What 1955 film noir stars Robert Mitchum as a preacher with LOVE and HATE tattoos?

The 1955 film noir starring Robert Mitchum as a preacher with LOVE and HATE tattoos is The Night of the Hunter.

Charles Laughton directed this unsettling film adaptation of Davis Grubb’s 1953 novel. Mitchum plays Harry Powell, an itinerant preacher who is also a con artist and serial killer. Powell pursues money hidden by a dead man and targets the man’s vulnerable family, presenting himself as a pious protector while concealing his violent intentions.

The LOVE and HATE tattoos on Powell’s knuckles are his signature image. During sermons, he makes the hands appear to battle each other, turning the tattoos into a visual symbol of the conflict between good and evil. The design became one of the most recognizable images in American film.

The film is often called film noir, but its fairy-tale imagery, expressionist shadows, child-centered suspense, and storybook landscapes make it unusual within the genre. It was Laughton’s only film as director. Although initially met with mixed reactions, The Night of the Hunter was later widely recognized as a major American cult classic.