Reverend Harry Powell
Encyclopedia
Reverend Harry Powell is a fictional character in Davis Grubb
's 1953 novel The Night of the Hunter. He was portrayed by Robert Mitchum
in Charles Laughton
's 1955 film adaptation
, and by Richard Chamberlain
in the 1991 made for TV remake. He was voted #29 on the American Film Institute
's top 50 villains of all time
list.
, con artist, and serial killer
. He has the words "LOVE" tattooed on the knuckles of one hand and "HATE" tattooed on the other, so that he can use them in a sermon
about the eternal struggle between good and evil. He spreads the gospel
up and down the Ohio River
in the late 1920s and early 1930s, gaining the trust of wealthy widows, marrying them and then killing them for their money. Driven by a fanatical hatred of women and sex, he believes that he is doing God
's work, as "[God's] book
is full of killin's." He roams the West Virginia
and Ohio
countryside along the river, leaving a trail of murdered women in his wake, until he is caught for grand theft auto
in Parkersburg and sent to the state prison in Moundsville.
There he meets Ben Harper, who had robbed a bank
, hidden the money ($10,000), and was sentenced to hang for killing two men during the robbery. However, despite Powell's wheeling questions as to the money's location, Harper takes the secret to the grave. After Harper's execution, Powell leaves prison and heads downriver to Harper's home in Cresap Landing to find the money. He meets Harper's widow, Willa, and her children, John and Pearl, and ingratiates himself into the family by pretending to have been the prison chaplain and a good friend of Ben's; Willa and Pearl are smitten, but John doesn't trust him. Powell learns that the children know where the money is, and marries Willa to have access to them.
After Willa learns the truth about her marriage, Powell kills her and drops her body in the Ohio River. After he threatens to kill John, Pearl reveals the secret: the money is hidden in her doll. The children escape, doll in tow, and ride down the river on their father's old skiff
. John and Pearl drift for days until they find a farmhouse near Williamstown
run by an old lady, Rachel Cooper, who takes care of homeless, orphaned, and abandoned children.
However, Powell has followed their trail and comes to the house one day claiming to be the children's father. Rachel is not fooled and pulls a gun on him; he leaves, but vows to return later. After nightfall, the desperate preacher charges into the farmhouse only to be shot by Rachel. Yelping in pain, Powell runs into the barn and is arrested the next morning after Rachel calls the state police in Parkersburg. John seems to relive his father's arrest when he sees the arrest of Powell and runs over to stop what happened to his father. In his reliving of the past, John hits Powell with the doll, saying "Here, take the money", seeing the money in the doll as the source of all their problems; the money goes everywhere. Harry Powell is put on trial back in Moundsville for multiple murders, including Willa's, and is put to death.
has called Powell one of the greatest villain
s in fiction.
The tattoos on Powell's knuckles of the words "LOVE" and "HATE" have become one of the most iconic images in film history; it has been referenced and parodied in films ranging from Do the Right Thing
to The Rocky Horror Picture Show
, as well as television shows such as The Simpsons
and Seinfeld
and songs by groups such as The Clash
and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
.
The Ren & Stimpy character Reverend Jack Cheese, who goes around preaching "the gospel of meat," is based on him. His knuckle tattoos say "PITY" and "SELF PITY."
, who lived in Quiet Dell, West Virginia (near Clarksburg
), and lured several widows and their children there by way of "lonely heart" ads in newspapers. He murdered several of them and was subsequently hanged in 1932 at the state prison in Moundsville.
Davis Grubb
Davis Grubb was an American novelist and short story writer.-Biography:Born in Moundsville, West Virginia, Grubb wanted to combine his creative skills as a painter with writing and as such attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
's 1953 novel The Night of the Hunter. He was portrayed by Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum
Robert Charles Durman Mitchum was an American film actor, author, composer and singer and is #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male American screen legends of all time...
in Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...
's 1955 film adaptation
The Night of the Hunter (film)
The Night of the Hunter is a 1955 American thriller film directed by Charles Laughton and starring Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters. The film is based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Davis Grubb, adapted for the screen by James Agee and Laughton...
, and by Richard Chamberlain
Richard Chamberlain
George Richard Chamberlain is an American actor of stage and screen who became a teen idol in the title role of the television show Dr. Kildare .-Early life:...
in the 1991 made for TV remake. He was voted #29 on the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
's top 50 villains of all time
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains is a list of the 100 greatest screen characters chosen by American Film Institute in June 2003. It is part of the AFI 100 Years… series. The series was first presented in a CBS special hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger...
list.
In the novel and film
Powell is an itinerant preacherPreacher
Preacher is a term for someone who preaches sermons or gives homilies. A preacher is distinct from a theologian by focusing on the communication rather than the development of doctrine. Others see preaching and theology as being intertwined...
, con artist, and serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
. He has the words "LOVE" tattooed on the knuckles of one hand and "HATE" tattooed on the other, so that he can use them in a sermon
Sermon
A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or behavior within both past and present contexts...
about the eternal struggle between good and evil. He spreads the gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
up and down the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
in the late 1920s and early 1930s, gaining the trust of wealthy widows, marrying them and then killing them for their money. Driven by a fanatical hatred of women and sex, he believes that he is doing God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
's work, as "[God's] book
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
is full of killin's." He roams the West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
and Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
countryside along the river, leaving a trail of murdered women in his wake, until he is caught for grand theft auto
Motor vehicle theft
Motor vehicle theft is the criminal act of stealing or attempting to steal a motor vehicle...
in Parkersburg and sent to the state prison in Moundsville.
There he meets Ben Harper, who had robbed a bank
Bank robbery
Bank robbery is the crime of stealing from a bank during opening hours. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, robbery is "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of...
, hidden the money ($10,000), and was sentenced to hang for killing two men during the robbery. However, despite Powell's wheeling questions as to the money's location, Harper takes the secret to the grave. After Harper's execution, Powell leaves prison and heads downriver to Harper's home in Cresap Landing to find the money. He meets Harper's widow, Willa, and her children, John and Pearl, and ingratiates himself into the family by pretending to have been the prison chaplain and a good friend of Ben's; Willa and Pearl are smitten, but John doesn't trust him. Powell learns that the children know where the money is, and marries Willa to have access to them.
After Willa learns the truth about her marriage, Powell kills her and drops her body in the Ohio River. After he threatens to kill John, Pearl reveals the secret: the money is hidden in her doll. The children escape, doll in tow, and ride down the river on their father's old skiff
Skiff
The term skiff is used for a number of essentially unrelated styles of small boat. The word is related to ship and has a complicated etymology: "skiff" comes from the Middle English skif, which derives from the Old French esquif, which in turn derives from the Old Italian schifo, which is itself of...
. John and Pearl drift for days until they find a farmhouse near Williamstown
Williamstown
Williamstown or Williamtown is the name of several places in the world:Australia*Williamtown, New South Wales**RAAF Base Williamtown, New South Wales*Williamstown, South Australia*Williamstown, Victoria**Williamstown railway line...
run by an old lady, Rachel Cooper, who takes care of homeless, orphaned, and abandoned children.
However, Powell has followed their trail and comes to the house one day claiming to be the children's father. Rachel is not fooled and pulls a gun on him; he leaves, but vows to return later. After nightfall, the desperate preacher charges into the farmhouse only to be shot by Rachel. Yelping in pain, Powell runs into the barn and is arrested the next morning after Rachel calls the state police in Parkersburg. John seems to relive his father's arrest when he sees the arrest of Powell and runs over to stop what happened to his father. In his reliving of the past, John hits Powell with the doll, saying "Here, take the money", seeing the money in the doll as the source of all their problems; the money goes everywhere. Harry Powell is put on trial back in Moundsville for multiple murders, including Willa's, and is put to death.
In popular culture
Reverend Powell has become one of cinema's most popular, influential villains. Mitchum's performance has reaped widespread acclaim; he later said Powell was his favorite role. Stephen KingStephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
has called Powell one of the greatest villain
Villain
A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
s in fiction.
The tattoos on Powell's knuckles of the words "LOVE" and "HATE" have become one of the most iconic images in film history; it has been referenced and parodied in films ranging from Do the Right Thing
Do the Right Thing
Do the Right Thing is a 1989 American dramedy produced, written, and directed by Spike Lee, who is also a featured actor in the film. Other members of the cast include Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, and John Turturro. It is also notably the...
to The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British rock musical stageplay, The Rocky Horror Show, written by Richard O'Brien. The film is a parody of B-movie, science fiction and horror films of the late 1940s through early 1970s. Director Jim Sharman collaborated on the...
, as well as television shows such as The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
and Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
and songs by groups such as The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds are an Australian alternative rock band, formed in Melbourne in 1983. The band is fronted by Nick Cave and has featured international personnel throughout their career.-Formation and early releases :...
.
The Ren & Stimpy character Reverend Jack Cheese, who goes around preaching "the gospel of meat," is based on him. His knuckle tattoos say "PITY" and "SELF PITY."
Real-life inspiration
Grubb based Harry Powell on Harry PowersHarry Powers
Harry F. Powers , also known as Cornelius O. Pierson and A. R. Weaver, was a convicted serial killer who was hanged in Clarksburg, West Virginia, in 1932. He lured his victims through "Lonely Hearts" ads saying he was looking for love, but in reality intended to take his victims' money and then...
, who lived in Quiet Dell, West Virginia (near Clarksburg
Clarksburg
Clarksburg may refer to some places in the United States of America:*Clarksburg, California**Clarksburg AVA, an American Viticultural Area*Clarksburg, former name of Clarksville, California*Clarksburg, Indiana*Clarksburg, Maryland...
), and lured several widows and their children there by way of "lonely heart" ads in newspapers. He murdered several of them and was subsequently hanged in 1932 at the state prison in Moundsville.
See also
- Lonely hearts killerLonely hearts killerThe phrase lonely hearts killer, sometimes also want-ad killer, or matrimonial bureau murderer, is a journalistic term of art that refers to a person who commits murder by contacting a victim who has either posted advertisements to, or answered advertisements via newspaper classified ads and...
- Night of the Hunter (1991)
- The Night of the HunterThe Night of the Hunter (film)The Night of the Hunter is a 1955 American thriller film directed by Charles Laughton and starring Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters. The film is based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Davis Grubb, adapted for the screen by James Agee and Laughton...
(1955)