Decades before he carried Batman’s breakfast, grunted “bah-humbug” at the Muppets, and launched a thousand mediocre Cockney impersonations, Michael Caine mostly played transgressors.
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In films like “Alfie” (1966), “The Italian Job” (1969), “Get Carter” (1971), and “The Man Who Would Be King” (1975), Caine brought a streetwise intelligence to a gallery of anti-social rogues: philanderers, killers and colonialists. Ahead of Caine’s 88th birthday and the 50th anniversary of “Get Carter,” Be Reel dives into the first act of the English legend’s storied career.
Burning questions include:
- How does “Alfie” land in a time when its evolutionary descendants, like “High Fidelity” and “Fleabag,” are so much more self-aware?
- What makes Caine such a great dance partner to Sean Connery?
- Which is more interesting: the class consciousness of early Caine protagonists or their bizarre sexual mania?
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