Trivia
Robert De Niro paid a dentist $5,000 to make his teeth look suitably bad for the role of Max Cady. After filming, he paid $20,000 to have them fixed.
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Gregory Peck, who starred in Cape Fear, appears as Cady's lawyer. Robert Mitchum played Max Cady in the 1962 version, and appears as Lieutenant Elgart. Martin Balsam played Mark Dutton in the 1962 version and the judge in this version.
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De Niro researched sexual predator crimes for the part and suggested the scene where his character bites the victim.
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The scene in the high school auditorium was totally ad-libbed by Robert De Niro and Juliette Lewis, and done on the first take.
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For the first time in Scorsese's career, he allowed the screenwriter, Wesley Strick, on the set during filming.
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Steven Spielberg was originally set to direct. He later recommended Martin Scorsese for the job and personally called the director, letting him know that this was a commercial film that had potential to be a hit, which would exercise more power for Scorcese to make his films.
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De Niro did a lot of working out several months before the movie and during the shoot to make him the muscular Max Cady, reportedly taking his body fat down to only 3%.
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The auditorium scene was originally scripted as a chase scene, but Scorsese wanted it to be a seduction.
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The climactic scene out in the swamp was filmed in John U. Lloyd State Park, in the middle of a mangrove swamp. A tropical depression set over the set for four days, so the film crew had to wait for the storm to stop, so that they could make their own rain.
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Director Martin Scorsese's first choice for the role of Bowden was Harrison Ford. He had Robert De Niro call Ford to try convincing him to take the part.
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Drew Barrymore tested for the role of Danielle Bowden but failed the audition. She later said she had "acted all over the place and it was just the biggest disaster of my life".
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Both Robert De Niro and Nick Nolte had to alter their physiques for the film because the 6'1", bulky, Nolte is clearly larger than the 5'10", slimmer De Niro. Nolte lost a good deal of weight while shooting the film and De Niro bulked up his muscles considerably until De Niro was clearly Nolte's physical superior. Interestingly the original Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck) was also slightly taller than the original Max Cady (Robert Mitchum).
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The ice cream parlor scene was shot in the first week of production where the owners complained for the first three days that they were losing business.
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The scene where Robert De Niro sits on the brick wall, he actually sits in front of a blue screen where the fireworks were added later in production.
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Robert Mitchum feared in comparing his character of Max Cady to Robert De Niro's portrayal in the film. He had never seen either movies.
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Director Martin Scorsese read the original script three times while making GoodFellas (1990) and hated it each time because of how the Bowdens were a happy family and wanted them to be miserable.
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The scene between Robert De Niro and Juliette Lewis in the school was shot in three takes, but the first one was used in final productions.
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George C. Scott was originally supposed to play the Lieutenant role. But because of health problems he dropped out a few days before filming and Robert Mitchum was brought in.
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The score by Elmer Bernstein is not only an arrangement of 'Bernard Herrmann''s original "Cape Fear" score, but also includes parts of Herrmann's unused score for Torn Curtain.
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A picture of James Dean is shown when Danielle (Juliette Lewis) slams the door while her parents argue.
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De Niro played scenes with Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates in the Sam and Danielle roles for Martin Scorsese when De Niro was trying to interest him in directing the film.
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Robert De Niro's thick Max Cady accent reportedly gave Scorsese the creeps, and as a joke, De Niro would call the director's house, leaving messages as Cady.
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De Niro's Cady accent came from an earlier role where he played a southerner. To prepare for the role, De Niro took excerpts of the script and a tape recorder into southern towns and would ask locals to read the lines into the tape.
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Robert Richardson auditioned for the position of cinematographer but lost out to Britain's Freddie Francis. Martin Scorsese, a staunch admirer of Richardson's work with his former NYU student Oliver Stone, remembered Richardson when he was preparing to direct Casino.
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Illeana Douglas based her performance as Lori Davis on Jennifer Levin, who was murdered in 1986 in Central Park by Robert Chambers (whom the press dubbed the "Preppy Murderer").
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Christina Applegate did an audition for the role of Danielle, but had to turn down the part due to conflicts from Married with Children producer Ron Leavitt.
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Alyssa Milano was offered the role of Danielle but had to turn down the role, due to pressure from fellow Who's the Boss? cast member Tony Danza.
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Tiffani Thiessen was offered the role of Danielle, but turned down the choice to play the part, in order to stay with Saved by the Bell.
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The music video Danielle watches to avoid her parent's argument is Jane's Addiction's "Been Caught Stealing."
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In the original script, Leigh only met Max Cady at the end. Jessica Lange suggested the scene where they talk outside her house be added to the script, because she felt there should be a meeting between the two before the climax.
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When Cady strangles Kersek with the piano wire, Steven Spielberg suggested he be dressed up as the housekeeper while doing it.
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Robert De Niro would only get under the Bowden's car if a stuntman could prove it could be done.
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Martin Scorsese wanted the Bowden's house surrounded by oak trees, covered by hanging tufts of Spanish moss. He wanted it so it looked like a sunny oasis by day, and isolating by night. Therefore, it would make a perfect dark cover for Cady.
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The climax was filmed inside a 90-foot water-tank on a soundstage. It took four weeks to shoot.
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Lori, talking with Max, says, "Now weren't I the bozo on this bus!" - a reference to the 1971 album by The Firesign Theatre called "I Think We're All Bozos on this Bus". A reference like this may seem against period, but Martin Scorsese, like the Firesign Theatre players, was part of the counter-culture scene of the '60s and early '70s. Considered with other elements in the script, such as the lax attitude toward marijuana, this doesn't seem so out of character.
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During the opening sequence Max Cady is seen working out in his cell and the camera pans over his jail time reading material. One of the books featured is The Cell Within by Jake Manning. This is not a published work and only exists as part of a Miami Vice storyline _Miami Vice: Season 5, Episode 13_ in which Tubbs is tormented and imprisoned by the author Jake Manning, an ex-con he helped convict years before.
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Spoilers
During Cady's death scene, he seems to be talking gibberish. But he's actually speaking in tongues, so elated at the fact that he thinks he's ascending to Heaven.
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