great thriller. Mitchum is genuinely and effortlessly menacing. The fear feels so real. Too bad the end wasn't something more "evil".

Tense and moody, with Mitchum fitting the role of the snakey, villainous Max Cady like a glove. His performance is obviously the highlight here, though the film also sports a great Herrmann score, some shadowy cinematography and interesting thematic elements (justice, vengeance, etc.). On the downside, the film's several payoffs aren't so great and that kid actress is grating as hell. On the whole, still a very effective thriller.

85.875

I was SO BORED during this movie.

Great intense performance from Mitchum and the ending is very solid. A few things take away from the tension though, most notably the really overt music cues and the merely average supporting performances.

For my taste, this thriller is too manipulatively cruel toward its own characters and too sleazy in its drawn-out sexual menace to be considered a really fine example of film art. But Mitchum is undeniably great, the rest of the cast is good, and the film keeps you on the edge of your seat.

As a late period noir it's quite a bit more brutal and suggestive than the average, and makes for a harrowing experience, even when you know how things will turn out. Mitchum is incredibly menacing, Peck is kinda boring. He pretty much only does this one type of role, but at least he does it well. Fortunately his ho-hum performance is outweighed by the film's many assets, including its gripping tension and excellent Herrmann score (adding to the Hitchcockian feel). First-rate thriller.

Gamle film er noget lort..

Thrilling, but nothing will ever top the Cape Feare episode of The Simpsons with Sideshow Bob!

Robert Mitchum is just an awesome dude and this is a great performance. Gotta love the 60's thriller style and atmosphere. I don't know how much I really love it but Mitchum is enough for me.

This version is obviously less gritty than the Scorsese one, but what it does really well is suspense. The suspense builds and builds right from the beginning until the climactic finale. Gregory Peck was awesome, like always. Robert Mitchum was great too, and his performance was very reminiscent of his one in The Night of the Hunter (1955). I think I might’ve enjoyed it more if I hadn’t already known what was going to happen, but it was still an entertaining watch.

What was Martin Scorcese thinking? It's been too many years for me to admit, but I should have seen this film much, much earlier. Robert Mitchum is even better in this than he was in Night of the Hunter. What doesn't work in Scorcese's version, works magnificently in this film. The atmosphere, acting and suspense are all top-knotch. What makes Max Cady menacing in this film is that Mitchum makes him believable, unlike the zealously religious caricature that DeNiro portrays in the remake.

Whilst still a good film, I personally find this staple of 60s suspense to be somewhat overrated. Much of the praise the film has garnered is down to Mitchum's performance but I find him to be more of a depraved thug than a genuinly intimidating villain like Javier Bardem in "No Country For Old Men" for example.

Very suspenseful, with an incredibly evil villain. The filmwork is great, too.