Spoilers:
Mitchum took care of those three legbreakers that were hired to beat him up. Put one of them in the hospital.
He kills the solid looking Deputy Kersek with very little trouble. In fact, Kersek didn't put up much of a fight.
Then he's unable to handle the less muscular Gregory Peck. That seemed a bit unrealistic to me.
Less muscular? Gregory Peck was meant to play a mild mannered family man in the movie but he was by no means a slouch, in fact any actor with less stature than Mitchum would have looked ridiculous opposite of Peck and not at all threatening.
Here is something else of interest, I remember watching the final fight scene between Peck and Mitchum and at one point Peck comes up out of the water and punches Mitchum, I remember thinking; man that looks like a real punch! Well, as it turns out it was, read what Mitchum had to say about it, this is in the trivia section of this web page about Cape Fear...
According to Robert Mitchum, during the filming of the final fight scene between he and Gregory Peck, Peck once accidentally punched him for real. Mitchum, knowing that Peck didn't mean to and ever the professional, refused to break character and continued filming the scene. However, upon entering his trailer, Mitchum said he "literally collapsed" due to the impact of the punch and said that he felt it for days after wards. According to Mitchum: "I don't feel sorry for anyone dumb enough who picks a fight with him (Peck)."
Now for someone like Mitchum to make such a statement is proof that Peck was no wuss, not that I ever believed he was.
I've read the anecdote about the Peck punch.
The character Bowden was not written as a tough guy. The Cady character was. In fact, there's a scene where Bowden hits Cady several times on the dock after Cady makes a lewd observation about Bowden's daughter, and Cady easily blocks the punches with his hands and doesn't even try to hit back. At no point in that scene does Cady appear concerned about getting beaten up.
I was just surprised that Bowden succeeded where 3 for hire thugs had failed.
Cady had spent 7 or 8 years in prison where he would have had more practice in fighting than Bowden.
Let's not forget motivation, those thugs were not fighting for their family, Bowden was. In the fight scene on the dock, I believe Bowden does get in a punch or two but Cady doesn't dare hit back because he does not want to give them a reason for arresting him and he knew Bowden was just acting out in the heat of the moment and not really intending to beat him up right at that time.
One other thing to consider, by the time Bowden landed that punch, Cady had already killed a guy, swam to the houseboat and attacked his wife then swam to the cabin and got his daughter, after all that managing to fight with Bowden and succeed temporarily in holding him underwater several times, so as strong as the man was his strength had to be weakening at some point, even at that Cady was back in the fight before too long, he was still fit enough to fight up to the time Bowden got the drop on him with the gun and that pretty much ended it, so Bowded really didn't succeed where the thugs had failed.
True. I don't think that Bowden was supposed to be tougher than Cady, which would have made the movie pointless. That is why Bowden has to use a rock and a gun to ultimately defeat Cady. But clearly, Peck played the character tougher than Nolte did in the remake. I have no doubt that Peck was strong in real life. The best part of the fight scene was when Cady is strangling Bowden and Bowden uses his legs and bounces them off a nearby tree to break from Cady's grip. No stuntman. That was all Peck, which further supports Mitchum's statement.
shareI was a fan of Peck long before I even knew about Mitchum though I'm not saying that Mitchum is any less of an actor, I just haven't known about him as long.
A little off topic but have you seen "The Big Country"? It is a western with Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston (another fine actor) in it, it is really good.
Peck wasn't a weakling by any stretch, but he played a lot of mild-,mannered characters. Anyway, he was a man fighting for his life and moreso, to protect his family and by then was fueled by as much hate as Robert Mitchum was.
shareI guess none of your guys were being drowned under the water for some time during a fight and have no idea how much strength and air it takes from even the strongest men. The end of the movie was just rudiculous.
share"I guess none of your guys were being drowned under the water for some time during a fight and have no idea how much strength and air it takes from even the strongest men."
Oh, but you're somehow an expert on the subject?
I'm happiest...in the saddle.
I thought the film was okay up to the fight with the deputy, but he didn't hear Cady swim ashore and start crawling around in the bushes, right next to him. He's in a fight for his life and he can't say, "Bowden, help!" And Bowden can't hear two grown men thrashing around in the water less than 30 yards away. It would have been better to leave the deputy out of this scene, since getting rid of him was not plausibly done.
share