J Lee Thompson's "Cape Fear" is an account of a straightforward battle between good and evil. Good is represented by Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck) who is both a respectable lawyer and a decent family man. Max Cady (Robert Mitchum) on the other hand, is an evil, psychopathic rapist who, having spent eight years in prison comes to Bowden's neighbourhood to terrorise him and his family because Bowden had previously given testimony in the court case which led to Cady's incarceration.
Initially, it appears that Bowden is in a very strong position to counter the threat from Cady because he has a long established friendship with the local police chief, Mark Dutton (Martin Balsam). Dutton is sympathetic to Bowden's plight and comes up with some useful ideas for getting rid of Cady. These ideas are unsuccessful, however, because what Bowden and Dutton don't realise, is just how methodically Cady has been planning his revenge and how well he is able to anticipate what actions the police are likely to take. Being the honest, law abiding man that he is, Bowden makes every attempt to deal with Cady's threats by legal means but when none of them work, in desperation, he eventually takes a more unorthodox course of action which leads to him being threatened with being disbarred. Events come to a head and are ultimately resolved only after a long and hard physical battle between the two men.
An excellent script by James R Webb and some intelligent direction from J Lee Thompson combine to provide increasing pace and suspense as Cady moves from implied levels of intimidation, through psychological pressure all the way up to very serious physical threats. The tension and drama are also brilliantly enhanced by Bernard Herrmann's excellent score. Peck and Balsam are thoroughly convincing in their roles but are inevitably outshone by a truly exceptional performance by Robert Mitchum. His portrayal of a character who is a thoroughly debased, violent monster, is genuinely scary and a remarkable achievement considering the strict standards of censorship which prevailed at the time.
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