Malta sehen und sterben

PULP re-teamed Actor Michael Caine and Director Mike Hodges just a year after their Box-Office hit and Modern Classic GET CARTER (1971)

Anyone hoping for a Film that is up there with GET CARTER will be sorely disappointed as PULP fails to match the success and quality of the former.

PULP has Michael Caine playing Mickey King a rather seedy Author of trashy Pulp Fiction who is hired by a reclusive and quirky former Actor Preston Gilbert (played with huge enthusiasm by Mickey Rooney) to ghostwrite his Autobiography.

PULP was a big flop on its original release back in '72 and to a large extent I can understand why, very little actually happens in the Film and Caine's sarcastically witty narration - although funny - has to carry the entire Film - and it ends very suddenly which makes you think 'Oh, that's it then?' which is never a good sign.

Filmed on the beautiful surroundings of Malta and Co-starring Lionel Stander and 40/50's star Lizabeth Scott with a rather pointless role played by Dennis Price (in one of his last roles) - PULP is worth watching, but it's never as good as it probably should have been and isn't a patch on GET CARTER.

While Hodges and Caine's 'Get Carter' has long since become a classic movie, it's follow up, 'Pulp' has been largely forgotten about. This is a shame, as, on it's on its own terms, and 'Pulp' is as rich a film. Like the previous movie, 'Pulp' is influenced by such noir writers as Chandler, Hammett and MacDonald (all three are referenced during the film), however, the big difference lies is the amount of comedy used. The first half is full of comic moments and (even though it does turn darker) comedy is ever-present.

Most obviously, it's in the way the movie parodies such clichés as voice overs (people who complain of it's over use are, I think, missing the point, as the tension between King's voice over and the actual events help give the movie it's kick).

Michael Caine's 'Micky King', is light-years away from his role as the vengeful 'Jack Carter', slightly pathetic, constantly trying to keep up with the plot, is an enjoyable performance, as is Mickey Rooney's over the hill movie star.

The 'Loaded' generation who took 'Carter' into their hearts are never, ever going to understand this movie, but in its own quirky way, it's up there with such key 'seventies movies as 'The Long Goodbye' or 'Chinatown'.

This starts of with quite a few good laughs some visual, some slapstick and a few situation based but gets a little more serious as it progresses.

The acting is good with Rooney as the slightly mad client being especially good and Caine is his usual self in the lead.

The one liners are delivered well and the occasional difference between what is narrated and what is acted out is amusing.

The plot is a little thin and when it gets serious it doesn't do it too well.

It's a watchable film with no bad bits and a few good ones but it's nothing special.

A pulp novelist (Michael Caine) goes to Italy to ghost the autobiography of an old time Hollywood film gangster (Mickey Rooney), but maybe not everyone wants to see the book written?

One of these films that was under regarded upon release, but has more going for it than you might imagine. The real Italian locations and Caine's dry understated voice-over play well against the gags and situations. Rooney sends himself up something rotten as a George Raft style figure; and we keep on watching wanting to know how it all turns out.

While far short of a classic, I got dragged in and was very well entertained during its 90 minutes. However it's slow nature and lack of pyrotechnics might alienate the modern audience. Worth giving a go with if it is playing on late night TV, especially if you like a bit of black humour.

Mike Hodges' GET CARTER (1971) is, supposedly, a realistic gangster flick about a hit man, played by Michael Caine, who murders without demur and, indiscriminately, screws every bird in sight; yet, wells up at the thought that - is it his niece? - has been snatched up by a porno-movie ring. He systematically knocks off mob kingpins and we are invited to watch him do it - with cold-blooded relish.

PULP is gangster related too, but pure Lewis Carroll in narrative plausibility; nevertheless, Caine's Mickey King is amusingly credible in the manner in which he drinks in the dream world that happens to him.

PULP pulls off something that few films (including SUNSET BLVD., with the marvelous William Holden) are able to do. It makes an author its central character and you believe, from start to finish, that he is, in fact, a man of curiosity and invention, who makes his living by the employment of words.

Among Hodges' other films, CROUPIER (1998) is closer to PULP than GET CARTER is because its protagonist's literary pretensions resemble King's habit of describing a shady milieu which operates in moral twilight. Both pictures suffer from direction too tightly melded to intriguing fictional conceits. However, the phlegmatic understatement of Caine's voice-over commentary (written by Hodges) is maintained impressively, the Malta locations and surprising russet colors - not to mention the freak-show supporting cast of Mickey Rooney, Lionel Stander, Lizabeth Scott, Dennis Price, Nadia Cassini's mile-long legs and, Bogart look-a-like, Robert Sacchi make it a must for connoisseurs of the truly offbeat.

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