Cape Fear (1962) on Netflix
PG19621h 46mCrimeDramaThriller
Attorney Sam Bowden interrupted a rape and testified against Max Cady, who served eight years for it. Released, Cady stalks the Bowden family in Southeast Georgia, staying just inside the law.
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb7.7/1036,111 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
Max Cady leaves prison after serving eight years for rape, holding Sam Bowden to blame for the conviction. Bowden, an attorney, interrupted the attack and testified at the trial. Now Cady follows the family around Southeast Georgia and aims his threats at Bowden's wife, Peggy, and their 14-year-old daughter, Nancy. Someone kills the family dog, and Bowden has no proof of who did it. Officers under police chief Mark Dutton press Cady, but Cady brings in a lawyer and threatens to sue the department. Dutton says there is nothing further the police can do without evidence of a crime, so Bowden seeks out a private investigator, Charlie Sievers.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Cape Fear (1962)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Robert Mitchum turned down the role of the vengeful ex-con Max Cady when it was first offered, and only accepted it after Gregory Peck and director J. Lee Thompson sent him flowers and a case of bourbon.
- The houseboat scene in which Max Cady attacks Peggy Bowden was almost entirely improvised: Thompson had a dish of eggs brought to the set, Mitchum rubbed them on Polly Bergen unscripted, and her reactions were real. She suffered back injuries from being knocked around.
- Robert Mitchum had a real-life aversion to Savannah, Georgia, where as a teenager he had been charged with vagrancy and put on a chain gang, so many outdoor scenes, including the final houseboat fight, were shot at Ladd's Marina in Stockton, California.
- British censors demanded extensive cuts before they would accept the film; after around six minutes were trimmed it still nearly earned an X rating, and director J. Lee Thompson said he made 161 cuts while the censor counted fifteen that took five minutes.
- In John D. MacDonald's source novel Cady was a soldier court-martialed for raping a 14-year-old girl, so censors banned the word "rape" from the film and objected that depicting Cady as a soldier reflected badly on U.S. military personnel.
- Director J. Lee Thompson wanted Hayley Mills, whom he had cast in Tiger Bay, to play the Bowdens' daughter Nancy, but she was unavailable.
- The film and its 1991 remake inspired the 1993 Simpsons episode "Cape Feare", in which Sideshow Bob stalks the family after leaving prison, and Anne Washburn's play Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play.
