Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Robert Mitchum is the show in 1962's CAPE FEAR. Just to watch his Cady prowl and menace is to be Scared. Cady is a animal out for revenge. and he is smart and cunning and tough. Gregory Peck is Sam Bowdern the Lawyer who stopped Cady 8 years ago. Cady was trying to rape a 16 year old girl and he beat her and Sam saved her. Cady spent 8 years in jail. Now he's free and wants revenge and his revenge is terrorizing the Bowderns By using the very system that Sam serves and the same system that put Cady away for 8 years. Cady has devised a way to use that system as a weapon. Cape Fear was ahead of its time. No one actually thought anything like this could happen but now sadly it does all the time.Robert Mitchum gives Max Cady a air of menace. he's a brute that's always thinking always one step ahead. And Peck Gives Sam a Sense of justice he wants to do this legally even after that matter has been taken out of his hands.A dark moody Film noir that never disappoints.

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.

A lawyer (Gregory Peck)'s family is stalked by a man (Robert Mitchum) he once helped put in jail.This may be one of the greatest thrillers of all time. And why not? You have Mitchum, who is great at playing dark and evil characters. This one is by far his darkest and most evil. And then you have Gregory Peck, who is best known for playing upstanding citizens, most notably Atticus Finch. So seeing him as the hero is easy.And then you have a story that goes above and beyond. This was 1962, and movies were relatively tame by the standards of today (2015). But not this one. Threats of murder, blackmail, rape... this is a vicious movie that is legitimately scary, and not in the campy way that a lot of early thrillers now are.

Any overview of Cape Fear invariably brings comparisons to the '91 Scorsese remake. While Scorsese perhaps made a more engrossing and colourful adaptation, the '62 original remains tighter and more effortlessly chilling in its execution. Robert Mitchum was the original Max Cady before De Niro, a ruthlessly intelligent, sadistic felon who pursues Sam Bowden and his all-American family relentlessly. While De Niro in the remake felt more like an slasher movie villain, seemingly unstoppable in his almost supernatural pursuit of the Bowdens like a Michael Myers on steroids, here Mitchum's Cady is more akin to a weasel. He has the ability to squirm his way through every attempt to stop him within the confines of the law, using his knowledge of the system to harass Bowden without ever physically laying a finger on him. Some critics say that the remake covered up some plot discrepancies, by turning Bowden into Cady's lawyer, rather than just the witness that was Gregory Peck's character. But I for one find the notion of a phsycopath like Cady pursuing those he felt has wronged him in such an arbitrary fashion to be much more terrifying. It shows more how woefully unlucky Bowden was to wander into Cady's path, being picked out as a victim to pay undue penance for helping to put Cady away. Max Cady in this version is a hypnotic, soft-talking, but thoroughly unreasonable monster. Much more so than De Niro's. Perhaps it is a case of apples and oranges. Are there faults with Cape Fear? Perhaps, but only as a product of its time. Gregory Peck feels like little more than a rerun of his role as Atticus Finch, and the predictable scenario of the child in danger is a well worn plot device. However, the film more than makes up for any shortcomings with a gripping and suspenseful climax in the swamp of Cape Fear, with silent black and white figures grappling in the dark, muddy waters. The inevitable confrontation between Mrs. Bowden and Cady is a fine slice of close contact acting. Watch Cape Fear mainly to see one of the greatest villains to grace the screen. The scene of Mitchum slithering into the water like a reptile full of evil intent is worth the price of admission alone, whatever that may be.