How I love this hymn! Leaning on the Everlasting Arms. I’d never heard it, until I heard Lillian Gish and Robert Mitchum sing it in Night of the Hunter. I’d sing it myself, only it chokes me up. So here let it be sung outdoors in British Columbia by the students at Fountainview Academy.
I, too, first heard this hymn in “Night of the Hunter.” I thought (and still think) it was a wonderful touch to have Lillian Gish sing the “Leaning on Jesus” version of the refrain while the slimy Robert Mitchum character was singing merely “Leaning.” Jesus was absent for him and present for her — and she won. It was a great movie. Horrifying, but great. The evil wasn’t minimized, even among the townspeople, but good was victorious in the end, even in the smallest thing. Whenever I think of the boy handing Lillian Gish the improvised present at the end, I choke up.
I have a DVD of the movie. Guess what I’ll be watching this afternoon?