The family was held together by a stern, resourceful, untiring, protective and loving matriarch, Marta "Mama" Hanson (Irene Dunne at age 50), and her blustering, hard-working carpenter husband Lars "Papa" Hanson (Philip Dorn).He may also have killed a traveling salesman.The menacing figure of The Preacher inspired such characters as The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) inPhantasm (1979)and (especially) Mr.Film Notables (Awards, Facts, etc.)With a production budget of $54 million, and box-office gross receipts of $108 million (domestic).Warner Bros.released the film in Europe at the end of 1980, but waited about seven months later to release it in the summer of 1981 in the US.The moonlight, the swampy marshes, and the surface of the lake all capture the astonishing play of the light.