CAPE FEAR (1962)

Director: J. Lee Thompson

Writers: James R. Webb adapting John D. MacDonald’s novel The Executioners 

Producer: Sy Bartlett 

Cast: Gregory Peck. Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen, Lori Martin, Martin Balsam, Telly Savalas, Barrie Chase, Jack Kruschen, Joan Staley, Edward Platt, Paul Comi, John McKee, Ward Ramsey, Page Slattery, Will Wright. Norma Yost, Mack Williams, Tom Newman, Alan Reynolds, Alan Wells, Allan Ray, Paul Levitt, Herb Armstrong, Bunny Rhea, Cindy Carol (as Carol Sydes) 

Recently released convict Max Cady (Robert Mitchum) settles in the southern town where lawyer Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck) lives with his wife Peggy (Polly Bergen) and his young daughter Nancy (Lori Martin). Eight years ago Sam Bowden’s witness testimony helped to convict Cady for the crime of assaulting a woman. Now Cady starts a war of nerves with veiled threats against Bowden and his family. Cady has studied the law while in prison and knows how to torment Bowden without crossing any legal lines. Sam Bowden is increasingly provoked to resort to illegal means to protect his family. 

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Gregory Peck stars as the stalwart family man and lawyer Sam Bowden. He has an ideal life that becomes threatened only because he did the decent thing by interrupting Max Cady’s assault of a woman and testifying as a witness in Cady’s trial. Bowden is always likable and his situation becomes quite sympathetic, yet he maintains our interest with his reactions to Cady’s provocations.

Robert Mitchum played one of the greatest movie villains of all time in Cape Fear. His Max Cady is smart, stealthy, brutal, and funny. He is one laid-back bastard that steals every scene he is in which is the least of his crimes. This performance should make anyone a Mitchum fan. 

My favorite scene is the rendezvous at a bar that Peck’s Sam Bowden has with Mitchum’s Max Cady. All Bowden wants is to make an arrangement to get Cady to stop his harassment, but Cady won’t relent. This is the only time we are given any insight into Cady’s character that he reveals in casual seeming conversation over drinks to the object of his hatred. It seems that the only way Cady can relate to anyone is when he is justifying his motives for the threat he poses. He enjoys explaining his grudge and refusing to be paid off by Sam Bowden. The fun Cady has prolonging this encounter with the increasingly disgusted Bowden is Mitchum at his best. We can’t help but enjoy this scene even as we continue to empathize with the dilemma that Peck’s Bowden has trying to deal with this sociopath. 

The real tension in the story is not just the danger that a violent and vengeful man like Max Cady poses to the Bowden family, but that Cady can keep haunting and taunting Sam Bowden with the implied threat of his presence. Legally, Bowden can’t do anything about this, yet he knows he can’t wait until it is too late. It becomes a conundrum for this lawyer to realize that the law can’t intervene until after Cady actually acts out his vague threats against Bowden and his family. This prompts Bowden to consider more drastic actions. 

Polly Bergen, as Sam Bowden’s wife Peggy, is not only a potential victim of Cady’s vengeance, she is also an additional voice of reason in the Bowden family regarding how to deal with the ex-convict’s looming menace. In a film full of threatening scenes, her confrontation with Mitchum’s Max Cady is probably the most harrowing. 

There are many other fine performances from young Lori Martin as Sam Bowden’s daughter Nancy, Martin Balsam as Bowden’s police chief pal Mark Dutton, and Telly Savalas as private detective Charlie Sievers. A real stand out is dancer Barrie Chase in an early dramatic role as the unfortunate “pick up” Diane Taylor. She uses some subtle body language to effectively indicate the pain and physical impairment of her injuries after a sadistic evening with Max Cady. That also gives us a graphic hint of the sort of treatment Cady has in mind for Sam Bowden’s wife and child. 

Cape Fear was very controversial for its ongoing theme of sexual violence. Max Cady makes his carnal interest in Sam Bowden’s wife and adolescent daughter quite clear. Rape is part of Cady’s revenge tactics that he has used before against his ex-wife. 

Director J. Lee Thompson had just directed star Gregory Peck in the hit war epic The Guns of Navarone (1961). Thompson keeps the tension high in Cape Fear with lots of shadows, stark lighting, prolonged stalking sequences, sudden bursts of violence, and scenes that cut away from ongoing violence to suggest greater brutalities in our imaginations. He would become a frequent Charles Bronson director and dealt once again with the theme of frustration created by the justice system’s legal constraints in the thriller 10 to Midnight (1983). 

Cape Fear is an intense game of cat and mouse between a clever, sadistic brute and a man of integrity trying to bend the rules to protect his family. This film has all the elements that a successful thriller needs with the added bonus of Robert Mitchum’s terrific performance as Max Cady that you ain’t never gonna forget. Never.