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.
De Niro was tattooed with vegetable dyes, which fade after a few months.
Gregory Peck, who starred in Cape Fear (1962), 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.
De Niro researched sexual predator crimes for the part and suggested the scene where his character bites the victim.
The scene in the high school auditorium was totally ad-libbed by De Niro and Juliette Lewis, and done on the first take.
Director Trademark: [Martin Scorsese] [mother] fruit stand customer.
For the first time in Scorsese's career, he allowed the screenwriter, Wesley Strick, on the set during filming.
Steven Spielberg was originally set to direct.
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%.
The auditorium scene was originally scripted as a chase scene, but Scorsese wanted it to be a seduction.
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.
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.
Martin Scorsese's first big budget movie.
Robert Redford was also considered for the role of Sam Bowden.
This was Gregory Peck's final appearance in a theatrical film release.
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