulls this off. As mentioned, the first time we know that Powell has reached the Harpers is by a shadow that envelopes the children in their home. More than once Charles Laughton uses the image of shadows to convey this sense of terror. The visual ability of the director is what makes every frame of Mitchum (and his ever present shadow) is what makes the film as palpable as it is. When we have the moment of John and Pearl escaping you’d expect for that visual motif to change, but it doesn’t and it’s only at the very end is it that the film finally feels to come into the light.