Years ago, either late 90s or early 2000s, was at my grandma’s watching the Encore channels (ie, Westerns, Drama, etc) and there was this film that basically was about these kids living in rural America in the 1950s or earlier, because it looked depicted in the South because of the stately homes & bayous.
Anyways, these kids had an uncle (white/grey bearded man) who was apparently upset that some deceased family member in their will gave everything to these kids. The climax of the film was the children trying to escape from their uncle, with the money, in a canoe type boat down the bayou but he follows them in his own canoe, and finally the little girl throws the money overboard into the swamp screaming, “Take the money!”, and the old man jumps out of his boat trying to snatch up all this cash but ends up drowning and dies.
The end of the film wasn’t long after that scene, and I guess it all ended on a good note and they had the estate to live in.
“Night of the Hunter” (1955)?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048424/?ref_=nv_sr_1?ref_=nv_sr_1
It sounds like the TV movie remake from 1991. I think that is how it ends. The original has a different ending. In the remake it ends with the preacher drowning.
You’re correct Will. I remembered in the original he doesn’t die in the river, but at the end he is sentenced to death and he didn’t have a beard. I didn’t know that there had been a remake.
https://youtu.be/W332FrNAP-c
YES!!! 😊 This is the movie. Thank you for answering my question. Lol, I was at a loss for what it was called.
Good one Will. It’s funny that you didn’t know there was a new The Beguiled and I didn’t know there was a new Night of the Hunter!
You’ve solved it!
Thank you very much.
The remake wasn’t too hot. I didn’t even remember Richard Chamberlain was in it. But the basic ending stuck in my head because it was different from the original. I didn’t recall how he drowned, just that he did.
Solved! Thanks Will. TheWanderer247, I suggest you check out the original: it’s a classic.