Robert Mitchum plays Max Cady, a lowlife criminal who has been imprisoned for assault and battery of a woman. Gregory Peck plays Sam Bowden, a lawyer who has witnessed the crime and testified against Cady. Due to his prison sentence, Cady's wife leaves him. She also does not allow him any type of contact with his child. Cady blames this and his imprisonment on Bowden. He begins spending day after day contemplating how to ruin Bowden's life and cause him the same pain he has suffered. While in prison, Cady studies the law enough to know what rights he has and just how far to push the boundaries. After eight years in prison, Cady returns with full intent to have his revenge. The director J. Lee Thompson is trying to convey to the viewers that just because a criminal is tried, convicted, and served his sentence it is by no means to suggest that they are reformed into model citizens. In some cases this is possible, but revenge is a powerful emotion that can consume a person. Revenge can be so strong that it becomes a person's only reason for living, like in the case of Max Cady. Thompson has demonstrated that Cady was willing to break every law and commit any crime to satisfy his need for revenge. Thompson does an excellent job of making the viewers use their imagination. He implies to the audience what Cady will do to the Bowden family without giving a detailed description. Thompson urges the viewer to think the worst, but keeps things morally acceptable for the 1960s. The storyline had me on the edge of my seat trying to anticipate Cady's next move. I feel that the fear factor would have been lost had the film been done in color. This was a remarkable thriller.
