Cape Fear

Martin Scorsese took this over from Steven Spielberg, who found it too violent, traded it for Schindler’s List and stayed on as uncredited producer. Wesley Strick’s rewrite moves the centre of the story. In 1962 Sam Bowden had interrupted the attack and testified, which left him clean. Here he was Cady’s own public defender and buried a police report that might have turned the case. The threat lands on a lawyer who hid evidence from his client, not an innocent family, leaving the audience no comfortable side. Three actors return from 1962 with roles swapped: Gregory Peck, the original Sam Bowden, plays Cady’s attorney Lee Heller; Robert Mitchum, the original Max Cady, is Lieutenant Elgart; Martin Balsam moves from police chief to judge. It was Scorsese’s first film in 2.35:1, shot by Freddie Francis of The Innocents and the Hammer horrors, so the look is gothic, not street realist. For the part De Niro had his teeth ground down and sharpened, then paid 20,000 dollars afterwards to reverse it. He was nominated for Actor in a Leading Role, Juliette Lewis for Actress in a Supporting Role, and neither won. A good fit if you want the hunted lawyer to be at fault himself. Not for viewers who do not want the sexual threat to a teenage girl drawn out.