I love the remake with Robert DeNiro and Nick Nolte, but this version just didn't work for me. Not that I have anything against Robert Mitchum, mind you. Even as a very old man in The Winds Of War, he's the most effortlessly masculine actor I've ever seen.
The problem is, Max Cady is more than just a masculine man. He's a force of demonic evil, with a brilliant mind and a very intense sense of how he's been wronged. Robert DeNiro was able to play the character as not only cruel and evil, but literate, articulate, and complex. Robert Mitchum doesn't have the same brilliant dialogue to work with. All he can do to suggest he's evil is to take his shirt off in every scene.
Somebody must have got a big kick out of that!
The problem is, Max Cady is more than just a masculine man. He's a force of demonic evil, with a brilliant mind and a very intense sense of how he's been wronged. Robert DeNiro was able to play the character as not only cruel and evil, but literate, articulate, and complex. Robert Mitchum doesn't have the same brilliant dialogue to work with. All he can do to suggest he's evil is to take his shirt off in every scene.
Somebody must have got a big kick out of that!