After the 1960’s, Michael Caine had become arguably the most bankable British actor around. What with the Harry Palmer trilogy, Alfie and The Italian Job, he was a household name. But one senses, even 50 years on, that he knew his onscreen persona needed reinventing. The latter in particular had framed him as a cheeky chappie yet Caine, regardless of the success he was enjoying, stuck his neck out.
For a while the American gangster genre had been a staple of Hollywood. In adapting the novel Jack’s Return Home by Ted Lewis, director Mike Hodges (Pulp, Croupier, Flash Gordon) and producer Michael Klinger were trading the mean streets and glamour of Chicago or New York for the thoroughly more downbeat and gritty North East of England, focusing centrally on Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.
London hit-man, for a crime syndicate resembling the Krays, Jack Carter heads North for his brother’s funeral and quickly sets about investigating his mysterious death. He gradually unpicks a seedy web of deceit and busts a porn ring. Caine portrays Carter as monosyllabic, abrupt, brooding and sardonic; all traits so different from an Alfie or a Harry Palmer. And at no point does one dwell on those previous personas, so powerful is Caine’s screen presence here as Carter.
Newcastle as a location has all the desolation, isolation and decay wrung out of it by Hodges. The abandoned landscape of urban wasteland and bombsites capture the Northern city post-war like a historical picture book. The high glitz of casinos and opera houses so associated with the American mob movies are replaced by bingo and dancehalls. Champagne for Scotch.
It’s got an eclectic cast. While Caine is perfect as Carter – cynical and ruthless – playwright John Osborne is creepy and sophisticated in equal measure as gang boss Cyril Kinnear. Ian Hendry, as the cowardly Eric Paice who fears Carter, evokes the right level of despicability but Britt Ekland as Carter’s love interest has little to do, much like her other film roles in the early 1970’s such as Wicker Man and The Man With The Golden Gun. It’s unsurprising her film roles dwindled.
It is difficult to feel sympathy for Carter which sets up not ambivalence towards his plight but more a conundrum about his morality and the methods he employs to take revenge on his brother’s killers. Indeed, many are thrown under the proverbial bus by Carter with beatings and deaths for which he is directly or indirectly responsible.
Perhaps because of how sinister and repellent the pornography network he brings down is, he becomes this avenging angel in a black trench coat. As he works alone and is constantly surrounded by those watching him and meaning him harm, you want him to prevail however blotted his moral copybook is.
Mike Hodges does a fantastic job in the directorial hot seat. The rhythm and pacing is bang on for a crime action thriller. From the opening credits as Jack takes the train ride North, to the car chase around the cobbled back streets to the shoot out on the boat and the climatic pursuit. There’s also a fascinating experiment with ambient sound to tap into the soul of the city. In the betting shop, the post office, at Kinnear’s country residence, at the races and the pubs; there are a range of low voices and sounds from everyday life making this world both intrusive and hum-drum. There’s the whistling wind surrounding the apartment as Carter goes to bed with Glenda before making some shocking discoveries about why his brother was killed.
There are also memorable scenes aplenty and quotable lines that have gone down in British pop culture folklore like Carter’s “you’re a big man, but you’re out of shape”. But the real legacy of Get Carter is that it remained a cult film for so long yet influenced many other film makers. The Long Good Friday was arguably the first that you might trace from it but a parade of movies would follow like Mona Lisa, Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Layer Cake and Sexy Beast which are in that tradition without being quite as good.
Get Carter is one of the finest British films ever made and high up in those starring Michael Caine who might have found the initial critical and commercial response to it disappointing but would go on to enjoy several more roles in Pulp (also directed by Hodges), Sleuth and The Man Who Would Be King. Okay yes, Caine’s London accent might rather undermine the fact Carter is meant to originate from Newcastle but that flaw aside, if you haven’t seen it, you need to get Get Carter.
Athon 