Robert Mitchum stars in this thriller set in the 1930s in the rural American South.
Psychopathic preacher Harry Powell (Mitchum) is arrested for a minor offence in a small West Virginian town.
His cellmate, Ben Harper (Peter Graves), who faces the death penalty, confides that he has hidden $10,000 from a bank robbery.
When Powell is released Harper has already been hanged, so the preacher tracks down his widow and children in an attempt to get his hands on the loot.
