MovieChat Forums > Cape Fear (1962) Discussion > Consequences for Sam? (Spoilers)

Consequences for Sam? (Spoilers)

posted 12 years ago by LittleBrother55
2 replies | jump to latest

I finally saw this movie last night when it popped up on Antenna TV.

There's one loose end I expected would be addressed somehow.

As far as I can see, even though the Bowdens triumph over Max Cady, Sam's legal career is still down the tubes.

Before the focus switches to Sam's scheme to trap (and eliminate) Cady at the houseboat, the screenplay clearly establishes that Sam has in fact committed professional suicide by hiring thugs to rough up Cady, especially after Sam is directly implicated as the instigator of the unsuccessful "hit" by one of the perpetrators.

Then the movie just sets aside this major plot point.

Without researching the legal consequences, I assume that contracting for even a non-lethal "hit" is a felony, and certainly grounds for disbarment as the screenplay reveals.

Off the top of my head, I don't see that Cady's final crime spree changes Sam's legal and professional culpability.

The producers and screenwriters obviously felt that the essential dramatic focus was the showdown between the Bowdens and Cady, but I found the abrupt ending to be a bit of a cheat.

I actually expected at least a little typically noble Peck speech from Sam, however hokey, during the final boat ride-- stoutly affirming that even though he sacrificed his law career, the way the family stuck together to shake off a purely evil threat like Cady makes the future bright and promising.

Did I miss something, or am I the only one bothered by this unresolved major loose end?

[–] telegonus 12 years ago

For sure, LB55, Sam was foolish and wrong to have hired those thugs, and as a trial lawyer he knew full well the legal ramifications of his actions. To my way of thinking these and other actions, most of them within the law, only go to emphasize that Sam was a leading citizen in his community, had friends in high (and in some cases, low) places, was tactically well equipped to deal with Max Cady, who was from a lower social class.

There's an undercurrent of class war throughout the film, from the opening scenes, really, as Cady is presented as a low-life, albeit a shrewd one. Yet there's also somewhat of an underdog quality to him, and I can't praise the script highly enough for drawing this out. Cape Fear could have been no more than a Good versus Evil story, but it isn't.

Max Cady's got a chip on his shoulder, is likely from a lower socio-economic background than Bowden, is certainly, when he first meet him, an odd man out even in the relatively non-rich middle class town he's moved into. One senses, in the script and especially in Robert Mitchum's brilliant playing of Cady, a man seething with resentments that go well beyond Sam Bowden's testifying against him in Baltimore eight years earlier.

I agree with you that the movie wrapped things up too quickly, and I wish they hadn't thrown in the strangling of the cop in the river, but I guess the author and producers felt they needed this to establish Cady as wholly evil. Apropos of your question regarding Bowden's legal career, can we be sure it's over? Given the ordeal he's been through, and especially with Cady's killing of the cop, it strikes me that after a fine and a probation period he'll probably be back practicing law fairly quickly. He'll have the entire town behind him, too.

Yet another loose end as I see it is the unlikelihood at the time that Cady's going to get life in prison. Sam's no judge and jury. Cady had a criminal history, a violent past, and he'd killed a policeman. In those days, I think, especially in the South, he'd have been given the death penalty. Just because Sam tells Cady he's going to rot in jail for decades doesn't mean that this will happen. Given that he's a lawyer, he, of all people, should know better than to make such a prediction. Or maybe it was wishful thinking on his part.

My guess is that it's going to be the death penalty for Max Cady, not life imprisonment, with the cop killing sealing the deal, as it usually did in those days.

[–] hobnob53 12 years ago

The unresolved matter of the bar proceedings against Sam is indeed one of the most irksome aspects of this generally fine film.

My guess is that, from a dramatic point of view, the filmmakers simply wanted the audience to assume that, following Cady's attempt to kill Bowden (none of us has mentioned it, but that's yet another crime with which he'd be charged), and given his history, the proceedings against Sam would either be dropped or he'd be found not to have violated the tenets of his profession and would get off.

Unfortunately, even in 1962 and within a friendly, sympathetic group, an attorney cannot be allowed to break the law (in this case, hiring thugs to rough up -- though not kill -- Cady) and simply walk away from it. No matter what Cady did before or after, Sam was culpable for that act and would have to face some professional consequences. Under the circumstances, the ethics committee might not disbar him, but he would get a reprimand and perhaps some sort of fine. They might go further and suspend his law license for a time, say, six months. Complete disbarment, while possible, seems to me unlikely. But he wouldn't go scott free.

Which raises another issue, one that might bring in our lawyer friend Grafton. Whatever the charges against Cady, and they'd be substantial -- murder, attempted murder, attempted rape, assault, etc. -- he was in a position to sue Bowden for hiring those thugs to attack him.

Now, given the overall circumstances, and the fact that Sam could rely on a sympathetic and "cooperative" local legal system, it's unlikely the sheriff or D.A. would bring charges against Sam themselves, unless Cady filed a complaint, in which case there'd have to be an investigation which could compel them to charge Sam with assault.

But the criminal aspects aside, Cady would be free to sue Sam civilly, and while, again, it's unlikely a local jury would find against Sam given all the circumstances, Cady could at least force Sam into a costly and embarrassing trial and even compel him to take the stand in his own defense. Remember that the threshold of evidence in a civil trial is less than in a criminal proceeding. Imagine Grafton going after Bowden to win damages for the pain and suffering inflicted on Cady at Sam's behest! If nothing else Cady might win enough to keep him in smokes until he was burned for killing the cop.

In fact, in the remake a somewhat similar action was brought against Cady, and the judge found against Sam.

I have to both agree and disagree with telegonus about his very interesting idea concerning the class aspects of the Bowden-Cady ruckus. I agree that there is certainly an element of class resentment on Cady's part, and that this is an extra source of his anger and hostility toward Sam. But it's only incidental. Had Bowden been of Cady's class he still would have gone after him, though he probably wouldn't have derived as much sadistic pleasure from it.

But I strongly differ that the script draws out the notion that Cady is an "underdog", a term which necessarily implies some degree of sympathy or at least understanding for him. His lower-class origins are implied but never made explicit, and are basically irrelevant to his actions. Cady is a psychotic. If his class origins made him an underdog in that narrow context, he loses any sympathy or even understanding by his sadism and violence, which is innate and uncontrollable. You can't just put that down as a consequence of his "class". Most poorer people don't go around torturing, beating and raping others.

Equally important to note is that Cady is a classic bully. He only picks on people who can't fight back -- women, girls, dogs, waitresses, blacks (the janitor in the courthouse), even Sam, who's constricted by his adherence to his profession and the norms of civil society. He can only fight by sneaking up on people. His reaction at the end when Sam tells him he'll live out his life in a cage shows he's a coward to boot. Yes, he can fight back when attacked, as with the men hired by Sam, but that was forced upon him. Given his choice, Cady always picks on the weak. Nothing in any of this conveys the notion of his being an "underdog". Cady preys on the real underdogs.

The script in fact basically is about good vs. evil, and the ways in which "good" sometimes has to lower itself to the level of evil in order to combat it. In this there's no hint of Cady as an underdog.