Cape Fear

Directed by J. Lee Thompson, Cape Fear follows attorney Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck) as he’s stalked and tormented by a deranged psychopath (Robert Mitchum’s Max Cady) that he helped put behind bars eight years earlier. It’s clear virtually from the get-go that Cape Fear‘s success is due almost entirely to Mitchum’s absolutely spellbinding turn as the vile antagonist, as the actor delivers an often astonishingly sinister and menacing performance that remains an obvious highlight from start to finish – with Mitchum’s go-for-broke work here heightened by his character’s irresistible chemistry with Peck’s progressively frantic figure. Filmmaker J. Lee Thompson does a solid job of perpetuating the atmosphere of palpable danger by emphasizing Samuel Leavitt’s foreboding cinematography, and although the tension does tend to ebb and flow throughout (eg there’s an especially pronounced lull just before the violent climax rolls around), Cape Fear concludes on a fairly gripping note that cements its place as a superior 1960s thriller.

*** out of ****

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