History Film / CapeFear

* AxCrazy: Max Cady.

* DateRape: Cady's encounter with Diane Taylor (Lori Davis in the remake) ends up this way.
* DeathOfAChild: As cited above, Cady kills the family dog in both versions.

* WouldHitAGirl: Max Cady.

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Diane Taylor, who pays for it heavily.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Diane Taylor.

* SmugSnake: Mitchum, to a T. That relaxed drawl of his is terrifying.

* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler:Kersek]] dies from a combination of this and being garroted with piano wire.

* JumpScare: One of them happens when the phone rings during dinner. Actually, the ringer was loud...

* LargeHam: De Niro, in fine form. It's taken UpToEleven after [[spoiler: Cady is set on fire.]]

* SlashedThroat: Graciella meets her end this way.

* TattooedCrook: Max Cady.

* AMFMCharacterization: Danielle has posters of Music/JimiHendrix, Music/TheCure and Music/GunsNRoses and watches the video for Music/JanesAddiction's "Been Caught Stealing" while her parents argue.

* AMFMCharacterization: Danielle has a Music/JimiHendrix poster and watches the video for Music/JanesAddiction's "Been Caught Stealing" while her parents argue.

* {{Bookends}}: The movie begins with chilling music and a blood-red negative shot on the daughter's eyes, [[CloseupOnHead zooming out into a positive shot of her giving a speech]] in class. The final scene inverts this, starting with a positive shot of her monologing AnAesop and zooming in on her eyes, turning the shot into a b/w and then red negative.

* ProfessionalWrestling: There wasn't any of it in the movie, but Wrestling/{{WWE}} based the short lived Waylon Mercy character on De Niro's portrayal of Cady, and over a decade later Bray Wyatt.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Despite the overwhelming theme of sexual violence, the word "rape" is never used, nor does the dialogue get explicit. The closest the script comes is "attacked". This last case is fully justified, as the parents are discussing the possibility of Cady going after their daughter, and their tone makes it clear that they are consciously using a euphemism because they are trying to avoid thinking about their daughter getting raped.

* PrivateDetective: Charlie Sievers (Creator/TellySavalas) in the original, Claude Kersek (Joe Don Baker) in the remake.

The film was successfully remade in 1991 by director Creator/MartinScorsese, with Creator/RobertDeNiro starring as Cady, Creator/NickNolte as Bowden, and Creator/JessicaLange and Creator/JulietteLewis as Bowden's wife and daughter; De Niro and Lewis each received UsefulNotes/AcademyAward and Golden Globe nominations for their performances. In this version, Cady is out to get Bowden because the latter, while defending Cady on a rape charge, deliberately buried possibly-exculpatory evidence about the victim, leading to Cady's conviction.

It tells the story of Sam Bowden (Creator/GregoryPeck), a lawyer whose family is threatened by a convicted rapist. The rapist, Max Cady (Creator/RobertMitchum), wants vengeance for having been imprisoned on Bowden's testimony after the latter witnessed him attempting to rape a woman. After a lengthy game of cat and mouse between the two, Bowden takes his wife (Polly Bergen) and teenaged daughter (Lori Martin) to their houseboat on Cape Fear, hoping to set a trap for Cady that will lead to his re-imprisonment. Needless to say, this does not go as planned.

[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cape_fear_1991.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:310:[[SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou Robert De Niro Is Staring Into Your Soul.]]]]

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cape_fear_1991.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou Robert De Niro Is Staring Into Your Soul.]]]]

* NoodleIncident: [[YourCheatingHeart Both Bowdens' past infidelities]], requiring therapy and forcing them to move. Leigh suspected Lori and Sam were having an affair, thus explaining some phone conversation in hushed tones (actually, he was checking on her after Cady attacked her).

* ScarpiaUltimatum: Cady promises to spare the daughter if Bowden's wife would have sex with him. In the remake, the wife offers herself up as soon as Cady goes for the daughter.

* RageAgainstTheLegalSystem: Cady's vendetta against Bowden is because he was responsible for putting him in jail; he was a key witness in the 1962 version, and in the remake he decided, to sabotage Max's defence. Cady, however, harbors no malice towards the prosecutor or the judge as he reasoned they were just doing their jobs, and his wrath is solely targeted at Bowden for screwing him over.

* RageAgainstTheLegalSystem: Cady's vendetta against Bowden is because he was responsible for putting him in jail; he was a key witness in the 1962 version, and in the remake he decided, justifiably to sabotage Max's defence. Cady, however, harbors no malice towards the prosecutor or the judge as he reasoned they were just doing their jobs, and his wrath is solely targeted at Bowden for screwing him over.

* CombatBreakdown: Played very realistically. By the end of the final fight both men are staggering around, throwing weak punches and sluggishly trying to hit each other with rocks. Despite being much stronger than Bowden, eventually [[RealityEnsues Cady's injuries catch up to him]] and [[spoiler: he drowns in the surf when he's too weak to stand or swim away.]]

* FromNobodyToNightmare: From an illiterate rube rapist to a buff, law-degree-holding homicidal bastard with a liking for teenage girls.

* HellholePrison: Cady doesn't stop telling Sam all about it. He even alludes to have been subjected to PrisonRape.

* MadeOfIron: Max gets beaten on for quite a while by some thugs, but as soon as he gets a weapon away from one of them, he takes them all down with ease. Later, Danielle throws some boiling water in his face, and he doesn't even blink. Grasping a lit roman candle didn't faze him, either.

* MoodWhiplash: One minute, Lori (Bowden's friend, may have been an ex-lover) is giddy and flirtatious, she's screaming in terror the next.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: While it was a breach of professional ethics for Bowden to withhold evidence from the trial, it didn't excuse the fact that Cady had actually performed a rape so brutal that Bowden felt Cady needed to serve the maximum sentence. Bowden defiantly points this out to Cady during the final confrontation. The nature of the evidence--the rape victim's sexual history--also helps with this, "shaming the victim" in such a sense being a particularly controversial defence in rape trials - so much so that it is now inadmissable as evidence in most states.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The movie makes a point that Cady educated himself in prison, and acted as his own lawyer. His vendetta against Bowden is due to his discovering that Bowden suppressed evidence that the girl he raped was promiscuous, which may have gotten him a lighter sentence or even had the case dismissed. The question of exactly how he learned Bowden suppressed this goes unanswered. Acting as his own attorney, he would have gotten access to trial notes and evidence, but where exactly would he learn of this? Bowden would not have been stupid enough to record that evidence in his own notes, as it coming out during a post-trial investigation or retrial would have gotten him definitely disbarred and probably facing criminal charges. Even if he did put it in his notes (which would have been insane to do) and Cady requested the case file as part of his appeal, no legal secretary is going to send anything to anyone without the lawyer who handled the case reviewing the file first. This evidence would not have been recorded or even sought out by the prosecution, as it would only hurt their case, so Cady would not have learned of it from their files. The only way Bowden could have suppressed it is by talking to the girl or her associates, learning of her promiscuity, and saying nothing and not recording it. The only way it makes sense for Cady to have found out is for him to have spoken with the same people that Bowden interviewed and learning from them that they informed Bowden of the girls promiscuity, but that's a stretch. As a convicted felon in prison acting as his own attorney, he would have had no supoena or summoning ability and talking to witnesses would have been nearly impossible, unless he requested they visit him and learned the facts just by talking to them. Possible, but just barely.

* ManInWhite: Cady.

* UndersideRide: Max Cady ties himself to the bottom Sam Bowden's car, causing the Bowden family to take him directly to the houseboat. This is probably the most parodied element of the film.

** Another happens when Kersek is talking with the Bowden’s maid, and she turns around to reveal[[spoiler:she is Cady, who had murdered the real nurse and taken her clothing to ambush Kersek.]]

* BlackAndWhiteMorality: The original film portrays Max Cady as pure evil, with absolutely no legitimate reason to begrudge his conviction and Sam Bowden as perfectly virtuous and upright. The Bowdens also stay true to eachother throughout the film, unlike in the remake.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: While it was a breach of professional ethics for Bowden to withhold evidence from the trial, it didn't excuse the fact that Cady had actually performed a rape so brutal that Bowden felt Cady needed to serve the maximum sentence. Bowden defiantly points this out to Cady during the final confrontation. The nature of the evidence--the rape victim's sexual history--also helps with this, "shaming the victim" in such a sense being a particularly controversial defence in rape trials - so much so that it is now inadmissable as evidence.