John Huston — billed weirdly as ‘Jhon Huston’ — was at his best when given a minor classic of modern literature, and this adaptation of Flannery O'Connor’s ‘Southern Gothic’ novel is one of his most satisfying, late-career films. Brad Dourif is at his twitchiest as sincere young veteran Hazel Motes, who wants to stand against crooked preachers by founding a charismatic Church Without Christ but finds himself pulled into all the scams of every other revivalist tent-show.
Harry Dean Stanton, as a fake blind evangelist, and little-known Dan Shor, as a tagalong imbecile, are memorable, and the underused Amy Wright is outstanding as a near-mad saint. Blackly comic and darkly melancholic.