Cape Fear (1962, 1991) - Classic Film Freak Cape Fear (1962, 1991) There is nothing in the dark that isn’t there in the light. Except fear. Why was a remake thought necessary? Cape Fear is not among Martin Scorsese’s better films. Watching the 1991 remake gives the persistent impression of being crucially unnecessary—unnecessarily violent and unnecessarily depressing, and full of unattractive people. Bernard Herrmann’s score, lifted essentially in tact from the 1962 original, is a saving grace. Here I am, crabby old me, prepared to make the case that the remake was, indeed, unnecessary. I’ve come, now, in a self-imposed debate with myself—a predictable win, you suspect?—that here is further evidence that the old movies of the ’30s and ’40 and, yes, even into the ’50s, maybe a smidgen from the ’60s, are superior, on the average, to those made during the ’70s through the present time. J.

Lee Thompson, perhaps best remembered for The Guns of Navarone (1961), directed the original Cape Fear with Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen, Lori Martin, Martin Balsam, Jack Kruschen and Telly Savalas. Scorsese, deservedly more famous for GoodFellas and Taxi Driver, filled the same or stand-in roles with Nick Nolte, Robert De Niro, Jessica Lange, Juliette Lewis, Fred Dalton Thompson and Joe Don Baker. The source material is The Executioners by John D. MacDonald, who also created detective Travis McGee in a series of crime novels. There’re other “MacDonald” mystery and crime writers with whom John shouldn’t be confused: Ross, the American who created gumshoe Lew Archer in another series; Phillip, a Brit, who penned a personal favorite, The List of Adrian Messenger, one in a series about that author’s detective creation, Anthony Gethryn; and another American, Patricia, the only one living of these four, who ties family dramas to her crimes stories.

In the Cape Fear remake, Nolte (Peck in the original) is Sam Bowden, the lawyer sought out by Max Cady (De Niro/Mitchum) for sending him to prison some years earlier. Jessica Lange, who immediately emits an earthy sexuality, is a sharp contrast to Bergen’s pure wife reaction to Cady’s embrace. Lange even makes an impromptu speech, somehow unconvincing, about how she is attracted to Cady, an effort to spare her daughter. Nancy, the 15-year-old daughter, an innocent child of the ‘60s as played by Martin, now becomes Danielle (Lewis), a nearly unmanageable teenager of the ‘90s. She at first doesn’t believe all the bad things said about Cady. She is fascinated by his voice on the phone. Later, in an over-long scene in which he poses as a drama teacher, she lets him kiss her and insert his thumb in her mouth—not once but twice—an obvious phallic symbol of the rape he has in mind for her.

The obvious difference between the two versions of Cape Fear, as some critics have noted, is that, as already suggested, the victimized family in 1991 is no longer nicey-nice and all-American, but spoiled, tainted and rich. Sam and his wife have been in therapy over what is a sometimes violent marriage. The two come to blows—both physical and verbal—over his infidelities. As a lawyer, Sam is guilty of withholding critical evidence in Cady’s long ago case. Scorsese retains many of the scenes and ideas of the original, including the poisoning of the family dog, the lawyer’s attempt to pay off his harasser, later setting three thugs on Cady and, in the climax, a deceptive airplane departure. Sam hopes the stalker will attack his presumably unprotected wife and daughter at the houseboat on the Cape Fear River, North Carolina. In the remake, the private detective (Joe Don Baker) is murdered by Cady, who penetrates the tight security of the house disguised as the housekeeper, an idea at least as old as the Sherlock Holmes movie, The Scarlet Claw of 1944.

The new Sam Bowden’s sexual indiscretions provides Scorsese with a “wonderful” opportunity for more gore and violence—the horrific disfigurement of Sam’s on-the-side girlfriend (Illeana Douglas), who refuses to bring charges and leaves town, having been informed by Cady that this treatment is only a “sample.” Mitchum’s occasional quoting of scripture is expanded for De Niro, who takes the fanaticism further: his arms and torso are tattooed with Biblical symbols and quotes. In the final analysis, the obvious has to be asked: Despite De Niro’s tattoos and his extroverted, violent, over-the-top performance, isn’t Robert Mitchum, because of his hulking stature, indolent voice and under acting, the more menacing? In addition to typically giving family members minor roles, Scorsese assigns cameo parts to some of the 1962 alumni—Peck (in his last appearance in a theatrical film), Mitchum and Martin Balsam who played a police chief. The film’s climax of unrelenting terror goes beyond the necessary in gore, blood and violence..

De Niro puts the daughter in the hold of the houseboat just long enough for her to hide a squeeze-bottle of lighter fluid under her blouse. A little later when Nolte is sufficiently unconscious and De Niro has the two women before him, he lights a cigar, whereupon Lewis squirts the lighter fluid at him. Head and shoulders in flames, he staggers blindly about the boat and falls overboard. End of story? Nice if it would have been; it would have done the picture a favor and reduced extending the pain of an already overblown endeavor. But, no, in the worst cliché of the Night on Elm Street slasher movies, De Niro climbs back on board by way of the dangling anchor cable, which he had cut earlier, and the violence and terror resume for what seems like ten more minutes. This devotion to violence, after an end of sorts had already been reached, is the film’s most conspicuous weakness. What is missing, in a word, is restraint. Subtlety, a toning down of the film’s extremes, obviously wasn’t Scorsese’s inclination, or, perhaps, in his nature.

There could have been, say, a gradual darkening of the screen, an increase in tempo as the terror grows, the way Alfred Hitchcock might have done, but there are no variances, no crescendo, only an insistent, unrelenting fortissimo. (Or perhaps Scorsese should be respected for not copying Hitch.) There is, however, an Hitchcockian touch at the beginning of the film—thunder clouds hover as De Niro leaves prison—that recalls Hitch’s Shadow of a Doubt and the train smoke that blackens sky and screen as Joseph Cotton arrives in Santa Rosa. The symbolism in both films is obvious: evil is at hand. Not to worry. There’s still Herrmann’s magnificent, totally appropriate and compelling music. The most redeeming feature in this remake is the score. No mere “score,” this! The credits indicate “adapted, arranged and conducted by Elmer Bernstein,” with “orchestrations by” Bernstein’s daughter, Emilie. Huh? Why would Herrmann’s music, of all film composers’, need an orchestrator? Herrmann did his own.

Perhaps, more accurately, Emilie’s actual job was as a reconstructor of the score, if, say, no physical manuscripts existed. In any case, the music remains convincingly vintage Herrmann. When Herrmann’s music leaps—or creeps, as the case may be—it energizes the film, making it, somehow, better than it is. To the so-called “quiet” moments, the music adds a menacing undertow, and to the violent ones—and there are plenty—a full-fledged terror. After the music of the main title—accompanied by superb visuals—has moaned and groaned, more often snarled and raged, mostly in the brass and with typical Herrmannian two- and four-note motifs, all that follows from the actors, photographer Freddie Francis and director Scorsese is anticlimactic. Like an enduring overture to a long-forgotten opera, the main title encapsulates the drama of the 1991 Cape Fear and becomes, along with the music to follow, the best part of a damaged whole. For a more rewarding experience, watch the 1962 original, or, if you accidentally, unavoidably stumble upon the remake, stay with it—if only to hear it!

Liked it? Take a second to support Greg Orypeck on Patreon! Related Cape Fear Box Set [1961 and 1991] [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck, Polly Bergen, Lori Martin, Martin Balsam, Jack Kruschen, Telly Savalas, Paul Comi, Edward Platt, Page Slattery, Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, Juliette Lewis, Joe Don Baker, Illeana Douglas, Fred Dalton Thompson, J. Lee Thompson, Martin Scorsese, Sy Bartlett, Barbara de Fina: DVD & Blu-ray Cape Fear Box Set [1961 and 1991] [DVD] Only 1 left in stock. This seller does not deliver to the United States. Learn more Dispatched from and sold by bargainbookman . 9 new from Â£4.99 10 used from Â£0.89 2 collectible from Â£7.50 See all buying options Â£4.99 Only 1 left in stock. Dispatched from and sold by bargainbookman . Special Offers and Product Promotions These items are dispatched from and sold by different sellers.

Show details Buy the selected items together This item:Cape Fear Box Set [1961 and 1991] [DVD] by Robert Mitchum DVD Â£4.99 Only 1 left in stock. Sent from and sold by bargainbookman. Â£1.26 delivery The Night of the Hunter [DVD] [1955] by Robert Mitchum DVD Â£4.99 In stock. Sent from and sold by Amazon. FREE Delivery on orders over Â£20. Details What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item? Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats. ) Number of discs: 2 DVD Release Date: 8 Aug. 2003 Run Time: 224 minutes Product Description Product Description Two versions of the same film. In the 1961 version Robert Mitchum plays the sadistic Max Cady (Robert Mitchum). Fresh out of prison Cady is determined to have his revenge on Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck), the lawyer who helped send him away.

Menacing Bowden's wife and teenage daughter with obscene phonecalls and implied threats, Cady never does anything which would allow the police to arrest him, and thereby provokes Bowden to go beyond the confines of the law and engage him in direct confrontation. Famed for Mitchum's sinister performance and Bernard Herrmann's atmospheric score, 'Cape Fear' is one of the great classics of the late studio era. The 1991 version by Martin Scorcese stars Nick Nolte as Sam Bowden, Jessica Lange as his wife, Juliette Lewis as his teenage daughter and Robert De Niro as Max Cady - with Peck and Mitchum appearing in cameo roles. From Amazon.co.uk Cape Fear (1962) Superior to Martin Scorsese's punishing 1991 remake, this 1962 thriller directed by J. Lee Thompson (The Guns of Navarone) stars Robert Mitchum as a creepy ex-con angry at the attorney ( Gregory Peck ) whom he believes is responsible for his incarceration. After Mitchum makes clear his plans to harm Peck's family, a fascinating game of crisscrossing ethics and morality takes place.

Where the more recent version seemed trapped in its explicitness, Thompson's film accomplishes a lot with a more economical and telling use of violence. The result is a richer character study with some Hitchcockian overtones regarding the nature of guilt. --Tom Keogh Cape Fear (1991) Martin Scorsese's 1991 remake of J. Lee Thompson's 1962 thriller dabbles a bit in some fascinating psychological crosscurrents between its characters, but it finally trades in all that rich material for extensive and gratuitous violence. Robert De Niro plays a serial rapist released from prison after 14 years. Angry because his appalled attorney ( Nick Nolte ) made it easy for him to be convicted, this monster is out to hurt Nolte's character through his wife ( Jessica Lange ) and daughter ( Juliette Lewis ). The themes of interlocking guilt and anger between these people suggests a smart film in the making. But the final act, set on a boat with De Niro's vengeful pervert attacking Nolte and the two women, takes a more unfortunate direction.

Stick with the original (which starred Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck, each of whom make a cameo appearance in this film). --Tom Keogh Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1 This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading. DVD Â£3.30 Amazon Prime Gregory Peck Gregory Peck Грегори Пек, Gregory Peck, Элдред Грегори Пек, Eldred Gregory Peck Categories: Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels Person Eldred Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an American actor. One of the world's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play major film roles until the late 1970s. His performance as Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor.

He had also been nominated for an Oscar for the same category for The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and Twelve O'Clock High (1949). Other notable films he appeared in include Spellbound (1945), The Paradine Case (1947), Roman Holiday (1953), Moby Dick (1956) (and its 1998 miniseries of the same name), The Big Country (1958), The Guns of Navarone (1961), Cape Fear (1962) (and its 1991 remake of the same name), How the West Was Won (1962), The Stalking Moon (1969), The Omen (1976), and The Boys from Brazil (1978). President Lyndon Johnson honored Peck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 for his lifetime humanitarian efforts. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Peck among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking at No. 12.

He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1983. Spouses: Greta Kukkonen (m. 1942; div. 1955) Veronique Passani (m. 1955–2003) Children: 5; including Cecilia Peck Grandchildren: Ethan Peck (grandson) Early life Eldred Gregory Peck was born on April 5, 1916 in the San Diego, California neighborhood of La Jolla, the son of Gregory Pearl Peck, a New York-born chemist and pharmacist, and his Missouri-born wife Bernice Mary "Bunny" (née Ayres). His father was of Irish (maternal) and English (paternal) heritage, while his mother had Scottish and English ancestry. Peck's father was Roman Catholic, while his mother converted to Roman Catholicism when she married his father. Through his Irish-born paternal grandmother Catherine Ashe, Peck was related to Thomas Ashe, who took part in the Easter Rising less than three weeks after Peck's birth and died while on hunger strike in 1917.

Peck's parents divorced by the time he was six years old; his maternal grandmother raised him for the next few years. Peck attended a Catholic military school, St. John's Military Academy, in Los Angeles at the age of 10. His grandmother died while he was enrolled there, and his father again took over his upbringing. At 14, Peck attended San Diego High School and lived with his father. When he graduated, he enrolled briefly at San Diego State Teacher's College, (now known as San Diego State University), joined the track team, took his first theatre and public-speaking courses, and joined the Epsilon Eta fraternity. He stayed for just one academic year, thereafter obtaining admission to his first-choice college, the University of California, Berkeley. For a short time, he took a job driving a truck for an oil company. In 1936, he declared himself a pre-medical student at Berkeley, and majored in English. Standing 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m), he rowed on the university crew. The Berkeley acting coach saw Peck as perfect material for university theater.

Peck developed an interest in acting and was recruited by Edwin Duerr, director of the university's Little Theater. He appeared in five plays during his senior year. Although his tuition fee was only $26 per year, Peck still struggled to pay, and had to work as a "hasher" (kitchen helper) for the Gamma Phi Beta sorority in exchange for meals. Peck would later say about Berkeley that, "it was a very special experience for me and three of the greatest years of my life. It woke me up and made me a human being." In 1997, Peck donated $25,000 to the Berkeley rowing crew in honor of his coach, the renowned Ky Ebright. Acting career Stage After graduating from Berkeley with a BA degree in English, Peck dropped the name "Eldred" and headed to New York City to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse with the legendary acting teacher Sanford Meisner. He was often broke and sometimes slept in Central Park. He worked at the 1939 World's Fair and as a tour guide for NBC's television broadcasting.

In 1940, Peck learned more of the acting craft, working in exchange for food, at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia, appearing in five plays including Family Portrait and On Earth As It Is. His stage career began in 1941 when he played the secretary in a Katharine Cornell production of George Bernard Shaw's play The Doctor's Dilemma. Unfortunately, the play opened in San Francisco just one week before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He made his Broadway debut as the lead in Emlyn Williams' The Morning Star in 1942. His second Broadway performance that year was in The Willow and I with Edward Pawley. Peck's acting abilities were in high demand during World War II because he was exempt from military service owing to a back injury suffered while receiving dance and movement lessons from Martha Graham as part of his acting training. Twentieth Century Fox claimed he had injured his back while rowing at university, but in Peck's words, "In Hollywood, they didn't think a dance class was macho enough, I guess.

I've been trying to straighten out that story for years." In 1947, Peck co-founded The La Jolla Playhouse, at his birthplace, with Mel Ferrer and Dorothy McGuire. This local community theater and landmark (now in a new home at the University of California, San Diego) still thrives today. It has attracted Hollywood film stars on hiatus both as performers and enthusiastic supporters since its inception. Film Peck's first film, Days of Glory, was released in 1944. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor five times, four of which came in his first five years of film acting: for The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947), and Twelve O'Clock High (1949). The Keys of the Kingdom emphasized his stately presence. As the farmer Ezra "Penny" Baxter in The Yearling, his good-humored warmth and affection toward the characters playing his son and wife confounded critics who had been insisting he was a lifeless performer.

Duel in the Sun (1946) showed his range as an actor in his first "against type" role as a cruel, libidinous gunslinger. Gentleman's Agreement established his power in the "social conscience" genre in a film that took on the deep-seated but subtle antisemitism of mid-century corporate America. Twelve O'Clock High was the first of many successful war films in which Peck embodied the brave, effective, yet human fighting man. Among his other films were Spellbound (1945), The Paradine Case (1947), The Gunfighter (1950), Moby Dick (1956), The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956), On the Beach (1959), which brought to life the terrors of global nuclear war, The Guns of Navarone (1961), and Roman Holiday (1953), with Audrey Hepburn in her Oscar-winning role. Peck and Hepburn were close friends until her death; Peck even introduced her to her first husband, Mel Ferrer.

Peck once again teamed up with director William Wyler in the epic Western The Big Country (1958), which he co-produced. Peck won the Academy Award with his fifth nomination, playing Atticus Finch, a Depression-era lawyer and widowed father, in a film adaptation of the Harper Lee novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Released in 1962 during the height of the US civil rights movement in the South, this film and his role were Peck's favorites. In 2003, Peck's portrayal of Atticus Finch was named the greatest film hero of the past 100 years by the American Film Institute. Peck served as the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1967, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American Film Institute from 1967 to 1969, Chairman of the Motion Picture and Television Relief Fund in 1971, and National Chairman of the American Cancer Society in 1966. He was a member of the National Council on the Arts from 1964 to 1966.

A physically powerful man, he was known to do a majority of his own fight scenes, rarely using body or stunt doubles. In fact, Robert Mitchum, his on-screen opponent in Cape Fear, told about the time Peck once accidentally punched him for real during their final fight scene in the movie. He felt the impact for days afterward. Peck's rare attempts at villainous roles were not acclaimed. Early on, he played the renegade son in the Western Duel in the Sun and, later in his career, the infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele in The Boys from Brazil co-starring Laurence Olivier. Later work In the 1980s, Peck moved to television, where he starred in the mini-series The Blue and the Gray, playing Abraham Lincoln. He also starred with Christopher Plummer, John Gielgud, and Barbara Bouchet in the television film The Scarlet and The Black, about Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, a real-life Catholic priest in the Vatican who smuggled Jews and other refugees away from the Nazis during World War II. Peck, Mitchum, and Martin Balsam all had roles in the 1991 remake of Cape Fear directed by Martin Scorsese.

All three were in the original 1962 version. In the remake, Peck played Max Cady's lawyer. His last prominent film role also came in 1991, in Other People's Money, directed by Norman Jewison and based on the stage play of that name. Peck played a business owner trying to save his company against a hostile takeover bid by a Wall Street liquidator played by Danny DeVito. Peck retired from active film-making at that point. Peck spent the last few years of his life touring the world doing speaking engagements in which he would show clips from his movies, reminisce, and take questions from the audience. He did come out of retirement for a 1998 miniseries version of one of his most famous films, Moby Dick, portraying Father Mapple (played by Orson Welles in the 1956 version), with Patrick Stewart as Captain Ahab, the role Peck played in the earlier film. It would be his final performance, and it won him the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film.

Peck had been offered the role of Grandpa Joe in the 2005 film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but died before he could accept it. The Irish actor David Kelly was then given the part. Politics In 1947, while many Hollywood figures were being blacklisted for similar activities, Peck signed a letter deploring a House Un-American Activities Committee investigation of alleged communists in the film industry. A lifelong supporter of the Democratic Party, Peck was suggested in 1970 as a possible Democratic candidate to run against Ronald Reagan for the office of California Governor. Although he later admitted that he had no interest in being a candidate himself for public office, Peck encouraged one of his sons, Carey Peck, to run for political office. Carey was defeated both times by slim margins in races in 1978 and 1980 against Republican U.S. Representative Bob Dornan, another former actor. In an interview with the Irish media, Peck revealed that former President Lyndon Johnson had told him that, had he sought re-election in 1968, he intended to offer Peck the post of U.S.

ambassador to Ireland – a post Peck, owing to his Irish ancestry, said he might well have taken, saying "[It] would have been a great adventure". The actor's biographer Michael Freedland substantiates the report and says that Johnson indicated that his presentation of the Medal of Freedom to Peck would perhaps make up for his inability to confer the ambassadorship. President Richard Nixon, though, placed Peck on his enemies list owing to his liberal activism. Peck was outspoken against the Vietnam War, while remaining supportive of his son, Stephen, who fought there. In 1972, Peck produced the film version of Daniel Berrigan's play The Trial of the Catonsville Nine about the prosecution of a group of Vietnam protesters for civil disobedience. Despite his reservations about American general Douglas MacArthur as a man, Peck had long wanted to play him on film, and did so in MacArthur in 1976. In 1978, Peck traveled to Alabama, the setting of To Kill a Mockingbird, to campaign for Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Donald W. Stewart of Anniston, who defeated the Republican candidate, James D. Martin, a former U.S.

representative from Gadsden. In 1987, Peck undertook the voice-overs for television commercials opposing President Reagan's Supreme Court nomination of conservative judge Robert Bork. Bork's nomination was defeated. Peck was also a vocal supporter of a worldwide ban of nuclear weapons, and a lifelong advocate of gun control. Personal life and death In October 1942, Peck married Finnish-born Greta Kukkonen (1911–2008), with whom he had three sons, Jonathan (1944–75), Stephen (b. 1946), and Carey Paul (b. 1949). They were divorced on December 30, 1955. During his marriage with Greta, Peck had a brief affair with Spellbound costar Ingrid Bergman. He confessed the affair to Brad Darrach of People in a 1987 interview, saying "All I can say is that I had a real love for her (Bergman), and I think that's where I ought to stop... I was young. She was young.

We were involved for weeks in close and intense work." On December 31, 1955, the day after his divorce was finalized, Peck married Veronique Passani (1932–2012), a Paris news reporter who had interviewed him in 1952 before he went to Italy to film Roman Holiday. He asked her to lunch six months later and they became inseparable. They had a son, Anthony Peck (b. 1956), and a daughter, Cecilia Peck. The couple remained married until Gregory Peck's death. His daughter Cecilia lives in Los Angeles. Peck had grandchildren from both marriages. Peck owned the thoroughbred steeplechase race horse Different Class, which raced in England. The horse was favored for the 1968 Grand National but finished third. Peck was close friends with French president Jacques Chirac. Peck was Roman Catholic and once considered entering the priesthood. Later in his career, a journalist asked Peck if he was a practicing Catholic. Peck answered, "I am a Roman Catholic. Not a fanatic, but I practice enough to keep the franchise. I don't always agree with the Pope...

there are issues that concern me, like abortion, contraception, the ordination of women...and others." His second marriage was performed by a justice of the peace, and not the Roman Catholic Church, because the Church prohibits multiple sacramental marriages when both spouses of a sacramental marriage are still living and have not had their original marriage annulled. Peck was a significant fundraiser for a priest friend of his (Father Albert O'Hara), and served as co-producer of a cassette recording of the New Testament with his son Stephen. On June 12, 2003, Peck died in his sleep at home from bronchopneumonia at the age of 87. His wife, Veronique, was by his side. Gregory Peck is entombed in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels mausoleum in Los Angeles, California. His eulogy was read by Brock Peters, whose character, Tom Robinson, was defended by Peck's Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. Awards and honors Peck was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning once.

He was nominated for The Keys of the Kingdom (1945), The Yearling (1946), Gentleman's Agreement (1947) and Twelve O'Clock High (1949). He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird. In 1968 he received the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Peck also received many Golden Globe awards. He won in 1947 for The Yearling, in 1963 for To Kill a Mockingbird, and in 1999 for the TV mini series Moby Dick. He was nominated in 1978 for The Boys from Brazil. He received the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1969, and was given the Henrietta Award in 1951 and 1955 for World Film Favorite – Male. In 1969, US President Lyndon Johnson honored Peck with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. In 1971 the Screen Actors Guild presented Peck with the SAG Life Achievement Award.

In 1989 the American Film Institute gave Peck the AFI Life Achievement Award. He received the Crystal Globe award for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema in 1996. In 1986, Peck was honored alongside actress Gene Tierney with the first Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival Spain for their body of work. In 1987, Peck was awarded the George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film. In 1993, Peck was awarded with an Honorary Golden Bear at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival. In 1998, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. In 2000, Peck was made a Doctor of Letters by the National University of Ireland. He was a founding patron of the University College Dublin School of Film, where he persuaded Martin Scorsese to become an honorary patron. Peck was also chairman of the American Cancer Society for a short time. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Gregory Peck has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6100 Hollywood Blvd.

In November 2005 the star was stolen, and has since been replaced. On April 28, 2011, a ceremony was held in Beverly Hills, California celebrating the first day of issue of a U.S. postage stamp commemorating Peck. The stamp is the 17th commemorative stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series. Source: wikipedia.org Cape Fear (1962) - IMDb IMDb 17 January 2017 4:34 PM, UTC NEWS There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error A lawyer's family is stalked by a man he once helped put in jail.

Director: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 45 titles created 23 Jul 2013 a list of 34 titles created 03 Jan 2014 a list of 34 titles created 01 Aug 2015 a list of 49 titles created 30 Aug 2015 a list of 39 titles created 11 months ago Search for " Cape Fear " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. A convicted rapist, released from prison after serving a fourteen-year sentence, stalks the family of the lawyer who originally defended him. Director: Martin Scorsese A religious fanatic marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real daddy hid $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery. Director: Charles Laughton A private eye escapes his past to run a gas station in a small town, but his past catches up with him.

Now he must return to the big city world of danger, corruption, double crosses and duplicitous dames. Director: Jacques Tourneur A British team is sent to cross occupied Greek territory and destroy the massive German gun emplacement that commands a key sea channel. Director: J. Lee Thompson A New York man suffers amnesia. He soon learns that he's mixed up in a life-and-death situation, but what exactly is it? Director: Edward Dmytryk Edit Storyline Small-town lawyer Sam Bowden's life becomes torturous when Max Cady re-enters his life. Cady went to jail for 8 years after Bowden testified that Cady attacked a young woman. Now that Cady has been released, he begins to terrorize Bowden and his family, particularly targeting Bowden's daughter, Nancy. Initially, Cady uses his newfound knowledge of the law (learned in prison) to annoy the Bowdens, then poisons the family dog... Who's next ? Written by Chris Holland <cholland@atlantic.net> See All (175) » Taglines: Unparalleled suspense... as one becomes a target for nightmare.. the other becomes his target for execution!

(insert) See more » Genres: 12 April 1962 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Did You Know? Trivia Director J. Lee Thompson complained at the time that UK censor John Trevelyan had ruined the film by making extensive cuts, and the number of edits suggested ranged from 60 to over 100. Trevelyan later replied that he had made only 15 cuts, totalling around 6 minutes, with edits made to threatening dialogue and assault references, Cady's attack on Peggy, and all shots of him staring longingly at Nancy. All later UK video releases restored the cinema cuts. See more » Goofs For some strange reason, just after Sam shoots Cady, the shot of Cady from Sam's POV shows the branches of a bush superimposed on the bottom and left side of the frame. The tipoff is that when the camera moves the branches of the "bush" do not - they move along with the camera, as if they're glued onto the frame (which they are). See more » Quotes Max Cady : I got somethin' planned for your wife and kid that they ain't nevah gonna forget.

They ain't nevah gonna forget it... and neither will you, Counselor! Nevah! Stick With This One: The Original 25 April 2006 | by ccthemovieman-1 (United States) – See all my reviews Boy, this shows that you can still make a scary movie without a lot of blood, profanity and whatever. Hollywood didn't learn that, however, featuring all of it less than a decade after this was made. The Martin Scorcese re-make of this movie is exactly what I'm talking about. This original Cape Fear was legitimately scary, thanks to the performance of Robert Mitchum, who doesn't need to resort to the f-word to be a tough, sick and really an evil character as he stalks Gregory Peck and his wife (Polly Bergen) and daughter (Lori Martin). Bergan and Martin are two women I don't see too much in films which is too bad. They did a lot more TV work than movies. Another thing you don't see much anymore - a nice, sympathetic policeman - was also portrayed in here nicely by Martin Balsam.

The ending has some holes in it, to be sure, but overall it offers a good 106- minute suspense story. 70 of 89 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Cape Fear Reviews & Ratings - IMDb IMDb 108 out of 128 people found the following review useful: Not Scorcese's best, but pretty good! from London, United Kingdom 12 September 2000 Martin Scorcese's filmography as director is one of the most accomplished in modern film history. While Cape Fear can't even hold a candle next to "Taxi Driver", "Raging Bull" and "Goodfellas", it is still a fabulous remake of the 1962 noir classic and it keeps the viewer on the edge right through until the closing credits. Robert De Niro (in yet another brilliant teaming with Scorcese behind the camera) plays Max Cady, a psychopathic rapist who was sent to jail 14 years earlier for such crimes. He leaves prison with vengeance. Not for his victims or his prosecutor, but his defence councillor, Sam J. Bowden, played by Nick Nolte.

It seems Bowden did not defend Cady to the best of his ability. Cady knows this and wants some payback. Cady's initial return into Bowden's life could not have come at a worse time. Bowden has been forced to move his family to Florida after his infidelities threatened his marriage and career. His wife is distrustful and worst of all, Bowden is on the verge of beginning another affair with a female workmate. Added to that, his daughter is at the difficult age of 15. Almost by ozmosis, Cady understands these problems in the Bowden household and acts on them. He begins terrorising Bowden and his whole family, taking it from one extreme to the next. What makes Cape Fear such a good film is the rapidly increasing sense of claustrophobia. Scorcese makes a point of using almost only close up shots towards the end of the film. It is a great touch that makes the viewer that much more scared as the film goes on. Along with that, Robert De Niro is superb as Cady. Only occasionally does the role slip into parody. Mostly he is expertly evil.

Nick Nolte is good if not great, the same for Jessica Lange as Leigh Bowden. It seems as if they were void of any great lines in this film, which is unfortunate given their immense talent. Julliette Lewis is absolutely brilliant as the young daughter, Danielle. She slips effortlessly between curious sexual awakenings, rebellious teen and straight thinking woman. Add in small roles for Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck (the leads of the 1962 version) and you have a great ensemble cast. So not the best Scorcese film ever, but some tight editing, great camerawork, a haunting theme and devilishly over-the-top acting help make this a frighteningly fun movie to watch. Strongly recommended. Was the above review useful to you? 116 out of 163 people found the following review useful: The Great Un-American Classic! from Troy, NY 30 April 2005 This brutal, violent and suspenseful thriller combines a scorching performance by Robert Deniro, sumptuous location photography, and a powerful script that raises disturbing questions about religion, sex, and class distinctions in our so-called classless society.

At first glance Max Cady seems to be just another creep, a rapist and convict out to torment and humiliate a nice, upper-middle class family. "He's an ex-con," yuppie lawyer Sam Bowden smugly says, with fatuous self-satisfaction. But gradually it becomes apparent that things are not what they seem. The wholesome, "superior" middle class family is rotten with corruption, while the vicious, "psychotic" ex-con is a man of extraordinary courage, intelligence, and spiritual strength. Even his most horrible acts of violence are connected to the corrupt and self-serving behavior of his "betters." What makes this movie work so well is that director Martin Scorsese breaks away from his usual mean streets milieu. If Max Cady had been an Italian wise guy, the movie would have made excuses for him. The outcome would have been predictable. But here the great director remains an impartial observer of criminal behavior, rather than a sentimental apologist for ethnic violence.

(As in GANGS OF NEW YORK.) Max Cady is pure evil, but he speaks the truth about the evil of allowing class distinctions to flourish in a so-called "democracy." When it came out, this movie was reviled by critics, especially by effete yuppies like Terence Rafferty at GQ and VANITY FAIR. Most of them whined about the violence, but it was painfully clear that what really disturbed them was the possibility that an ugly ex-con really could be smarter, tougher, and more virtuous than a spoiled yuppie lawyer. Shocking!!! from Deming, New Mexico, USA 7 April 2004 The climaxes are emblematic of the differences between Scorcese's version and the original. In 1962, Mitchum was ordinary, ironic, sneaky. Peck was Peck. And the climax was quiet. Crickets chirped. There was no wind. Bodies crept around in black shadows or splashed together in shallow water. In this one, Nolte is a lawyer who has broken the code and DeNiro is his nemesis, tatooed, obscene, half his face burned off, a raving maniac.

Not sinister, just absolutely loco. And the confrontation is situated in a howling gale, earsplitting noise, rushing rapids, the groan of fiberglass hull splitting on rocks, blood all over the place. I don't know that one version is in any objective sense better than the other, although I vastly prefer the earlier version. I liked Mitchum's character better. He was quite ordinary in an extraordinary way. But from the beginning DeNiro seems to overplay the role. His accent, redolent of grits and red-eye gravy, seems to sit uncomfortably on him (maybe he's played in too many New York movies), whereas Mitchum's sly Southern drawl comes out oh so naturally. And that sinister grin of Mitchum's is worth a dozen lessons at the Actor's Studio. But there is one scene in which DeNiro outdoes Mitchum in terms of sheer impact. It's when the wrecked houseboat is being swept out into the raging river with DeNiro shackled to a stanchion about to be drowned. DeNiro launches into this fit of screaming nonsense and singing gibberish hymns, insane in a way you'll never be. It's an explosive performance.

Juliette Lewis is remarkable too. Her "umms" and "ahhs" and other hesitations fit her barely nubile personality exactly. Her scene with DeNiro in the mock Schwarzwald of the high school auditorium is impossible not to admire. Nick Nolte and Jessica Lange turn in professional performances, as do the other principal actors. I'm not sure why I like the earlier version better. Maybe because it was so awesomely simple a story compared to this one. There was good and there was evil. We all know the world doesn't work that way, but it's fascinating to watch a simple-minded tale being spun out like a well-told fairy story. This one invites us to think about things. Unlike Lori Martin in 1962, Juliette Lewis gets a temporary case of the hots for the well-read and manipulative ex-con. And unlike Peck in 1962, Nolte has committed sins. He held back information that might have helped his client, DeNiro, because he was convinced that DeNiro was guilty and should be put away.

I can't figure out what Jessica Lange or the dog did, but everybody has to be redeemed anyway because of original sin. Scorcese's Catholicism may be showing. Overall, this is flashier in every respect than the original -- more guns, more blood, more "force majeur" -- and maybe that's part of the problem. At times it looks as much like pandering to an audience of kids raised on MTV's quick cuts and sexy bodies and on Sly Stallone's action movies. I mean that at times it felt like the movie was talking down to the audience. Still, it's an interesting movie in its own right. Not badly done. But I wish they'd stop pushing out remakes of classics. Leave well enough alone because otherwise you're liable to find yourself in Dante's Purgatorio. Was the above review useful to you? 51 out of 66 people found the following review useful: One of the better thrillers of the 90's from Greenville, NY 9 December 2004 I have wanted to see this movie for quite some time, and I finally saw it, and I thought that it was great.

I am a huge Martin Scorsese fan, and I would have to say this is one of his most true to life films, even though its not his best film. The acting is great,and so is the music. The film will send shivers through your body. This is also one of DeNiro's most underrated performances and deserved more attention at the time of its release. Its also great to see some of the actors from the original version show up in cameo roles. If you like horror films and thrillers, you will most likely enjoy this. ***1/2 out of ****. A recommended viewing. Was the above review useful to you? 68 out of 100 people found the following review useful: A disturbing and intense thriller from Chicago, Illinois 26 January 2005 You've pretty much read it in my comments, I am a huge fan of M.S. and R.D. But honestly, I watched "Cape Fear" because I bought "The Simpsons" 5th season on DVD, and I had no idea that the Sideshow Bob episode where he tries to kill Bart was based on this movie.

So, I knew I had to rent this movie if it was good enough to parody on "The Simpsons". And it was very disturbing to watch. Robert DeNiro is one of my favorite actors, and he completely freaked me out in this film. Especially the scene between him and Juliette Lewis. Even though in some ways this film is done a little over the top, it all adds together very well. I was very impressed with this film and would recommend it to Martin Scorsesse fans of course. Even though I wouldn't say this was his best work, it is one of his best thrillers though. 9/10 from NC 10 April 2001 Robert De Niro is one of those actors that just melts into a role. His performance as rapist, convict, and all-around not-a-very-nice fellow Max Cady is certainly one of his most memorable performances for its stamina, strength, and excessiveness. The film by Martin Scorsece is a remake of the classic film starring Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck. Although Scorsece keeps the spirit of the film intact, he does make some very modern changes.

He changes the role of Sam Bowden and family from one of harmony to dysfunction. No character is the epitome of a universal good, but rather flawed(very flawed) goodness. Nick Nolte does a fine job as Bowden and Jessica Lange and Juliette Lewis both give deep, emotional performances. The film is really a sea of emotion...most of that emotion being fear. Scorsece adds some arty touches with the camera, but it is his gritty style that really dominates the film's impact. Scorsece also is ever the protector of film as he gives cameos to Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, and Martin Balsam(all in the original film). The other acting standout goes to Joe Don Baker as a hired private investigator. But make no mistake....this is De Niro's film all the way. He has some of the best lines as he harasses the Bowden family, terrorizes the Bowden family, and strips the Bowden family of all civility, pretense, and dignity. This film is definitely a keeper! Was the above review useful to you?

40 out of 61 people found the following review useful: Robert DeNiro truly gives this movie its element of fear from Portland, Oregon, USA 24 May 2005 To me, it's amazing that there's actually a place in North Carolina called Cape Fear, but it provides the perfect setting for this movie. Several years after attorney Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) defended convicted rapist Max Cady (Robert DeNiro), Cady gets out of jail and decides that Bowden didn't do a good job defending him. After Sam and Max meet each other a few times, Max starts getting crazier and crazier. After he tries to enter Sam's house, Sam and his family go into hiding at Cape Fear. Then, the terror really begins. Martin Scorsese brought a unique intensity to movies like "Mean Streets" and "Taxi Driver", but this is something completely different. Whereas his earlier movies simply made you identify with the characters, "Cape Fear" makes you both identify with the characters and find them unpleasant. Not only Max Cady, but also the Bowdens.

They are never the "ideal American family", but Cady's threats against them make them get progressively nastier in their attitudes towards each other and to other people. I think that it's safe to say that after watching "Cape Fear", you will never look at any person the same way again. Was the above review useful to you? 29 out of 45 people found the following review useful: Seeking Retribution from Sparta, IL 29 April 2003 Robert De Niro plays Max Cady, an illiterate criminal who has been imprisoned for fourteen years on rape and battery charges. Nick Nolte plays Sam Bowden, Cady's lawyer who intentionally buried a valuable document, which may have allowed Cady's prison sentence to be significantly shorter. Cady learns to read while in prison. He starts with 'See Spot Run,' then proceeds to study law books. Cady's rage and desire for revenge grows with each additional day that he is in prison. Although Cady's original prison sentence was only eight years, it is increased to fourteen years due to battery of another inmate. He memorizes the Bible and tattoos his body with scripture referring to vengeance.

When Cady is finally released from prison, he immediately seeks out Bowden and his family. Cady has become a scripture slinging psychopath hell bent on revenge. The director Martin Scorsese is attempting to prove that everyone has skeletons in their closet. Bowden might appear to be a terrific lawyer and loving family man on the surface, but underneath the perfect image lies a cheating husband and corrupt lawyer. Scorsese also shows how powerful the emotion of revenge can be and how it can distort ones version of what is right and wrong. Scorsese demonstrates this by showing Cady's knowledge of scripture and his acceptance of the terror that he is inflicting on the Bowden family. Scorsese's use of cameo appearances by Robert Mithcum and Gregory Peck was brilliant. The fact that they played such opposite roles in the original film was an interesting twist. I enjoyed the original 1962 version more than this remake, but I feel that the blood being in color definitely added to the terror that this film inflicts. Was the above review useful to you?

31 out of 51 people found the following review useful: Not in his (Scorsese's) best, but definately has it's moments of glory from United States 24 March 2001 Martin Scorsese takes his first whack at the horror/thriller genre with a remake of the 1962 classic of the same title. While I can not truthfully say the original was better due to the fact that I never saw the original, I have a feeling that Scorsese has brought his maestro touch to the film that changes it slightly from the original to make it better, because this is quite the suspenser. Here, a very dangerous and evil man named Max Cady (played in one of the best villain roles of the 90's by Robert De Niro) gets out of jail after 14 years of imprisonment, and decides to get vengeance on the lawyer (Nick Nolte) and his family (Jessica Lange the mother and a young and supple Juliette Lewis as the daughter).

At times the film is surprisingly slow, but the film is never boring, and suspense is always in the air; the climax/ending contains some of Scorsese and De Niro's finest work. Also, De Niro steals the show as the animal Cady by making the person who is supposed to be the hero into a flawed character, thereby turning the film almost into a Film-noir, which is quite a feat for Scorsese and company. Not perfect, but it shouldn't be. Those are Scorsese's parents briefly buying fruit. A- Was the above review useful to you? 14 out of 19 people found the following review useful: Don't Give A Psycho A Grudge from Buffalo, New York 14 May 2008 Even though Robert DeNiro was nominated for Best Actor for this Martin Scorsese directed remake of Cape Fear, my heart is still with the original. The multi-tattooed voluminous DeNiro is far less menacing than Robert Mitchum was in the original. One thing Scorsese did was change the billing to reflect the importance of the characters.

Mitchum was billed second to Gregory Peck, the upright attorney who Mitchum threatened and stalked along with Peck's family. Then again Peck was producing the original Cape Fear so of course he was first billed. Part of the problem was that with some 20 to 30 minutes additional running time Scorsese used it to make his characters a bit more complex. DeNiro was a real basket case as Max Cady in this one whereas Robert Mitchum was just plain no good. Nick Nolte plays attorney Sam Bowden and he's also far more complex and not such a good guy. In the original film Peck was an attorney, but he was a witness in the trial that convicted Cady of rape. Here he was Cady's attorney and he tanked the case because Cady was such a psycho he deserved to be behind bars. Cady in fact does have a grudge of sorts against him. And it's not good to get a psycho mad at you. Also Peck and his whole family which consisted of Polly Bergen and Lori Martin back in the original was your basic all American white bread family. Their very wholesomeness made the scope of Mitchum stalking them all the more frightening.

Nolte and Jessica Lange have marital problems and their daughter Juliette Lewis is not Mary Poppins. Not that they deserved what DeNiro was going to do to them, but it does blunt the impact of the scope of his evil. Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, and Martin Balsam from the original cast all played supporting parts here. But while the film that Scorsese did is a good one, their presence made me all the more hunger for the original. Was the above review useful to you? Page 1 of 27: Cape Fear - TV Tropes Cape Fear You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account Share Note: This page was cut for reason: Unneeded Main/ redirect to work page. [Morgenthaler] Creating red links in 1 articles. Abandoning 14 inbound links. You may want to ask in Ask The Tropers about whether it's safe to recreate. Inexact title. See the list below. We don't have an article named Main/CapeFear, exactly. We do have: YMMV/Cape Fear If you meant one of those, just click and go.

If you want to start a Main/CapeFear page, just click the edit button above. Be careful, though, the only things that go in the Main namespace are tropes and should be created through the YKTTW system. Don't put in redirects for shows, books, etc.. Use the right namespace for those. TVTROPES Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Cape Fear Customer Reviews 4.5 out of 5 stars 374 Price:$9.19+ Free shipping with Amazon Prime Your rating( Clear )Rate this item One person found this helpful 5.0 out of 5 starsA masterpiece thriller from the legendary Martin Scorsese ByFilms4Lifeon September 13, 2016 Cape Fear often gets overlooked from Scorsese's other classics but it is just as excellent as the best of the best of his catalog. It's superbly crafted and acted and is very complex and suspenseful. It's script is brilliant with how it uses the ins and outs of the law to incorporate a masterfully paced thriller. The cinematography is really something and it's Florida locations are perfect. The performances are all stellar.

This is probably the last all out no holes barred performance of De Niro's career. Nick Nolte is terrific as his ex lawyer and dad of the family being terrorized. Jessica Lange is very good and Juliette Lewis is outstanding as the complex daughter which earned her an Oscar. Also Joe Don Baker is fantastic playing one of the best private detectives in film history. Cape Fear is much much more than your standard psycho thriller and it's extremely thrilling watching everything involving the law throughout the story. The blu ray is excellent and is a must own. One person found this helpful 2.0 out of 5 starsVery confusing, overdramatic, and unneeded ByKyaruzion September 28, 2015 Offered little to no suspense, supported by flamboyant and unfitting music and not a particularly good cast. Nick Nolte makes an unlikeable lawyer, but at the same time, an underdog-type. He's very confusing and I hated his dynamic with his daughter. The wife was actually very nice and had a lot of great moments, but Juliette Lewis, I'm sorry to say, was just kind of mehh.

Robert Di Nero's performance is the only reason to watch this movie, and even his preachy mumbling gets old near the end. The way the movie goes is one terrible thing happening and then another and then another almost to the point of comedy. And fighting on the boat like 3 or 4 times and then fighting more, I mean, was just overkill. Martin Scorsese's worst definitely and I don't know what he was thinking when he made this movie. THe biggest problem the movie has is we don't know what it's trying to aim at when it comes to story. For instance, their constant fighting and the daughter having to crank up the music makes the parents into an antagonist figure. We never know if we are supposed to root for the rude and stupid lawyer or the villainous and overly-subtle Robert Di Nero.. A movie much better was Straw Dogs, about a wife and her husband moving to a small town for a summer. THroughout the movie, the husband proves to be very whimpy and kind of passive-aggressive and by the end, the main villains force him to overcome his weaknesses and strike back in very violent ways. That's why I particularly see a problem with very unlikeable main characters.

Format: DVD | Verified Purchase Thirty years after J. Lee Thompson brought John D. MacDonald's dark revenge thriller to the screen, Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear pays homage to original and ads a few new odds and ends. The story stays relatively intact; Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) and his family are being stalked by a psychotic rapist named Max Cady who served a 14 year prison term. Bowden was Cady's lawyer but he surpressed the evidence of the victim having a loose sexual history. Cady is out and now seeking revenge. I would say, overall, this is a decent film that has it's own new twists. The Bowden Family in this film is a sharp contrast to the one in the 1962 original; Sam and Leigh Bowden fight almost constantly and their daughter Danny is miserable as a result. Sam also has a close lady friend and maybe a little arrogant for his own good. Another great idea was Cady taking the opprotunity of the poor family situation to stalk the Bowden family one by one.

There is a very tense scene with Danny Bowden and Cady and the film now free of the prudish censors of the 1960's, it's highly sexualized. Scorsese directs with a technical expertise that pays to homage to the old Universal thrillers of yesteryear. Unfortunately, this is not as good as it sounds. First, the problem with making The Bowden Family so troubled is that it distracts from the plot. We have scenes that akwardly go back and forth between The Bowden's arguing and worrying about the looming threat of Max Cady. This bickering between the couple seemed more like a way to kill time. The film also seemed so desperate to promote as much sacrilege as possible from Cady. That also lead to another problem; Cady just talked too much in the film. He constantly pops out of nowhere to a make long, pretentious speeches filled with bible verses and just leaves. Again, this seemed like a lot of filler and did not advance the story. The final act is definetly when everything fell apart because it's so over the top and stupid, you'd think it was from a James Cameron film instead of a Scorsese work.

We two climaxes; One at the Bowden house and then again on the Cape Fear river. The showdown at the Cape Fear river was just awful; We have Cady as superhuman mutant surviving his head being set on fire and multiple bashes to the head with a rock and all this occuring with a huge thunderstorm destroying the Bowden's house boat. What started as a good film just got worse over time. As I said before, overall, it's a decent film but you'd be better off sticking with the original. 0Comment | 3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Report abuse Comment Cape Fear (1962) Cape Fear Tuesday March, 21 2017 at 11:30 PM Films in BOLD will Air on TCM * | VIEW TCMDb ENTRY In the annals of screen psychopaths, there are few who can top Robert Mitchum's Max Cady in the 1962 version of Cape Fear. A convicted sex offender who is released from prison after serving a six year sentence, Cady is a walking time bomb, bidding his time until he can take revenge on the prosecutor who put him away.

Everything about him exudes menace, from his hooded eyes and insouciant sexual swagger to his smirking, undisguised contempt for everyone he meets. Mitchum was born to play this role and he applies the same relentless intensity to the part that he brought to his portrayal of Harry Powell, the homicidal preacher from The Night of the Hunter (1955). Gregory Peck actually deserves the credit for casting Mitchum as Max Cady and taking the more low-key role of attorney Sam Bowden. After buying the rights to the John D. MacDonald novel, The Executioners, Peck reassembled several previous collaborators who had served him well in the past, namely J. Lee Thompson, who had just helmed the enormously successful war adventure, The Guns of Navarone (1961), producer Sy Bartlett and screenwriter James Webb. Initially, Rod Steiger and Telly Savalas were considered for the part of Cady but once Mitchum became a possibility, Peck pushed for his commitment. At first Mitchum didn't want to do the film but finally relented after Peck and Thompson delivered a case of bourbon to his home. His reply, "Ok, I've drunk your bourbon.

I'm drunk. I'll do it." For Mitchum, Cape Fear was a homecoming of sorts. Partially filmed in Savannah, Georgia, it marked the actor's return to a city where he had once been arrested for vagrancy and sentenced to hard labor on a chain gang. At the same time, Mitchum was still on probation from a previous charge of marijuana possession. The irony of playing an ex-con certainly wasn't lost on the actor; he had clashed with the law many times before and understood hard-bitten losers like Max Cady intimately. J. Lee Thompson recalled (in Lee Server's biography, Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care), "..when we had the violent scenes, he did work himself up. When he was playing one of those scenes he looked at you like he was going to kill you....There was a scene with Barrie Chase, where he's being very rough with her. And I had to stop filming at one or two points to let things cool down...Barrie Chase was frightened of him; I know that because she told me so. She admired him, as everyone did.

But, you know, he made people frightened." The most difficult scenes to shoot, however, were the climactic confrontations at the film's end when Cady closes in on Bowden and his family, hiding out in a houseboat on a remote part of the Cape Fear river. In Server's book, Thompson said that Mitchum "liked getting in the water and having that fight with Greg. I'm not too sure about Greg liking it, because he was on the receiving end. He had to be forced underwater, and Mitchum kept him under there for quite a long time. We devised a code so that Peck could come up if it was getting too much for him. But sometimes Mitchum overstepped the line. I mean, he was meant to be drowning Greg, and he really took it to the limit." His scenes with Polly Bergen, playing Bowden's terrorized wife, were equally intense and included one particularly disturbing bit of improvisation - Mitchum cracking raw eggs on the actress and smearing them over her breasts. The scene builds to Cady physically attacking Bowden's wife and, during the filming (according to Server), Mitchum ripped his hand open on a cabinet.

Bergen recalled, "His hand was covered in blood, my back was covered in blood. We just kept going, caught up in the scene. They came over and physically stopped us." The Production Code Administration still wielded power in the film industry in the early sixties and Cape Fear was certainly a cause for concern for them. After reviewing the film, suggestions were made to remove "1) All shots which concentrate on the middle part of the pursuer's body," 2) the line, "Nancy is getting to be almost as juicy as your wife," 3) the line, "I kept her busy for three days," and 4) the action of Cady kneeing a man in the groin." (From Gregory Peck: A Filmography by Molyneaux). The repeated use of the word "rape" was also substituted with "attack" but the film still encountered problems from the British censors who demanded 161 cuts! Cape Fear was finally released there shorn of six minutes of footage. Because of the film's disturbing nature, critical reviews were mixed.

Brendan Gill of The New Yorker was especially appalled, writing, "It purports to be a thriller but is really an exercise in sadism, and everyone concerned with this repellent attempt to make a great deal of money out of a clumsy plunge into sexual pathology should be thoroughly ashamed of himself. What on earth is Gregory Peck doing in such a movie?" Yet, the film's claustrophobic sense of impending terror and Mitchum's mesmerizing performance are hard to dismiss lightly. Perhaps some critics complained because the filmmakers succeeded too well in unsettling their audience. In 1991, Cape Fear was remade by director Martin Scorsese who scored a box-office hit with it. Luckily, Gregory Peck, who owned the property, finally made good on his initial investment (the 1961 version was only a modest success) plus he got to appear in a cameo role as a sleazy Southern lawyer (one critic wrote, "Mr. Peck might have been Atticus Finch's evil twin thirty years later.") Robert Mitchum and Martin Balsam, who also appeared in the 1961 version, also had bit parts.

Although many people were impressed by Robert De Niro's portrayal of Max Cady as a Bible-quoting, Pentecostal lunatic - he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar - Mitchum's performance is still hard to top in terms of his imposing physicality and reptilian-like menace. Whereas De Niro's Cady is flamboyantly crazy, dressing up in drag or quoting from Popeye cartoons, Mitchum's killer is a more quietly unpredictable predator, suggesting countless, untold perversions lurking just beneath the surface, ready to erupt. Producer: Sy Bartlett Screenplay: James R. Webb, John D. MacDonald (novel) Cinematography: Sam Leavitt Art Direction: Robert Boyle, Alexander Golitzen Music: Bernard Herrmann Cast: Gregory Peck (Sam Bowden), Robert Mitchum (Max Cady), Polly Bergen (Peggy Bowden), Lori Martin (Nancy Bowden), Martin Balsam (Police Chief Dutton), Jack Kruschen (Dave Grafton). BW-106m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.

Question: Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum and Martin Balsam had cameo roles in the 1991 remake of what 1962 film in which they starred?
Answer: Cape Fear