This dark Hitchcockian masterpiece is one of my favorite suspense thrillers and it has never gotten old. Gregory Peck is Sam Bowden, a family man stalked by a relic of his past—a convicted rapist sent to jail by his testimony. Robert Mitchum is Max Cady, the crafty ex-con using the law to his advantage. Stalking laws did not exist back then, so nothing Cady does to torment the Bowden family is actually illegal. Sam is a lawyer, but will have to find other ways to manipulate the law and fight back when it becomes apparent what Cady has in mind for Bowden’s wife and teenage daughter. Mitchum is fantastic here; he doesn’t need a bunch of tattoos and profanities to come across as a bad, bad man. His stare is menacing enough. Max Cady is not a man selling wolf tickets. Cape Fear utilizes the psychological approach of not showing or discussing the actual act of rape. Film censor boards in 1962 would not have allowed that to happen, but it is still obvious what is going on here. Cape Fear’s strength is not in what it says, but what is implied.
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