The Night of the Hunter

The Night of the Hunter is a 1953 novel by American author, Davis Grubb. The book was a national bestseller and was voted a finalist for the 1955 National Book Award.

Influence and references

• The narrator of Nick Cave's "The Mercy Seat" from his Tender Prey album seems to be a man very similar to Powell facing his execution: "My kill-hand tattooed 'Evil' across its brother's fist/That filthy five, they did nothing to resist"
• The Clash's "Death or Glory" from 1979's London Calling includes the line, "Love and Hate tattooed across the knuckles on his hands"
• The Coen Brothers' The Man Who Wasn't There features a shot directly inspired by Night of the Hunter, with Jon Polito dead in a car at the bottom of a river, in imitation of Shelly Winters.
• In Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing, the character Radio Raheem delivers an-almost verbatim version of Powell's famed monologue about his tattooed hands (see below), only with brass knuckle rings replacing the tattoos.
• The Appalachian mountain dancer Jesco White has the words "Love" & "Hate" tattooed on his fingers in tribute to the character of the Preacher.
• The Simpsons episode "Cape Feare" features Sideshow Bob with tattooed knuckles, however, "Since he's a cartoon character with only three knuckles, his tattoo reads 'L-U-V-' and 'H-A-T,' with a macron over the middle 'A,' to get that 'long a' sound." http://home.sprintmail.com/~sknolle/mitchum/hunter.html
• Bruce Springsteen's "Cautious Man": "On his right hand Billy'd tattooed the word 'love'/ and on his left hand was the word 'fear'/ And in which hand he held his fate was never clear"
• In The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the character of Eddie, played by rocker Meatloaf has the words Love and Hate tattooed across his own fingers.