Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

What do we need to be happy? 2 things: 1.Purpose and, 2.Love. Sam Bowden has both until Max Cady comes to town. And then he faces what we, who are happy, most fear, loss. How do we cope with that primitive fear, the one all happy people hold and fight all their lives? We isolate ourselves, insulate, ignore, and, ultimately, attack. This story is as basic, as brutal, and as universal as any story can be, and it as relevant today as it will be fifty years from now. The book's author and the original director understand something that the director of the remake totally failed to grasp. The terror lies in the fact that the Bowdens did absolutely nothing to deserve it. Life, and that minority of the human race tagged as psychopathic, need no rational reason to hate and persecute.

Comparisons with this and the 1991 Martin Scorsese film are inevitable. Both are worth watching in their own way, but am of the general consensus that the 1962 film is superior.Scorsese's film may be slicker, bigger and with more character complexities and expansive themes. However, the 1962 film while more subtle in comparison is more chilling, more tense and more suspenseful with the much better portrayal of Max Cady. A brilliant film in all respects, and a near-masterpiece.The cinematography is eerily stark yet also beautiful, while there is clever use of light and shadows that enhances the suitably uncomfortable atmosphere and the sets handsome but also atmospheric. Bernard Hermann, responsible for penning some of the all-time great film scores ('Vertigo' and 'Psycho' being big examples), provides a score that's sometimes lush but often unsettlingly haunting that increasingly adds to the growing and intensifying dread deftly.'Cape Fear's' script is taut and thoughtful, while the story is a master class of the gripping, genuinely shocking and the tension-laden, showing that one doesn't need violence and swearing to make an impression. Not just the nail-biting stalking scenes, but also the bowling alley scene that shows wonderfully how sadistic a character Cady is and especially the ending that still sends up chills up the spine and a brilliant mix of sexual tension and knuckle quivering. The cracking of an egg touch is improvisation at its finest.J. Lee Thompson directs adroitly, especially in the use of light and shadow and how effectively he allows the tension and suspense to mount up. A good cast helps which the film has. Robert Mitchum's performance has been praised for very good reason, but it is easy to overlook everybody else. Found myself appreciating Gregory Peck's quietly confident and subtly heroic performance (that contrasts very well with Mitchum's Cady), and while Polly Bergen and Lori Martin don't have as much to do in roles that are nowhere near as meaty (the film's sole weak spot to me actually) but they still fare well regardless, Bergen being especially powerful at the end.It is Mitchum's film all the way though. Even when smooth and subtle, Mitchum disappears into the role and gives one of the most sadistic, downright scary and memorably vicious human monsters on film.All in all, a brilliant film that just falls shy of being a masterpiece. 9/10 Bethany Cox

"A lawyer's family is stalked by a man he once helped put in jail." That was this very website's official synopsis for the film. And guess what. There really isn't a whole lot past the very written down narrative on screen.There is the fact a lot of scenes, perhaps three to four maybe five are totally unrealistic and help install a feeling of fictional cinematic experience rather than the atmosphere of poignant vivid suspense-driven thriller film than this Gregory Peck starring production promotes itself as being.There is a feeling of inevitability and predictability in how the developments occur, and this from the start to the very end.It holds up alright besides those points, but makes for too thick and unsubtle a viewing overall, and that can't be overlooked.

The scariest thing there is is the unpredictable, the unknown. I'm getting political for a second because I am beginning to see this as an eventuality for our country in the coming year. All that aside, in his role as Max Candy, Robert Mitchum becomes about as Satanic as one can be. He is always out there. Because he commits no specific acts, Gregory Peck's character cannot do anything. The police are forced to be on Cady's side. He becomes the persecuted. As time goes on the family constantly under surveillance and threat. It's not what happens; it's what is going to happen to them. These are common people who don't have the means to protect themselves. Mitchum's very appearance is threatening, a kind of smiling, "you don't know what I'm thinking" kind of monster. This is great casting. Peck plays the everyman. His daughter is pretty and the target of unnamed threats. Polly Bergen is the maternal one. A really scary film.