"It’s a hard world for little things."
The Night of the Hunter - Easter Eggs & Hidden Details
Easter Eggs
In Spike Lee's 1989 film "Do the Right Thing," the character Radio Raheem wears large, four-fingered rings that say "LOVE" and "HATE."
This is a direct and famous homage to Harry Powell's knuckle tattoos. Raheem delivers a monologue that is an almost verbatim recitation of Powell's speech about the struggle between the two forces, updating its context for a modern story about racial tension.
The line "They abide and they endure" spoken by Rachel Cooper at the end of the film.
The Coen Brothers, who were heavily influenced by the film, paid homage to this line in "The Big Lebowski" (1998). The narrator, Sam Elliott, concludes the film by saying of the protagonist, "The Dude abides," echoing the theme of quiet, persistent endurance.
The menacing, stalking antagonist pursuing children.
Robert Mitchum's portrayal of Harry Powell directly inspired Robert De Niro's performance as Max Cady in the 1991 remake of "Cape Fear." Both characters are terrifying, Bible-quoting predators with tattoos who relentlessly stalk a family.