Editing The Night of the Hunter (film) (section)

==Plot==
[[Preacher Harry Powell]] is a [[serial killer]] and self-proclaimed preacher traveling along the [[Ohio River]] in [[West Virginia]] during the [[Great Depression]]. He is arrested for driving a stolen car and serves 30 days at [[West Virginia Penitentiary|Moundsville Penitentiary]]. There he shares a cell with Ben Harper, who killed two men in a bank robbery for $10,000.{{efn|Approximately $200,083.55 in 2023.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1931?endYear=2023&amount=10000| title=$10,000 in 1931 → 2023 &#124; Inflation Calculator }}</ref>}} Harper made his children, John and Pearl, promise to never reveal where he hid the money. Despite Powell's attempts to worm it out of him, Harper takes the secret to his grave when he is hanged for the murders.

Upon his release from prison, Powell visits Harper's tiny hometown, where he charms the townsfolk and woos Harper's widow, Willa, a waitress for Walter Spoon and his wife Icey.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cinephiliabeyond.org/the-night-of-the-hunter-the-extraordinary-single-directorial-entry-in-charles-laughtons-career/|title='The Night of the Hunter': The Extraordinary Single Directorial Entry in Charles Laughton's Career • Cinephilia & Beyond|date=December 20, 2015}}</ref> Overnight Powell manages to win the town's trust and weds Willa, but John remains instinctively distrustful of him. Powell suspects that John knows where the money is hidden and threatens him to reveal its location. John accidentally reveals that he and Pearl do know where the money is. After Powell refuses to consummate their marriage, Willa deludes herself that he married her to redeem her soul and begins preaching alongside him in [[tent revival]]s. She later loses her faith in him when she overhears Powell threatening Pearl to make her reveal where the money is hidden.

Powell murders Willa and ties her body to a [[Ford Model T|Model T]] that he sinks in the river, then claims that she left her family for a life of sin when Walter and Icey question her abrupt disappearance. Uncle Birdie, an elderly friend of the family, discovers Willa's body while fishing, but refrains from telling the police for fear that he will be accused of Willa's murder.

Powell threatens the children and learns the money is hidden inside Pearl's doll. The children escape an enraged Powell and attempt to seek refuge with Birdie, whom they find in a drunken stupor. They use their father's small [[johnboat]] to flee down the river and find sanctuary with Rachel Cooper, a tough woman who looks after stray children.

Powell kills a farmer for his horse and eventually tracks them down, but Rachel sees through his deceptions and runs him off her property with a shotgun. Powell returns after dark. During an all-night standoff, Rachel gives Powell a face full of birdshot. She summons the state police, who arrive and arrest Powell for Willa's murder. John breaks down during Powell's handcuffing, having a flashback of his father's fate. He beats the doll against Powell's struggling body in anguish, spilling the cash.

During Powell's trial John cannot bring himself to testify against him. After Powell's sentencing, Rachel takes John and the other children away as Icey leads a [[lynch mob]] toward the police station. Powell is escorted out the back to safety just in time, but the prison hangman vows to see him again soon. John and Pearl spend their first Christmas together with Rachel and her brood of stray children.