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Cape Fear (1962)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
1962 (Norway) moreTagline:
The Original Masterpiece Of Revenge, Confrontation And Murder! moreUser Comments:
"You're Just An Animal!" moreCast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Gregory Peck | ... | Sam Bowden | |
| Robert Mitchum | ... | Max Cady | |
| Polly Bergen | ... | Peggy Bowden | |
| Lori Martin | ... | Nancy Bowden | |
| Martin Balsam | ... | Police Chief Mark Dutton | |
| Jack Kruschen | ... | Attorney Dave Grafton | |
| Telly Savalas | ... | Private Detective Charles Sievers | |
| Barrie Chase | ... | Diane Taylor | |
| Paul Comi | ... | George Garner | |
| John McKee | ... | Officer Marconi | |
| Page Slattery | ... | Deputy Kersek | |
| Ward Ramsey | ... | Officer Brown | |
| Edward Platt | ... | Judge | |
| Will Wright | ... | Dr. Pearsall | |
| Joan Staley | ... | Waitress |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
View content advisory for parentsRuntime:
105 minCountry:
USALanguage:
EnglishColor:
Black and WhiteAspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 moreSound Mix:
Mono (Westrex Recording System)Certification:
Finland:(Banned) (1962) (uncut) | Finland:K-16 (1969) (cut) | Finland:K-16 (1992) (uncut) | West Germany:18 (nf) | Germany:16 (re-rating) | Argentina:16 | Canada:PG (video rating) | Chile:18 | Norway:16 (1962) | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:Approved (Certificate #20038)Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Polly Bergen suffered minor bruises in a scene where her character struggles with Robert Mitchum's character. He was supposed to drag her through various doors on the set, but a crewmember mistakenly left all those doors locked, so that when Mitchum forced Bergen through the doors, she was actually being used as a ram to push them open. moreGoofs:
Continuity: The launch in which the Bowden family travels to the houseboat has a full windshield. Later, when Sam leaves by himself, only the windshield's frame is present; the glass is gone. moreQuotes:
Diane Taylor: [after Cady has beaten her, she prepares to leave town] You can't help me.Charles Sievers: But I can. Now you file an assault charge and Cady'll get six months in jail.
Diane Taylor: Six months! And after that... When he walked out of this room he said... he said to consider this only a sample. And from my limited knowledge of human nature, Max Cady isn't a man who makes idle threats.
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One perverse individual can exploit his freedom by using it to encroach on someone else's. That is the problem with a society which cherishes personal liberty. The community has the dilemma of deciding whose freedom it ought to protect. At what point should the state intervene?
Today, modern democracies have anti-harrassment laws which carry criminal penalties, and there is also the civil remedy of an injunction with power of arrest, but back in the early 1960's a man who chose to make a nuisance of himself enjoyed wide latitude. It was difficult for the law to step in without infringing his civil and constitutional rights.
Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck) is a small-town attorney in the south-eastern United States. He has a lovely family and a nice home, and is well thought of by neighbours and colleagues alike. This American idyll is destroyed when a newly-released convict shows up, intent on harrassing Bowden. Some years back, the lawyer had appeared as a witness at this man's trial, and the convict bears an irrational grudge.
Max Cady is one of the cinema's great villains. Mitchum is irresistible as the heavy-eyed smart alec seething with sexual energy. Cady's sharp but warped intelligence is disturbing to behold (the way he obtains Bowden's vacation address is chillingly impressive). He begins to show up wherever Bowden goes, an ominous sarcastic presence to which no objection can be made, so long as he stays within the law. Cady's salient traits are placed before us right from the start of the film. He is completely callous (ignoring the girl who drops her books on the stairs) and a nasty sexual predator (picking up the waitress in the bowling alley).
"Cape Fear" is a taut, absorbing thriller. Mitchum's charisma fills the screen, and the dark eerie look (by Director of Photography Sam Leavitt) compounds the feeling of menace. The incidental music is excellent.
However, the film has some implausible ingredients. Why would a woman who has just been sexually degraded, and is clearly traumatised, be handed over by the police to the care of a private eye? (Charlie Sievers the gumshoe is played by Telly Savalas - with hair!) Would a criminal attorney really - no matter what the provocation - hire waterfront thugs to beat up a stalker? How come Sam's gun is still effective after being immersed in the river? Why doesn't Nancy's phone work? It is preposterous to suggest that Cady would waste time on the elaborate feint towards Peggy instead of pursuing his real victim. And how can it be that Cady can defeat three ruffians single-handed, overwhelm a police bodyguard with ease, yet fail to defeat Sam, even when armed with a stick?
Verdict - Allowing for the improbabilities, this is a well-made thriller with a magnificent performance by Mitchum.