I just slated a J. Lee Thompson film in the previous post, and then I saw Cape Fear - the original one, which was the very next movie he directed. Gregory Peck starred in both, too, but that's where the similarities end. I didn't really like Scorsese's 1991 remake, but now that I finally watched the original I found it a tight, effective thriller. I'm trying to avoid quoting other writers, but here I must bow to David Thomson, who said: "I think that Robert De Niro's Max Cady is a superb master class given by a great actor, whereas Robert Mitchum's Cady is the Beast."
In the accompanying 2001 documentary the director mentions his love for Hitchcock's work, and on Cape Fear he worked with some of the master's crew. Editor George Tomasini did Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho and more, Robert Boyle was a production designer and an associate art director on Northwest and a few others, and Bernard Herrmann scored many a great film for Hitch and others (including that persistent Northwest).
Every mention of the word "rape" was removed from the script (replaced by "attack") at the insistence of censors, and the film still had a hard time getting approved. One reason cited was "there was a continuous threat of sexual assault on a child" - it must have been heavy stuff in 1962 mainstream cinema, and the Beast is still no laughing matter.
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