Night of the Hunter

It all came apart after thirty-two days of being married and she cried all day - bitter, angry tears she tried to keep hidden while struggling to stay focused on work and pretend nothing was wrong.  I kept thinking of my adage for every occasion grandmother....  Marry in haste, repent at leisure, she would've said and shaken her head.


It's wrenching to discover someone you think you love wears a mask.  In public, he's a devoted and loving husband, patient and affectionate, laid back and easy going, a gentle and good humored man who appeared when she was at her most vulnerable and rescued her.


Mask off, he makes her cry.  He drinks and drugs and keeps rough company, piles on verbal and emotional abuse, makes the children edgy and keeps her in line with threats of suicide.  


It makes me think of Robert Mitchum in "Night of the Hunter".  


After thirty-two days, she's wrung out, exhausted, confused and borderline helpless - it shows in her eyes and her pale face and in her shaking hands.  She may have been a willing victim but she didn't count on this and having been through the same kind of chaos and shame myself, my heart aches for her.  I don't like the image of Shelly Winters dead at the bottom of a lake and her children on the run from a sadistic and sick imitation preacher.


My grandmother would've slapped her silly and railed until she came to her senses, called the police when he dragged her out of the car in full view of her family and children, stood her ground like a statue against the namecalling and verbal battering.  And it would've been as useless as trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon . A short and not so sweet twenty four hours later, things had turned around - she announced defiantly that she was sticking with him come hell or high water.  By the following morning, her fifteen year old daughter had moved out, frightened, betrayed and devastated that her mother would put her second and choose a new husband over her own blood.   Her sister pulled away and her mother was barely speaking to her.  She didn't show for work and didn't bother to call.




Robert Mitchum was caught in "Night of the Hunter" and although the children were eventually rescued, their mother was still dead.


It was a happy ending, all things considered.


But that's the movies.


At least it can't get much worse, her younger sister tells me with a sigh.


Wanna bet?