Cape Fear (1962 film)
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| Cape Fear | |
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 Cape Fear movie poster |
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| Directed by | J. Lee Thompson |
| Produced by | Sy Bartlett |
| Written by | John D. MacDonald (novel The Executioners) James R. Webb |
| Starring | Gregory Peck Robert Mitchum Polly Bergen Lori Martin |
| Music by | Bernard Herrmann |
| Cinematography | Sam Leavitt |
| Editing by | George Tomasini |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | April 12, 1962 |
| Running time | 105 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Cape Fear is a 1962 film starring Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum and Polly Bergen. It was adapted by James R. Webb from the novel The Executioners by John D. MacDonald. It was directed by J. Lee Thompson, and released on April 12, 1962. The movie concerns an attorney whose family is stalked by a criminal he helped to send to jail.
Cape Fear was remade in 1991 by Martin Scorsese. Peck, Mitchum and Martin Balsam all appeared in the remake.
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[edit] Plot
After spending eight years in prison for rape, Max Cady (Robert Mitchum) is released. He promptly tracks down Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck), a Georgia lawyer whom he holds personally responsible for his conviction because Sam interrupted his attack and also testified. Cady begins to stalk and subtly threaten Bowden's family. He murders the Bowden family dog, though Sam cannot prove this. A friend of Bowden's, police chief Mark Dutton (Martin Balsam), attempts to intervene on his behalf, but he cannot prove Cady guilty of any actual crime, including vagrancy.
Bowden hires Charlie Sievers (Telly Savalas), a private detective. Cady brutally attacks a young, promiscuous woman named Diane Taylor when she brings him home (Barrie Chase), but neither the private eye nor Bowden can persuade her to testify. Bowden hires three thugs to beat up Cady and persuade him to leave town, but the plan backfires when Cady gets the better of all three. Cady's lawyer vows to have Bowden disbarred. (In the original novel, Bowden's connection is never revealed and he is already negotiating with Sievers for another beating when the detective is transferred out of town).
Afraid for his wife Peggy (Polly Bergen) and 14-year-old daughter Nancy (Lori Martin), Bowden takes them to their houseboat in Cape Fear. In an attempt to trick Cady, Bowden makes it seem as though he has gone to a completely different location. He fully expects Cady to follow his wife and daughter, and he plans on killing Cady to end the battle. He and a local deputy hide nearby, but Cady realizes the deputy is there and kills him. Eluding Bowden, Cady first attacks Mrs. Bowden on the boat, causing Bowden to go to her rescue. Meanwhile, Cady swims back to shore to attack the daughter. Bowden realizes what has happened and also swims back.
It leads to a final violent fight on the riverbank between the two men. Bowden overpowers Cady but decides not to kill him, preferring to let him spend the rest of his life in jail. The film ends with the Bowden family sitting together on a boat the next morning.
[edit] Cast
- Gregory Peck as Sam Bowden
- Robert Mitchum as Max Cady
- Polly Bergen as Peggy Bowden
- Lori Martin as Nancy Bowden
- Martin Balsam as Mark Dutton
- Jack Kruschen as Dave Grafton
- Telly Savalas as Charlie Sievers
- Barrie Chase as Diane Taylor
- Paul Comi as George Garner
[edit] Production
[edit] Filming
Thompson had always envisioned the film in black and white prior to production. Being an Alfred Hitchcock fan, he wanted to have Hitchcockian elements in the film, such as unusual lighting angles, an eerie musical score, closeups and subtle hints rather than graphic depictions of the violence that Cady has in mind for the family.
The outdoor scenes were filmed on location in Savannah, Georgia, Stockton, California and in the Universal Studios Backlot at Universal City, California. The indoor scenes were done at Universal Studios Soundstage. Mitchum had a real-life aversion to Savannah, where as a teenager, he had been charged with vagrancy and put on a chain gang. This resulted in a number of the outdoor scenes being shot at Ladd's Marina in Stockton, California, including the culminating conflict on the houseboat at the end of the movie.
This scene where Mitchum attacks Polly Bergen's character on the houseboat was almost completely improvised. Before the scene was filmed, Thompson suddenly told a crew member: "Bring me a dish of eggs!" Mitchum rubbing the eggs on Bergen was not scripted and Bergen's reactions were real. She also suffered back injuries from being knocked around so much. She felt the impact of the "attack" for days.
In the source novel The Executioners by John D. MacDonald, Cady was a soldier court-martialed and convicted on then Lieutenant Bowden's testimony for the brutal rape of a 14-year-old girl. Again, the censors stepped in, citing that the word "rape" not appear and that having Cady as a soldier reflected adversely on U.S. military personnel.
[edit] Release and legacy
Although the word "rape" was entirely removed from the script before shooting, the film still enraged the censors, who were worried that "there was a continuous threat of sexual assault on a child". In order to be accepted, British censors required extensive editing and deleting of specific scenes. After making 161 cuts, it still nearly garnered an X rating (a British X rating meaning at the time; "Suitable for those aged 16 and older", not necessarily anything to do with pornographic content).
In April 2007, Newsweek selected Robert Mitchum's character as one of the ten best villains in cinema history. Cape Fear was also #36 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments for its famous scene where Max Cady attacks Sam's family.
The Internet Movie Database rates it as the 65th best trial movie, although there is no courtroom trial in the film.[1]
Max Cady ranks number 28 on the American Film Institute's list of the top 50 movie villains of all time.
[edit] Notes
[edit] Further reading
- Bergman, Paul; Asimow, Michael. (2006) Reel justice: the courtroom goes to the movies (Kansas City : Andrews and McMeel). ISBN 0740754602; ISBN 978-0740754609; ISBN 0836210352; ISBN 978-0836210354.
- Machura, Stefan and Robson, Peter, eds. Law and Film: Representing Law in Movies (Cambridge: Blackwell Publishing, 2001). ISBN 0631228160, ISBN 9780631228165 176 pages.
- Thain, Gerald J., "Cape Fear, Two Versions and Two Visions Separated by Thirty Years." ISBN 0631228160, ISBN 9780631228165 176 pages.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Cape Fear at the Internet Movie Database
- Cape Fear at AllRovi
- Cape Fear at Rotten Tomatoes
