Cape Fear (Original)
Cinema’s portrayals of pure evil started out as stock stereotypes but then evolved over the course of the next few decades. The Breakthrough Quantum Leap Missing Link Performance was obviously Anthony Perkins’ twisted Norman Bates in the Psycho franchise, a possibly mentally ill compulsive murderer with a fixation on his dead mother who was so bizarre that audiences in 1960 were both marveled and repulsed that such creatures would be in the movies that they watch. But the humanistic, non supernatural quality which made the Bates villain truly repugnant in his delirium was possibly topped in 1962 with this casually sleazy yet brilliant turn at bat by Robert Mitchum as Max Cady, a true man about town with a taste for hurting women and especially children, preferring little girls to the overgrown mannerisms of any adult women. Audiences almost vomited, but that was the whole point as Mitchum sinks his teeth into arguably the most detestable movie villain ever up to that point and even makes himself at times look rather unflattering usually when he is seen ogling some 12 year old girls. Certainly shocking in its day, as Mitchum’s Cady is a sexual psychopath who carries no pretense of false Christian nobility as DeNiro’s Cady did, straight up telling lawyer Sam Bowden (legendary star Gregory Peck the same year he was rocking Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird) that he intends to rape his underage daughter, and he tells Peck that early and often, not as part of some “mission from god” routine as DeNiro paraded around in his version. It’s just pure revenge, as Peck’s Bowden is nowhere even near the same species as Nolte’s morally conflicted backstabber, but rather a good, honest lawyer whose crimes against Cady were catching him in an alley beating and raping a young girl, beating the fuckin shit out of him and then holding him down for the cops to arrest before testifying in open court with a Fuck You Scumbag smile on his face, sending CadyMitchum inside for 8 years during which time his sick libido grew ever stronger, and now he’s telling Atticus Finch that he’s going to forcibly fuck his little girl (Scout? No, one hit wonder Lori Martin) and then beat her into submission, but PeckBowden fortunately has a corrupt police force and a questionable friendship with the local police chief (Martin Balsam) on his side, unleashing a veritable tsunami of pain, punishment and abuse on one person as an entire police department descends upon Cady (something DeNiro never contended with at least not on this level) until he hires a smooth civil rights lawyer to tie them up in stitches while he continues to stalk Peck and his family around town, even complimenting Atticus on how fine of an ass his young daughter has while he himself is briefly romancing a pretty barfly prostitute played by Barrie Chase (Dick Shawn’s dancing girlfriend in Mad Mad World), fucking the holy hell out of her before beating her senseless and deformed, in no shape to testify which would give Atticus the easy way out. No, it’s an sting operation where the innocent child is used as bait without her knowledge, Peck sets things up where everyone thinks he’s out of town, and with every bit of lust in his pedophile soul, Mitchum shows up all while keeping his wits about him, logging one confirmed kill before he and Atticus face off one more time. The edge which the remake has over this is not in Cady’s religious mania nor is it Nolte’s conflicted pussy wimp, but rather in Martin Scorsese’s sweeping, seamless direction, making an epic tale with a charismatic DeNiro going larger than life with his Cady in contrast to Mitchum’s more toned down, calmer interpretation of the character which almost makes him creepier as a result, similar to comparisons of Brian Cox and Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter. Here the director of note is J. Lee Thompson (with Peck himself acting as Executive Producer), a veteran journeyman who did manage to have a trusted relationship with Charles Bronson, directing the majority of Bronson’s 80s run but otherwise was just a guy with a rather uneventful career in Hollywood. But then Scorsese flew in on his starship and directed the remake as a Spectacular Spectacular which remains a masterwork of the early 90s. Here, the no frills, black and white aesthetic leaves plenty of room for Mitchum to run his mouth like nobody else can, lacking DeNiro’s ambiguous subtlety but one can’t help but be even more deeply disturbed by the fact that Mitchum as Cady doesn’t even try to hide what he is, and in a more modern setting would probably be killed and burned to ashes if he wandered into the wrong neighborhood. Here, he gets to beat the shit out of the tough guys for hire as DeNiro did, is offered a bribe by Atticus to leave town only to haw haw and tell him to keep his money because he’s STILL going to rape Atticus’ little princess and there’s STILL nothing that he can do about it. This more raw, unapologetic version of Cady remains the preferred version by many, but there’s also no doubt that Gregory Peck as Atticus / Bowden was as stoic and honorable as he has ever been on screen, a far cry from Nolte’s sniveling simp who at least was more realistic. The daughter is portrayed as a stereotypical 12 year old from that era, also a far cry from Juliette Lewis’ rebellious teen babe daughter in the redo. The massive psychological layers from Scorsese’s version are stripped away in favor of Cady simply being a cold blooded child predator who is capable of using wit and charm to get what he wants out of you, but he should also absolutely never be allowed in the same place as women and children and you don’t want to ever even know him in confidence either, a fact which Atticus recognizes from the start with the obvious contempt he bestows upon him, telling him point blank that he will kill him for going anywhere near his daughter before sending the police en masse after him, literally turning the situation into where it is Cady taking on the establishment of the entire town just so he can get at the 12 year old (and her best friend as well) and have one last glorious time with them before going off for what he knows will be a life sentence, so the trick is to bring him to justice (alive) without him getting to rape the daughter first since the prior stint in the joint had seen him build up enough libido to take on the whole town so a unfulfilled revenge followed by life in the penitentiary would be a deserving and tortuous punishment for someone of this type, a shameless pedophile on a mission solely to gratify himself…
7/10