James Gleason

A demented preacher stalks two young children, a brother and sister, because he is certain they know where their late bank-robbing father hid his money. Graced by images of eerie beauty and a sneaky sense of humor, this is an ethereal, expressionistic American classic.

A reporter writes a fictitious column about someone named "John Doe," who is distraught at America's neglect of the little people and plans to kill himself. The newspaper then hires a ballplayer-turned-hobo to pose as John Doe. In a series of radio addresses written by a publisher with fascist leanings, Doe captures the public's imagination. When he finally realizes he has been used, Doe comes to his senses and becomes the man he never knew he could...

A self-styled preacher marries and murders the widow of an executed convict with whom he once shared a cell. He then terrorizes her two young children to force them to tell him the whereabouts of the $10,000 he knows their father hid before his imprisonment. "The Night of the Hunter -- incredibly, the only film the great actor Charles Laughton ever directed -- is truly a stand-alone masterwork. A horror movie with qualities of a Grimm fairy tale,...