Cape Fear
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Movie Reviews of Cape Fear
Movie Review: MITCHUM SHINES IN GREAT NOIR!
Summary: 5 Stars
The 1962 film version of Cape Fear succeeds because of the tight direction of J.LeeThompson,nearly Hitchcockian in its mood,greatly helped by an excellent Bernard Herrmann score(a frequent Hitchcock co-worker).a great script by James Webb(The Big Country) from a novel,THE EXECUTIONERS by John P.MacDonald,and first rate performaces by Gregory Peck,Robert Mitchum(the epitome of evil),Polly Bergen,(who should have been given many more dramatic roles) as Pecks' wife,Lori Martin,as his daughter,Martin Balsam,Jack Kruschen,Telly Savalas,and especially the beautiful Barrie Chase, as Diane Taylor a drifter picked up by Max Cady(Mitchum).It is a shame that she wasn't given more roles with "meat" to them,because here she is absolutely terrific.But it is Mitchums'film.His performance as the revenge minded ex-con, who is playing a high tension (sexual?) game of cat and mouse with Peck and his family,is one of the best in motion picture history!This film is NOT for the squimish,but it does stick to the film mores of the time and more is left to the imagination than to the eye.A GREAT THRILLER!! My only regret is,that the DVD does not have a voice-over commentary.ALL DVDs',but especially for films of this caliber should have them.Otherwise GREAT!I have NEVER seen the DeNiro version,but I cringe to think of what that one is like,and I have nothing against DeNiro, but only the excessive blood and gore of todays' films,which is totally unnecessary.Movie Review: Mitchum Is The Master!
Summary: 5 Stars
Robert Mitchum was menacing to watch in anything he made! His eyes snide and sleepy seem to underly thoughts of torture! Cape Fear the orignal film of course is the bset for this reason alone! Where DeNiro has nothingto draw on besides his acting talent and his ever present look of a man in straind bowell movement, Mitchum gives Max the most fearsome of all things and that is Mitchum himself his slow burning voice and imposing stature pop and haunt the viwer through the shadows and trees in the swamp and right into the haunts of the school where he chases Gregory Peck's (Sam) daughter. Peck as Sam is stoic and preserved giving the always wooden acting Peck's performance the ultimate realness. Mitchum makes you feel sympathy for him because peck seems perfect no troubles at all you wish for a crack in Peck's armor and when it happens the film makes sure you notice! Shocking and nightmarish in every way this flick makes the remake look like an expensive coaster! Even Lori Martin as Peck's daughter out acts Julliette lewis' performance in this flick she is deathly afraid of peck as if he is th boogey man of childhood lore opposed to the lustful dream in Lewis' remade nightmare. The final scenes leave you out of control with heart pounding action Mitchum's barrel chest and water soaked body makes his way into the boat house where the family is hidden and when he gently carress Peck's wife breasts the word tension take on a new snap!Movie Review: Cape Fear: Robert Mitchum is one of the great film stars
Summary: 5 Stars
J. Lee Thompson's 1962 film about an ex-con out for revenge is a superior thriller. Gregory Peck plays a lawyer who's testimony about a back alley beating put sexual sadist Max Cady (Robert Mitchum) behind bars. Mitchum serves his time and gets out of jail. He has only one thing on his mind, making Peck pay for taking away 5 years of his life. Polly Bergen (really beautiful), Telly Savalas, and Martin Balsam provide top notch support. Lori Martin plays Peck's teenage daughter and the primary target of Mitchum's revenge plot.
This good movie becomes a great movie because of Robert Mitchum. Mitchum is often critized as a lazy actor who sleepwalks through many of his roles. However, watch "Out of the Past", "Night of the Hunter", and this film, "Cape Fear", and I think you will have a hard time finding an equal to his talent and incredible range as an screen performer. Whether he is playing a flawed hero, warped man of the cloth, or sexual sadist, Mitchum shows no fear. He takes chances that few actors are brave enough to attempt and he succeeds. Mitchum's Max Cady performance in "Cape Fear" is so good you will wonder how some of the scenes ever got by the censors of the 60's. However, when you realize it not what you saw but what you knew Mitchum's character was THINKING that needs to be censored, you begin to understand the power of Mitchum's performance.
glpearman
Laguna Hills
Movie Review: A classic portrayal of true evil
Summary: 5 Stars
The late Robert Mitchum truly created one of the classic portrayals of evil as Max Cady. Instead of going for explicit violence and over the top craziness, as Scorsese and De Niro did in their remake, Mitchum creates a monster who is all the more fearsome for being calmly and icily sadistic and calculating. Moreover, Gregory Peck as the lawyer Sam Bowden provides a convincing contrast of goodness to Mitchum's evil in that he is portrayed at the outset as a truly virtuous man rather than as a morally compromised one (as Scorsese did with Nolte), who crosses the line (i.e. has toughs attempt to beat up Cady) soley in order to protect his family. There is also a tragic outcome to Peck's character in that even though he foiled Cady's attempt to destroy the innocence of his daughter by raping her, he is forever psychologically transformed by the hatred and vengeance Cady elicited from him (e.g. where after wounding Cady, he tells him that he will not shoot him to death, as Cady requests of him, because he wants Cady to suffer in prison for the rest of his days instead), thereby losing an innocence that he as a decent man had formerly possessed. Scorsese, in his preocupation with explicit violence and gore, never raises this issue.Furthermore, the director does a masterful job in maintaining an atmosphere of stifling fear and tension throughout and Bergen, Balsam and Savalas are all fine in their supporting roles.
Movie Review: Seeking for revenge!
Summary: 5 Stars
The forties , fifties and early sixties decades were somehow the golden ages of the film noir. However this last one had a major scope due the world's configuration . The Cold War `s phantoms (Crimson kimono, Manchurian candidate, Pick up on South Street), the fear for nuclear weapons (Kiss me deadly) made the scriptwriters turn their eyes for new profiles about the noir film. Even it found the criminal had his sensible heart -Rififi- and his weakness-Bob le flambeur- .
In this case, the legal aspects opened a huge gate for inspirational motives. Cape fear emblematizes as any other film in the fifties, the revenge in its purest and wildest fierceness. This brutal tale deals about a man who after being released from prison has not forgot who sent him. No matter if he was guilty or not; the point is he lost several productive years of his life and that issue has to be paid. Sadism and merciless punishment will be the cards he will display in this dark and fulfillment thriller. Mitchum stole the show as the out of mind criminal who will chase physic and psychological to the lawyer Peck till unimaginable consequences.
Chilling portrait, and febrile tension in this cat and mouse chess game. A must see, a noir film classic and one of my personal cult movies ever.