Category Archives: Michael Caine

Playing dirty: war as a criminal enterprise

Posted on January 17, 2019 by Andrew Nette| 3 Comments

Towards the end of last year I posted on my love for the 1968 espionage/war thriller, Where Eagles Dare. My first post for 2019 continues what is becoming an unofficial series of sorts on this site, ‘in praise of films I watched with my parents on the television on Sunday night when I was young’. This time, I want to briefly pay tribute to the incredibly hard-boiled late sixties revisionist war film by Hungarian emigre, Andre De Toth, Play Dirty.

I am not sure exactly what was going on with war films in the late 1960s – I assume it was the influence of the radical tenor of the times – but there was a whole crop of them that really took the gloves off in terms in their cynical, gritty depiction of the utter corruption and folly of war. Think Jack Cardiff’s The Dark of the Sun (1968), and Phil Karlson’s Hornet’s Nest (1970), as well as the aforementioned Where Eagles Dare, just to name a few I have featured on this this site previously.

Set on the North African front during World War II, I reckon Play Dirty is up there with the most hard-boiled and cynical of them. Plus January 1 was the 50th anniversary of its release, a milestone that went totally unmentioned anywhere, so the time is right to give it a bit of love.… Read more

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Posted in Andre De Toth, Michael Caine, War film

Tagged Andre de Toth, Crime Wave (1953), Day of the Outlaw (1959), Hardboiled war films, Harry Andrews, House of Wax (1953), Jack Cardiff, Micheal Caine, Nigel Davenport, Nigel Green, Play Dirty (1969), Robert Aldrich, The Dirty Dozen (1967), Where Eagles Dare (1968)

Sexy Beast: the last good British gangster film

Posted on April 2, 2017 by Andrew Nette| 2 Comments

Okay, I’m calling it. Sexy Beast is the last good British gangster film.

I was reminded of just how good a film Sexy Beast is – and how anaemic and derivative just about every single Brit gangster film made since is in comparison – after re-watching it on the weekend.

Gary ‘Gal’ Dove (Ray Winstone) is a retired safecracker now living the good life with his illegal proceeds in a Spanish villa with his ex-porn star wife, Deedee (Amanda Redman). Gal wants to do nothing more than sit in the sun with Deedee, and fellow London underworld refugees, Aitch (Cavan Kendall) and Aitch’s wife, Jackie (Julianne White).

Their peaceful life is thrown into complete chaos with the arrival of former underworld associate, Don Logan (a stellar turn by Ben Kingsley), a foul mouthed, psychotic gangster, who has come on behalf London crime lord Teddy Bass (Ian McShane), to recruit Gal to help pull a heist Bass is planning.

Gal wants no part in the job, setting the scene for a gradually escalating series of confrontations between he and Logan, who simply will not take no for an answer. Logan’s attempts to bully Gal to take part in the job start humourlessly enough but soon escalate, first in a wave of expletive laden threats, then rehashing the sordid underworld pasts of Deedee and Jackie.… Read more

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Posted in British crime cinema, Heist films, Joseph Losey, Michael Caine, Stanley Baker

Tagged Amanda Redman, Ben Kingsley, Bob Hoskins, Brighton Rock (1947), Cavan Kendall, Croupier (1998), Gangster No 1 (2000), Get Carter (1971), Guy Ritchie, Ian McShane, Jonathan Glazer, Joseph Losey, Julianne White, Layer Cake (2004), Lock, Lock. Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), McVicar (1980), Mona Lisa (1986), Peter Yates, Ray Donovan, Robbery (1967), Sexy Beast (2000), Snatch (2000), The Criminal (1967), The Long Good Friday (1980), Villain (1971)

Mike Hodges’ Pulp & mass paperback fiction on the big screen

Posted on March 21, 2016 by Andrew Nette| 14 Comments

The opening credits of Mike Hodges’ under appreciated 1972 film, Pulp, are a delight for any fan of cheap pulp paperback fiction. As text roles across the screen (in type writer font, of course), the camera pans between the faces of the three female stenographers transcribing the words of sleazy English expat pulp writer, Mickey King (Michael Caine). As Caine’s nasal voice-over recites his latest novel, The Organ Grinder, we see the different reactions of the women, disgust, shock, and excitement. It’s a reminder that once, before it was reduced to an object of outre fascination for its cover art, pulp fiction elicited strong emotions.

The movie shifts to King, in his cheap white suit and big hair, Jack Carter – the character he played in Hodges’ Get Carter only a year earlier – gone to seed, stepping out of the Italian hotel he lives in to hail a cab. As he sits in the reception area waiting for his completed manuscript, King’s voice-over goes: “The writer’s life would be ideal but for the writing. This was a problem I had to overcome. Then I read the Guinness Book of Records about Earl Stanley Gardner, the world’s fastest novelist who would dictate up to the rate of ten thousand words every day.… Read more

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Posted in 60s American crime films, British crime cinema, Crime fiction, Crime film, Michael Caine, Pulp fiction, Pulp paperback cover art, Vintage pulp paperback covers

Tagged Brett Halliday, Davis Dresser, Earl Stanley Gardner, Get Carter (1971), Joseph Cotton, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), Lisbeth Scott, London in the Raw (1965), Massino Pupillo, Michael Caine, Mickey Rooney, Mike Shayne, Nadia Cassini, Pulp (1972), Robert Altman, The Bloody Pit of Horror (1965), The Long Goodbye (1973), The Third Man (1949)

50th anniversary of The Ipcress File

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Andrew Nette| Leave a comment

If the on-line excitement in response to teaser images from Spectre, the 24^th James Bond film, is anything to go by, we’ve lost none of our fascination with the Bond franchise. Spectre promises to have a stripped back, almost retro feel, as evidenced by images of ditching his tailor made suit in favour of a black turtleneck and leather shoulder holster, harking back to previous Bond incarnations in From Russia With Love (1963) and You Only Love Twice (1967).

If you don’t want to wait until Spectre’s scheduled release at the end of this year for a dose of retro spy thrills, look no further than The Ipcress File, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary this week.

Based on the 1962 debut novel of the same name by Len Deighton, The Ipcress File hit UK cinemas on March 18, 1965. It was nominated for a Palme d’Or at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival and won the BAFTA for best British film the same year. The British Film Institute lists it number 59 on the hundred best British film of the 20^th Century.

The Ipcress File was a major success for Canadian born director, Sidney J Furie (another being Lady Sings the Blues starring Diana Ross in 1972).… Read more

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Posted in Michael Caine, Spies

Tagged Daniel Craig, From Russia With Love (1963), Harry Saltzman, James Bond, Michael Caine, Sidney J Furie, Spectre, spy movies, The Ipcress File, The Ipcress File (1965), You Only Love Twice (1967)

Ephemera from the 1971 film, Get Carter

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Andrew Nette| 4 Comments

Following on my essay earlier this week in the Los Angeles Review of Books on Ted Lewis, his Jack Carter books and the film adaption of the first book, Get Carter (which you can check out here if you if you are interested), I thought readers might be interested in a selection of ephemera from the books and film.

The 1971 movie, directed by Mike Hodges, does not need any introduction here. While it is by no means the best british crime movie ever made, as some would claim, it is a good one and has been very influential, in terms of plot, characterisation and visual feel.

Enjoy.