Vitals

Robert De Niro as Max Cady, psychopathic parolee

New Essex, North Carolina, Summer 1991

Film: Cape Fear
Release Date: November 15, 1991
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Rita Ryack

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

In the spirit of Aloha Friday as we get closer to summer, let’s revisit Robert De Niro’s unhinged turn as Max Cady in Martin Scorsese’s 1991 reimagining of Cape Fear.

Paroled after 14 years behind bars, Max launches a campaign of psychological warfare against his former defense attorney, Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte), whom he blames for failing to defend him adequately in court. Disgusted by the brutality of Max’s assault of a teenage girl, Sam had deliberately buried some potentially exonerating evidence, assuming his illiterate client would never know the difference. But prison gave Max time, and he used it: learning to read, study the law, and uncover the betrayal that cost him his freedom… much to Sam’s chagrin, as Max begins terrorizing the Bowden family, now settled in a small North Carolina town, where Sam maintains a private practice.

The story originated in John D. MacDonald’s 1957 novel The Executioners, first brought to the screen in J. Lee Thompson’s 1962 adaptation starring Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck as Max and Sam, respectively. Scorsese and casting director Ellen Lewis honored that legacy by bringing both Mitchum and Peck back for supporting roles in the 1991 remake, adding a layer of cinematic continuity to the psychological torment.

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What’d He Wear?

Max Cady maintains a wardrobe as chaotic as his personality, with many pieces likely carried over from his late ’70s heyday before Sam’s insufficient legal defense sent him to prison for more than a decade. Anything he may have purchased after his release coordinates with the rest of his disco-era fits, including a brashly patterned aloha shirt that Max wears during his engineered run-ins with Sam on the streets of New Essex.

Likely made from an inexpensive polyester rather than the rayon of higher-quality Hawaiian shirts, Max’s shirt depicts tropical scenes of black palm trees and white sail boats silhouetted against the fiery red skies and orange clouds of a yellow setting sun. Cut with a straight hem designed to be worn untucked, the short-sleeved shirt follows the classic sporty aloha shirt design with a flat camp collar and four translucent white plastic sew-through buttons fasten up the plain front. The shirt also has a non-matching breast pocket where Max tucks the fat cigars he regularly smokes.

Costume designer Rita Ryack later recalled that she “found it in some gruesome strip mall in Fort Lauderdale—and now I see that shirt everywhere,” per Megan Turner for the New York Post. Indeed, the print has remained common to aloha style long after we saw the last of Max Cady speaking in tongues while slowly submerging in the Cape Fear River.

The scenes with this shirt feature Max photographed exclusively while sitting—first in his Mustang, later at a restaurant—so we see little below his waist beyond his full-fitting white slubby polyester flat-front trousers, though we can assume he also wears his usual white leather moc-toe loafers, which feature gold-buckled straps across each instep.

Max often tops off his look with a white Greek fisherman’s cap, a distinctive mariner’s hat known for its low, soft crown and braided front band. Originally popular among 19th-century seamen and laborers, the style gained a second life in the 1950s and beyond, embraced by countercultural groups like bikers, greasers, folk musicians, Rastafarians, and hipsters. According to the inventory of De Niro’s costumes and personal effects archived at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas-Austin, his Cape Fear cap was made by Aegean, a Greek company whose fisherman’s caps have been carried by outfitters like Village Hat Shop since the 1980s.

Aegean produces the caps in both wool and cotton—Max wisely chooses the lighter cotton version for the sweltering North Carolina summer. His cap is constructed from white cotton twill, detailed with a white satin braided band secured by large side buttons and finished with a textured satin ribbon across the bill.

Max hides behind his signature pair of menacing black-framed aviator-style sunglasses, their teardrop-shaped mirrored lenses flashing with every move. The gold capsule-shaped emblem over the bridge hints at Carrera—an Italian brand known for bold, aggressive eyewear that suits Max’s lurking predator persona.

Max’s foreboding “My Time Is At Hand” tattoo across his right forearm makes a darkly ironic companion to the timepiece on his opposing wrist: a black-and-gold dive watch believed by some to be one of the “Black Coral” 1000 Series Professional models produced by Heuer—and later TAG Heuer—in the 1980s. Launched in 1979 in response to the quartz crisis and the ongoing dominance of Rolex’s dive offerings, the 1000 Series marked Heuer’s foray into quartz-powered professional-grade divers, helping to revive the brand’s popularity ahead of its 1985 merger with Techniques d’Avant Garde (TAG).

Among the standout variations was the reference 980.029N (or the smaller 980.028N), nicknamed “Black Coral” for its dramatic contrast of black PVD-coated stainless steel with gold-plated accents. These included a gold crown guarded by black shoulders, a gold rotating bezel with a black insert, and a matte black dial set with luminous hour indices and a white date window at 3 o’clock—all housed in a robust 37mm case.

Though the wide-set gold logo on Max’s dial deviates from the tighter Heuer/TAG Heuer branding, the distinctive five-piece bracelet—three rows of black PVD-coated links split by slimmer gold center links—strongly mirrors the Black Coral’s Jubilee-style bracelet.

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How to Get the Look

Max Cady’s often-clashing, outdated wardrobe mirrors his fractured persona—a man frozen in time, clinging to the swagger of a bygone era lost to years behind bars. While the world has moved on, Max refuses to adapt, stalking through the summer heat in his loud aloha shirt, white slacks, white fisherman’s cap, and oversized mirrored aviators… defiantly dressing like the past still belongs to him.

• Bright-red sunset-print polyester short-sleeved aloha shirt with camp collar, 4-button plain front, and non-matching breast pocket
• White slubby polyester flat-front trousers with belt loops, extended waist tab with hidden double-hook closure, slanted front pockets, jetted back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White leather moc-toe loafers with gold buckle-detailed instep straps
• White socks
• White cotton twill Greek fisherman’s cap
• Black-framed Carrera-style sporty aviator sunglasses with teardrop-shaped iridescent mirrored lenses
• Black PVD-coated stainless steel dive watch with gold-plated rotating bezel (with black insert), black matte dial (with luminous non-numeric hour indices and white 3:00 date window), and black-and-gold five-piece link bracelet

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

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The Quote

I learned from the get-go in the joint to get in touch with the soft, nurturing side of myself… the feminine side.