Glad you enjoyed Night of the Hunter - an underrated classic. There is a very good documentary on the making of the movie out there - I saw it at Film Forum about 5 years ago. You see Laughton in action and/or hear his voice instructing actors.
Thanks - I’ll try to find the documentary - it’s sad that “Night of the Hunter” is the only film Laughton ever directed - I would like to have seen what else he might have come up with - supposedly he was disappointed with how poorly the movie did at the box office, thinking the public didn’t like it, and vowed never to make another film - ironic if my own experience is any indication of what happened - after seeing the previews which played on the dark, scary elements of the movie, I was not eager to see it and didn’t brave watching until a few years ago - maybe Laughton did such a good job of directing this as a thriller that he scared people away and did himself out of the credit he deserved for a really enchanting work.....