“The Night of the Hunter” is one of my all-time favorite movies and it makes a lot of the Top 10 lists here on the site. Well, guess what? You can now watch it for free. Right now. Just go here to the main free video page on IMDb.com and there are thousands of TV shows, feature-length movies, shorts and trailers available for nothing!
The classics page features not only “The Night of the Hunter,” but also Billy Wilder’s “Some Like it Hot,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” and John Wayne in “The Longest Day.” For new movies, check out the Coen’s “Raising Arizona,” Peter Weir’s “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World,” and Whit Stillman’s “Metropolitan,” another of my faves of all time!
Looks like they’ve teamed up with Hulu, the site that brings us Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog and so many other TV shows right now. Is there a catch? Sure there is. After watching about 15 minutes of “Hunter,” there was a commercial. Turns out you’ll get one about every quarter-hour. It’s a little jarring, especially in a moody film like “Hunter,” but that’s the price you pay for free stuff. Now may be a good chance to catch up on some great films you may have missed. Besides, you’re not doing anything else at work, are you?
Update: This article has all the details; including:
There are 6,000 feature films and television shows so far.
On title pages where IMDb does not have the content available for free, users can click on the Amazon Video On Demand button to rent or purchase the video from Amazon.
iTunes and YouTube will have to concentrate on different kinds of content.
CBS, Hulu.com, Sony Pictures Television, and more than 500 independent filmmakers are providing IMDb with free video content.
IMDb is allowing filmmakers to upload their movies or TV shows to its site, provided there’s a pre-existing IMDB page and the running time of the show is less than 45 minutes.
Canadians are blocked from accessing videos.
