In Southeast Georgia, Max Cady is released from prison after serving an eight-year sentence for rape. He promptly tracks down Sam Bowden, an attorney whom he holds personally responsible for his conviction because Bowden interrupted his attack a…

• Gregory Peck as Sam Bowden
• Robert Mitchum as Max Cady
• Polly Bergen as Peggy Bowden
• Lori Martin as Nancy Bowden…

Cornel Wilde acquired the rights to John D. MacDonald's novel The Executioners for $30,000 in 1958. Gregory Peck had his own production company, Melville Productions, in partnership with Sy Bartlett, which had made The Big Country and Pork Chop Hill and …

Although the word "rape" was entirely removed from the script before shooting, the film still enraged the censors, who worried that "there was a continuous threat of sexual assault on a child." To accept the film, British censors required extensive e…