“The fingers with the little blue letters. Now as the fingers stirred John could see them all. He supposed that at first the letters meant nothing; that perhaps each finger had a name and the name was a letter. H—A–T—E . The left hand. L—O—V—E. The right hand. Left hand and right hand and the fingers each had names. Now Preacher saw the boy staring and the hands sprang apart and he held them up. ‘Ah, little lad! You’re staring at my fingers!’”
This passage from the novel Night of the Hunter inspired one of Hollywood cinema’s most iconic images—Robert Mitchum’s tattooed hands. The widely recognized motif was referenced in later films (Do the Right Thing; Scorsese’s Cape Fear) as well as in song lyrics (Springsteen’s “Cautious Man”). Mitchum is chilling as Preacher Harry Powell who tells the story of his right hand and left hand, which represent the eternal struggle over love and hate, good and evil. Much has been written about Mitchum’s performance, James Agee’s script, and Charles Laughton’s direction in the film version of Night of the Hunter. However, the book’s author, Davis Grubb, who originated the love-hate tattoo and its symbolism, is generally overlooked.
Grubb was born in Moundsville, West Virginia, the city where Harry Powell is imprisoned at the beginning. The story takes place in Grubb’s old stomping grounds—the northern panhandle of West Virginia along the Ohio River. Despite the location footage of the West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville, and the aerial footage of the Ohio River, Night of the Hunter does not accurately capture the towns and culture of the Ohio River Valley. The highly stylized film is not authentic to the region. Laughton gave the material a fairy tale treatment that makes for a captivating viewing experience, part enchantment and part horror. But, in doing so, he pushed the material away from Grubb’s regionalist style. For this reason, the writer was upset with the film adaptation, declaring, “It hadn’t conformed exactly with what I had seen in my own mind.”
CHARLES LAUGHTON GAVE A STORYBOOK TREATMENT TO GRUBB’S NOVEL, WHICH THE WRITER DID NOT APPRECIATE.
I understand what Grubb was getting at. My family is from this area, and many times I have driven the route along the Ohio River, where the two children in the story float downstream to escape the clutches of Harry Powell. The Ohio River Valley is scenic, but the small, working-class towns are not quaint and picturesque, and the residents are ordinary working people—not eccentric folk from storybooks. However, Night of the Hunter is one of my family’s favorite movies; we appreciate Laughton and Agee’s dramatic license even if Grubb did not.
THE WEST VIRGINIA STATE PEN IN MOUNDSVILLE FIGURES PROMINENTLY IN GRUBB’S WORK.
The penitentiary in Moundsville, a 19th century structure that finally closed in 1995, looms large in some of Grubb’s novels and stories. This particular state pen became notorious for the number of prisoners who slipped beyond its out-dated walls. The prison has been repurposed as a tourist site, and I was lucky enough to visit the institution a few years back. The most frightening moment of the tour was the “museum,” which exhibited home-made weapons made by the prisoners. A glass case in the corner contained a letter to the warden from none other than Charles Manson, who was requesting a transfer to Moundsville. Like Grubb, Manson was born along the Ohio River, and, according to his letter, he wanted to return to his roots and spend his remaining years as close to home as possible. But, the warden suspected that America’s most famous sociopath had heard about Moundsville’s reputation as an easy escape. The multiple-page letter started out logically but soon deteriorated into a rambling tirade against enemies only Manson could see. The letter reminded me that even pastoral West Virginia could produce psychopaths like Manson—and Harry Powell.
THE STORY OF THE RIGHT HAND AND THE LEFT.
Grubb based Harry Powell in Night of the Hunter on a real-life lonely-hearts murderer named Harry Powers, who killed several people. He eluded authorities by using a number of aliases, but he was eventually caught and hanged in the Moundsville Penitentiary. He is buried in a prison cemetery and his story is also represented in the museum.
Grubb’s family had lived for generations in the Moundsville area. His father Louis was an architect from a prominent Wheeling family. His maternal grandfather had cofounded the Mercantile Bank, making the family prosperous—at least until the Depression. In the 1930s, he and his family were evicted from their home, among other humiliations. The experiences left him with lifelong grudges against the power-brokers of a capitalist society as well as organized religion. Grubb studied graphic design in Philadelphia and Pittsburg, with plans to be an artist, but his career path was altered when he found work as a page for NBC in New York. There, he was inspired him to write radio dramas. He sold his first to a station in his home state, WBLK in Clarksburg. Grubb expanded his repertoire to short-story writing, which led to his first novel, Night of the Hunter, in 1953.
JIMMY STEWART SIGNS AUTOGRAPHS ON THE SET OF FOOLS’ PARADE IN MOUNDSVILLE, WV.
Grubb is not really the “Southern gothic horror” writer that he’s painted to be in the TCM Guide for November. More of a regionalist, he captured the sites and people of Appalachia in ten novels and more than 50 short stories. His characters are complex beings; the truly good-hearted and insightful are often people of low repute, those who have committed crimes, or those with simple minds. The despicable are found among society’s most respected figures, such as bankers, authority figures, or clergymen. Grubb said in a video interview for the state’s Library Commission, “I write my stories first and foremost for West Virginians. . . I never made fun of West Virginia.” The latter remark refers to the frequent stereotyping that the state has endured over the decades, in which its rural residents are the butt of jokes. Some of his stories were turned into episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Rod Serling’s Night Gallery. The exception to his usual content was his third novel, Shadow of My Brother, about an African American boy who is lynched in Mississippi.
ANNE BAXTER AS A MADAM
Only one other novel by Grubb, Fool’s Parade, was turned into a Hollywood film. The tone, characters, and style of the film are much closer to Grubb’s work than Night of the Hunter. Set during the Depression, Fools’ Parade stars Jimmy Stewart as Mattie Appleyard, one of three convicts about to be released from prison. Grubb patterned Stewart’s character after an old West Virginia storyteller named Riley Wilson and a real-life convict, Holly Griffith. The trio plan to make a new start with the $25,000 Mattie has earned while incarcerated. Upon release, the friends discover that Mattie’s check can only be cashed at the Bank of Glory. Corrupt prison guards plan to retrieve the money and return them to jail on trumped up charges. Directed by Andrew McLaglen for Columbia, Fools’ Parade was more of an action film than Night of the Hunter.
One of the strengths of Fools’ Parade is the cast. Strother Martin costarred as Mattie’s friend, Billy Lee Cottrill, while a young Kurt Russell played the third member of the trio, Johnny. George Kennedy, everyone’s favorite villain in the 1970s and 1980s, played Uncle Doc Council, the sinister captain of the prison guards. Anne Baxter seemed to be having great fun as the madam of a floating whorehouse on the Ohio River. Another high point was the location shooting in Moundsville, giving the film a kind of local flavor that matched Grubb’s regionalist style. The town’s name in the film was changed to Glory, but it is recognizable as Moundsville.
GEORGE KENNEDY AS UNCLE DOC COUNCIL
Grubb spent the bulk of his writing career in New York City, but in the last years of his life, he returned to his beloved Moundsville. An eccentric, who once rode from Pennsylvania to Moundsville via a $700 taxi ride so he could bring his dog, Grubb was working on his eleventh book when he died in 1980.
The much-loved Night of the Hunter airs on TCM this Wednesday, November 11, at 8:00pm. Fools’ Parade is much more difficult to find. It has been released on DVD, but it is now out of print. Occasionally, Fools’ Parade airs on such cable stations as THIS and MOVIES, but it would be terrific if TCM would take an interest in the film.