Shockingly tough and dark suspense drama has recently paroled convict Robert Mitchum making life hell for Gregory Peck, the lawyer who put him behind bars. First-half of film is quite solid, with Mitchum full of scary bravado, but Peck is so rigid one doesn't wait for him to loosen up so much as simply become human. Final act makes a mess of the storytelling however, with Mitchum pulling a fast one and ending up alone with Peck's wife (a convincingly rattled Polly Bergen) and then just as quickly with Peck's daughter (Lori Martin, sporting an oddly mature flip hairstyle that looks like a wig). The kid has already shown us earlier to be a wise, fast-on-her-feet child who knows danger when she sees it--so why does she go all limp when Mitchum approaches her? It's one of the few clichés (in this case, the ninnyisms of females) which doesn't exactly derail "Cape Fear", but makes it simply a minor noir--not a timeless thriller. **1/2 from ****
Review of Cape Fear
