Old Cape Fear has some terrific moments that were altered by Scorsese, rather unfavorably if I may judge. There is a well-executed sequence in the original when the Counsellor's daughter (who has no intimate moments with Max in the original) is stalked by Max Cady, flees to the vacant School and sees a shadow of a man of similar built (some worker), and with dread keeps running, managing to escape through the basement window back to the streets, and directly to the arms of the stalker. An edge-of-the-seat thrilling sequence that was changed in the remake, where Max would meet and stick out his finger as if to sensually arouse her prepubescent libido and the urge to fling. It's not a bad thing to focus on interior failings of the relationships in the family. Except it weren't done appealingly enough. I wonder how Steven Spielberg would have done it, I really believe he could pull off a proper remake of the original. I should also add the much underrated Robert Mitchum's performance in the original is much more scary and less phony than Deniro's.