Editing Cape Fear (1962 film) (section)

==Production==
===Development===
[[Cornel Wilde]] acquired the rights to John D. MacDonald's novel ''The Executioners'' for $30,000 in 1958.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/variety210-1958-03/page/n261/mode/1up|title=New York Sound Track|date=March 26, 1958|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|page=7|access-date=October 26, 2024|via=[[Archive.org]]}}</ref> Gregory Peck had his own production company, [[Melville Productions]], in partnership with [[Sy Bartlett]], which had made ''[[The Big Country]]'' and ''[[Pork Chop Hill (film)|Pork Chop Hill]]'' and they later purchased the rights. They planned to make it after ''[[The Guns of Navarone (film)|The Guns of Navarone]]''. Peck was impressed by J. Lee Thompson's work on that film and hired him for ''Cape Fear''.<ref>PECK'S FILM FIRM PLANS 3 PROJECTS: Star and [[Sy Bartlett]] List 2 Comedies and Drama -- 'Apartment' Here Today
By HOWARD THOMPSON. New York Times June 15, 1960: 50.</ref> Peck said his goal was to make "first class professional entertainment intelligently done."<ref>Peck Wants to Make Film Classic: PECK FILM
Hyams, Joe. Los Angeles Times April 15, 1961: A6.</ref> He was responsible for the title of the film, as he found the novel title "kind of a turn-off" and happened to find the Cape Fear region when looking for Atlantic coast locations.<ref>https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/news/2021/09/28/cape-fear-film-connection-cape-fear-river/8334452002/</ref>

===Casting===
Telly Savalas was screen tested for the role, but later played private eye Charlie Sievers.<ref>p.283 Chibnall, Steve ''J. Lee Thompson''  Manchester University Press, 2000</ref> [[Robert Mitchum]] refused to play [[Max Cady]] when he was first offered the part, but eventually accepted it after Peck and Thompson delivered him flowers and a case of bourbon.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/04/09/archives/robert-mitchum-rolls-merrily-on-despite-the-vehicles-mitchum.html|title = Robert Mitchum Rolls Merrily on Despite the Vehicles|newspaper = The New York Times|date = April 9, 1978|last1 = Honeycutt|first1 = Kirk}}</ref>

Thompson wanted [[Hayley Mills]], whom he had cast in ''[[Tiger Bay (1959 film)|Tiger Bay]]'', to play the daughter, but Mills was unavailable.

Polly Bergen signed in December 1960. It was her first film in eight years.<ref>GABLE'S LAST FILM SLATED HERE FEB.1: 'Misfits' Is Due at Capitol -- 3 Other Premieres Set -- Hudson, Doris Day Cited
By HOWARD THOMPSON. New York Times December 31, 1960: 10.</ref>

===Filming===
Principal photography of ''Cape Fear'' began on April 6 and ended in June 1961. Thompson envisioned the film in black and white, believing that shooting the film in color would lessen the atmosphere. As an [[Alfred Hitchcock]] fan, he wanted to have [[Hitchcockian]] elements in the film, such as unusual lighting angles, an eerie musical score, closeups, and subtle hints rather than graphic depictions of the violence Cady has in mind for the family. Hitchcock collaborators [[Robert F. Boyle]] and [[George Tomasini]] served as production designer and editor, and his regular composer [[Bernard Herrmann]] wrote the score.
 
The outdoor scenes were filmed on location in [[Savannah, Georgia]]; [[Stockton, California]]; and the Universal Studios backlot at [[Universal City, California]]. The indoor scenes were done at Universal Studios Soundstage. Mitchum had a real-life aversion to Savannah, where as a teenager, he had been charged with vagrancy and put on a [[chain gang]]. This resulted in a number of the outdoor scenes being shot at Ladd's Marina in Stockton, including the culminating conflict on the houseboat at the end of the movie.

The scene in which Mitchum attacks Polly Bergen's character on the houseboat was almost completely improvised.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}} Before the scene was filmed, Thompson suddenly told a crew member: "Bring me a dish of eggs!" Mitchum's rubbing the eggs on Bergen was not scripted and Bergen's reactions were real. She also suffered back injuries from being knocked around so much. She felt the impact of the "attack" for days.<ref>{{cite book|title=Robert Mitchum The Reluctant Star (DVD)|year=2009|publisher=Janson Media|location=Harrington Park}}</ref>  While filming the scene, Mitchum cut open his hand, leading Bergen to recall: "his hand was covered in blood, my back was covered in blood. We just kept going, caught up in the scene. They came over and physically stopped us."<ref name="jeff stafford">{{cite web|last=Stafford|first=Jeff|title=Cape Fear|url= https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/70207/cape-fear#articles-reviews|work=[[Turner Classic Movies]]|publisher=Turner Entertainment Networks|access-date=October 26, 2024}}</ref>

In the source novel ''[[The Executioners (MacDonald novel)|The Executioners]]'', by [[John D. MacDonald]], Cady was a soldier [[court-martial]]ed and convicted on then Lieutenant Bowden's testimony for the brutal rape of a 14-year-old girl. The censors stepped in, banned the use of the word "rape", and stated that depicting Cady as a soldier reflected adversely on U.S. military personnel.{{citation needed|date=June 2013}}

===Music===
[[Bernard Herrmann]], as often in his scores, uses a reduced version of the symphony orchestra. Here, other than a 46-piece string section (slightly larger than usual for film scores), he adds four [[flutes]] (doubling on two [[piccolos]], two [[alto flute]]s in G, and two [[bass flute]]s in C) and eight [[French horn]]s. No use is made of further wind instruments or percussion.<ref>[http://www.filmscorerundowns.net/herrmann/cape_fear.pdf Bill Wrobel: Cape Fear, score rundown analysis]</ref>

In his 2002 book ''A Heart at Fire's Center: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann'', Stephen C. Smith writes:
<blockquote>
 "Yet Herrmann was perfect for ''Cape Fear'' ... Herrmann's score reinforces ''Cape Fear's'' savagery. Mainly a synthesis of past devices, its power comes from their imaginative application and another ingenious orchestration ... a rehearsal for his similar orchestration on Hitchcock's ''[[Torn Curtain]]'' in 1966. Like similar 'psychological' Herrmann scores, dissonant string combinations suggest the workings of a killer's mind (most startlingly in a queasy device for [[cello]] and [[bass viol]]s as Cadey{{sic}} prepares to attack the prostitute). Hermann's prelude searingly establishes the dramatic conflict: descending and ascending chromatic voices move slowly towards each other from their opposite registers, finally crossing–just as Boden and Cadey's game of cat-and-mouse will end in deadly confrontation."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-1mUcGRpt0EC&pg=PA252 |title=A Heart at Fire's Center: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann - Steven C. Smith - Google Books |date=May 31, 2002 |access-date=March 14, 2016 |isbn=0-520-22939-8 |page=252|last1=Smith |first1=Steven C. |publisher=University of California Press }}</ref>
</blockquote>