Cape Fear [Blu-ray]

Director: J. Lee Thompson J. Lee Thompson

Overview

After an eight-year prison term for rape and assault, Max Cady (Robert Mitchum) is set free. Immediately making a beeline to Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck), the former prosecutor responsible for Cady's conviction, Cady laconically informs Sam that he intends to "pay back" the attorney for his years behind bars. Conducting a meticulous campaign of terror, Cady is careful to stay within the law. Sam, realizing that Cady intends to wreak vengeance by raping the attorney's wife (Polly Bergen) and daughter (Lori Martin), tries to put the ex-criminal behind bars, but has no grounds to do so. Chief Dutton (Martin Balsam) tries to help Sam with a few strong-arm tactics, but succeeds only in having the courts take Cady's side in the matter. Things come to a head when Sam moves his family to the "safety" of a remote houseboat on Cape Fear river. Cady shows up unannounced and is about to ravage Bowden's wife and daughter and when Sam turns the tables.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/08/2013
UPC:	0025192169670
Original Release:	1962
Rating:	NR
Source:	STUDIO DISTRIBUTION SERVS LLC
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:46:00
Sales rank:	16,510

Special Features

The Making of Cape Fear; Production Photographs; Theatrical Trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Gregory Peck	Sam Bowden
Robert Mitchum	Max Cady
Polly Bergen	Peggy Bowden
Lori Martin	Nancy Bowden
Martin Balsam	Police Chief Mark Dutton
Jack Kruschen	Attorney Dave Grafton
Telly Savalas	Private Detective Charles Sievers
Barrie Chase	Diane Taylor
Paul Comi	Garner
Page Slattery	Deputy Kersek
Ward Ramsey	Officer Brown
Edward Platt	Judge
Joan Staley	Waitress at Bowling Alley
Norma Yost	Ticket Clerk
Tom Newman	Lt. Gervasi(as Thomas Newman)
Alan Reynolds	Vernon
Herb Armstrong	Waiter
Bunny Rhea	Pianist
Cindy Carol	Betty(as Carol Sydes)
Alan Wells	Young Blade
Allan Ray	Young Blade
Paul Levitt	Police Operator
John McKee	Officer Marconi

Technical Credits

J. Lee Thompson	Director
Sy Bartlett	Producer
Waldon Watson	Sound/Sound Designer
Corson Jowett	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

An unusually daring thriller that inspired controversy upon its theatrical release in 1962, Cape Fear broke new ground in its cinematic depiction of terrorization with sadistic and sexual components. Robert Mitchum portrays the villain superbly, bringing quiet menace to his depiction of the cruel ex-convict bent on revenge. The object of his terror is a small-town Georgia lawyer (played by Gregory Peck as initially stolid but eventually unnerved) who he believes is responsible for his imprisonment. When Peck learns that Mitchum's scheme threatens his wife (Polly Bergen) and teenage daughter (Lori Martin), he's moved to consideration of unusual precautions -- including, if necessary, murder. Next to 1961's Guns of Navarone(in which Peck also starred), Cape Fear is easily the best film directed by J. Lee Thompson, a prolific, competent, but generally uninspired journeyman who took John D. MacDonald's pulpy novel The Executioners and adapted it into a cinematic classic of riveting suspense. Taut and gripping, its Hitchcockian verisimilitude enhanced by a suitably eerie Bernard Herrmann score, Cape Fear is the progenitor of literally hundreds of subsequent movies and TV shows that have mined the same vein. And even though others have hit paydirt, this is the one that struck the mother lode. The DVD offers a documentary covering the film's production, along with still galleries, production notes, cast and director highlights, trailers, and DVD-ROM content.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

Robert Mitchum, one of the screen's most ruthless figures, was most menacing when he was most amiable. His role as Max Cady in Cape Fear (the role reprised by Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese's 1991 remake) comes in second in the sinister sweepstakes only to his chilling performance for Charles Laughton in Night of the Hunter seven years earlier. Mitchum's Cady is every father's and husband's worst nightmare: an untouchable, unstoppable, unrepentant corrupter of innocence. . .all with a sadistic smirk. Gregory Peck is cast obviously as the upright and proper father. Director J. Lee Thompson clearly envisioned Cape Fear as a 1962 challenge to the fading Fifties concept of the perfect nuclear family. Coming off the success of The Guns of Navarone, Thompson significantly scaled back his scope for this drama, and even the fight scenes at the end have a subdued, almost still aspect. A special note has to be given to Bernard Herrmann's haunting score, which ranks with his memorable scores for Vertigo and Psycho.

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