Michael Caine at ninety

[George K]

https://thespectator.com/book-and-art/michael-caine-ninety-hollywood-girls-acting/

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Michael Caine is ninety on Tuesday, and he offers to accept questions by email, which he will then answer by email, as if we are communicating between galaxies. Normally this would bother me – gah, actors – but it is Michael Caine, so I can’t mind. Maurice Micklewhite’s invention Michael Caine — he named himself after The Caine Mutiny — is as luminous a piece of twentieth-century British culture as Eleanor Rigby. There are some people you want to be happy. They deserve it.

He replies quickly: this is a functional man. What did I expect? He has been nominated for an Academy Award six times in four separate decades, and won twice, and he is still working. This is work.

“There are no films I wish I hadn’t made,” he says, and this is a singular attitude. John Gielgud would not have had the confidence to appear in Jaws: The Revenge and was not a big enough star for The Muppet Christmas Carol. “I got paid for all of them,” he adds, and he bought his relations a house each. He didn’t even bother to read the script for The Swarm, a 1978 horror film in which bees gang up on him and Olivia de Havilland. His work ethic was Academy Award or a million dollars. He calls his career “a miracle without the slightest difficulty.” It’s not true, of course: he struggled for a decade in regional theater. But confidence is his defining characteristic, and it gives him, among actors, a peculiar grace.

This confidence is due to his mother, Ellen, I think, a cook and charwoman who loved him. He owes the most to her, he says. When his father, also called Maurice, a fish porter at Billingsgate, left to serve in World War Two Caine was six years old. “When his truck disappeared around the corner, she turned around to me and said: ‘Now you have to look after me.’ And she made me a man in one sentence.” He had an unhappy experience as an evacuee — he was locked in a cupboard — and, as a result, all his charity work now is for children.

When Caine was depressed as a young man after his father died, his mother spent the life insurance — £25 — on sending him to Paris, so he could see the scope of the world. He loved the book Springtime in Paris by Elliot Paul and stayed in the hotel where Paul had lived. When he ran out of money, he slept in the airport and sold chips on the street next to a friendly hot dog vendor. He returned to find a telegram saying he had a job on a film. He claims he had no plan and says he became an actor for the girls. “I became an actor because I wanted to kiss a girl, and I got to kiss all of them, so I thought it a good profession.’ His father had not understood this. He thought Caine was gay, at least for a while.

Until Caine arrived, Cockneys were played by middle-class actors from RADA or, preposterously, by Dirk Bogarde. He played with Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop but was dropped for not being suitable for an ensemble cast. (She told him: “You can piss off to Shaftesbury Avenue, you’ll only ever be a star.”) Then he played “a Cockney bloke in the West End in a play called Next Time I’ll Sing To You. An American director who was in the audience saw me and gave me a part in the film Zulu as a posh officer. This made me a star and I never went back on the stage again.” He was thirty-one when Zulu came out, and he was so happy he cried. I ask: “What would you have been if you hadn’t been an actor?” “Broke,” he says. I don’t believe him. He won a scholarship to grammar school. His favorite poem is Kipling’s “If,” which suits him – “If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue / Or walk with kings — nor lose the common touch” — and his favorite painting is Renoir’s “Luncheon of the Boating Party”: Paris, again.

If Caine is slightly underrated, it is because he is so present: you don’t tell wallpaper it is beautiful every day. I can’t think of a better portrayal of disappointment on screen than Frank Bryant in Educating Rita, or heartbreak than Elliot in Hannah and Her Sisters, but then he is good at playing failures. His ease is a deception. Pauline Kael, the doyenne of American film critics, said: “The goal of Caine’s technique seems to dissolve all vestiges of ‘technique.” He lets nothing get between you and the character he plays.” The critic David Thomson says Caine “tends to be as cold and barricaded as his spectacles.” I don’t see that, but Thomson has probably watched all of Caine’s 150 films, including Blame It on Rio.

Caine likes to look back on the films that made him famous: Zulu, The Ipcress File and Alfie. When he says the closest parts to him are Harry Palmer and Alfie, again, I don’t believe him. Alfie is not uxorious, as Caine is — he has been married to his wife, Shakira, for fifty years — and he has complained when journalists compare him with Alfie, who is a terrible slag. But he was beautiful, and who doesn’t want to remember themselves as beautiful? And I can’t prod him by email. When he says: “The furthest away was the conductor called Fred Ballinger [in] Youth,” I do believe him.

His latest film, The Great Escaper, about a veteran who escapes from a care home to go to the seventieth anniversary commemoration of D-Day, will appear this fall. Does he have plans to retire? “I retire all the time,” he says, “and then a script arrives and tempts me out of retirement.” Last time we met, ten years ago, he told me: “I think if you retire, you’re sort of saying, ‘I’ve given up. I’m going to sit here and what am I going to do now? I’ll tell you what — I’m going to die.’” When I ask him how cinema has changed, he says: “I no longer know who anyone is.”
He took the part in The Great Escaper, he says, because he “understood the character who was eighty-nine, the same age as me.” “I play an old serviceman, which I am.” He served in the Korean War, of which he said: “The rest of my life I have lived every bloody moment from the moment I wake up until the time I go to sleep.” He wrote his first novel during the Covid lockdown, a thriller called If You Don’t Want to Die, which will also appear this fall, about two dustmen who find uranium in the rubbish. Writing staves off boredom. He had broken his ankle and was stuck in front of the television when the pandemic struck.

We might know him as Michael Caine, but he took his knighthood in his real name. He is really Sir Maurice Micklewhite. Sir Maurice takes being Michael Caine very seriously — and he is very good at it — but his diplomacy has limits. When I ask him if the media have been unfair to Woody Allen, the director of Hannah and Her Sisters, who is dogged by allegations of sexual misconduct, he says yes, but adds no more. When I tell him that Zulu is listed on the counter-terror Prevent scheme as a piece of culture that incites the far-right, he says: “That is the biggest load of bullshit I have ever heard.” Again, he adds no more. He pursues happiness. His perfect day is being at home with his grandchildren, and on his birthday, he says, he will dine with his family.

I type this up thinking he should be considered our greatest film actor: it’s his delicacy. Then I remember The Swarm and understand: he doesn’t care.

[Doctor Phibes]

He's quite impossible to dislike.

[Mik]

Lovely article on a very interesting actor. My favorite movie of his is Secondhand Lions.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Mik said in Michael Caine at ninety:

My favorite movie of his is Secondhand Lions.

I loved that movie. When I watched it maybe 10 years ago, I noted how it reminded me of a couple of TNCR posters.

[Mik]

@Doctor-Phibes said in Michael Caine at ninety:

@Mik said in Michael Caine at ninety:

My favorite movie of his is Secondhand Lions.

I loved that movie. When I watched it maybe 10 years ago, I noted how it reminded me of a couple of TNCR posters.

[Mik]

But seriously, I will tune it in whenever it's on.

[George K]

@Mik said in Michael Caine at ninety:

My favorite movie of his is Secondhand Lions.

Totally new to me! I'll seek it out.

[Mik]

Oh, I think you will love it. Totally original story.

[George K]

Another tribute.

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Caine is a two-time Oscar winner and an international treasure. Here are some of his non-blockbuster films I treasure…

Zulu (1964)
The movie that made Caine a star is a superb reenactment of the 1879 Battle of Rorke’s Drift, where 150 or so British soldiers somehow withstood an attack by 4,000 Zulu warriors. Caine isn’t the star, but as the arrogant and insecure officer who becomes a man over the course of the battle, the movie is all his.

The Ipcress File (1965)
Caine plays the now-iconic Harry Palmer, a bespectacled anti-James Bond. More bureaucrat than intelligence officer, Harry is our sloppy protagonist who works in a dingy office, lives in a dingy flat, and worries about things like balancing his expense account. The character was popular enough to power four sequels, all starring Caine.

Alfie (1966)
For good reason, Caine is closely associated with Swingin’ 60s London. Alfie, one of the most moral movies ever made, is a devastating repudiation of that culture. Alfie is all swinger, and through him, we see the true cost of loveless sex—the cost in human life, in unborn human life, and on the soul.

Caine is beyond perfect as the selfish, charming, cheating, charismatic, pleasure-seeking narcissist whose lifestyle is infectious until the movie has the moral courage to reveal just how small and seedy and contemptuous Alfie truly is.

Get Carter (1971)
Caine brings all his movie star power and unspoken depth to the British gangster film of all British gangster films. Cold, calculating, and fearless, Jack Carter returns home to avenge his brother. Carter is the thing that just keeps coming, and not even the ladies are safe.

The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
Caine and co-star Sean Connery shine like the superstars they are in John Huston’s rollicking adaption of Rudyard Kipling’s infectious adventure about two former British soldiers tired of the lack of criminal opportunities in the British Empire. And so, they resolve to take a treacherous journey to a place where modernity dares not go, and in this place, they will serve as kings.

The chemistry between Caine and Connery sells this swashbuckler in a way unseen since the days of Errol Flynn. This is also a movie with plenty to say about ego, friendship, loyalty, and, yes, colonialism.

Dressed to Kill (1980)
Brian DePalma’s sexy-as-hell take on Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) is a classic all its own and one the Woke Censors would never allow to be made today.

Caine plays Dr. Robert Elliott and—without ruining anything—totally sells it.

Educating Rita (1983)
The movie that made me a lifelong Michael Caine fan is a heartrending take on My Fair Lady, with Caine in the Henry Higgins role and a fetching Julie Walters (in her screen debut) as our Eliza Doolittle.

Rita (Walters) is a married, working-class hairdresser who wants something more from life than a gang of kids, a husband with no ambition, and Friday nights at the pub. She senses a wider world filled with beauty and art, so she signs up for night classes.

Her tutor is Oxford literature professor Frank Bryant, a cuckold alcoholic who despises the snobbery and pretensions of university culture.

Against his will, he tutors Rita into something he loathes and maybe falls in love with her.

Based on Willy Russell’s play, Educating Rita is thematically complicated, beautifully acted, and bittersweet.

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
Caine won his first Oscar in Woody Allen’s masterpiece about three sisters searching for their place in the world. Married to Mia Farrow’s loyal, loving, and uncomplicated Hannah, Elliot is all middle-aged angst, a man who isn’t certain that the life he’s locked himself into is the one he wants. But, through Hannah’s sister Lee (Barbara Hershey), Elliot rediscovers his passion and zest for life, along with the youthful spirit that comes from an awkward crush and forbidden seduction.

Caine’s performance runs the gauntlet and steals the movie out from under a uniformly superb cast.

Mona Lisa (1986)
The second-greatest British gangster film ever made stars an Oscar-worthy Bob Hoskins as an ex-convict charged with guarding the beautiful and sad Simone, a high-end prostitute employed by Caine’s gangland boss Denny Mortwell.

Director/co-writer Neil Jordan takes you on a tour of a shabby subculture and then breaks your heart with a twist we should have seen coming but didn’t. Jordan brilliantly uses our knowledge of movies to yank the rug out from under us.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
A timelessly funny comedy about rival con men (Caine and Steve Martin) and their mercenary quest to bilk a lovely young heiress (Glenn Headly).

Caine matches Martin laugh for laugh, which is saying something.

A Shock to the System (1990)
A gem of a black comedy with a killer cast and killer script (adapted by my friend Andrew Klavan) about Graham Marshall (Caine), a milquetoast advertising executive who suffers one indignity too many, which turns him into a cunning sociopath. The business with the lighter is beyond ingenious, and Caine—even as Graham’s ruthlessness deepens and becomes petty—never loses the audience. Our complicity, our vicarious satisfaction in watching this warlock mow down everyone who stands in his way, defines “guilty pleasure.”

And what a cast… Elizabeth McGovern, the always fabulous Peter Riegert, Swoosie Kurtz, Will Patton, and a young Jenny Wright showing all the promise that, sadly, never was.

Last Orders (2001)
A terrific ensemble about four aging friends on a road trip to honor a friend’s final request. Ray Winstone joins Caine, Bob Hoskins, David Hemmings, and Tom Courtenay in a charming and touching story full of affection, secrets, changing times, the relentless march toward mortality, and friendship.

Harry Brown (2009)
Caine is perfect as an aging pensioner who’s just lost a wife to old age and a best friend to local hooligans. Unfortunately, the police are useless against a ruthless gang that terrorizes Harry’s housing project. Fed up, this former Royal Marine takes matters into his own hands, and the results are tense and glorious.

Sure, Bronson made five movies like this. However, Harry Brown still stands out because Daniel Barber beautifully directs it, and although Caine plays his age, you buy into everything that happens.

Happy birthday, Sir Michael, and here’s to many, many more…

[Doctor Phibes]

Link to video

[George K]

Did you know that if you hold your nose, and say his name, it sounds like "My cocaine"?

[Jolly]

@George-K said in Michael Caine at ninety:

@Mik said in Michael Caine at ninety:

My favorite movie of his is Secondhand Lions.

Totally new to me! I'll seek it out.

One of my favorite movies. A delight.

[Jolly]

Taking umbrage with a small part of the original thread starter...

The Muppet Christmas Carol movie may be one of the very best adaptions of the book. Yes, it can be whimsical, silly and even veer a little from canon, but it's highly entertaining.

And Caine is marvelous as Scrooge.

[Copper]

@George-K said in Michael Caine at ninety:

@Mik said in Michael Caine at ninety:

My favorite movie of his is Secondhand Lions.

Totally new to me! I'll seek it out.

Yes, required viewing.

[George K]

Caine announces his retirement:

https://abc7chicago.com/michael-caine-retiring-acting-dark-knight/13919806/?ex_cid=TA_WLS_FB

He confirmed that "The Great Escaper," which was released earlier this month, will be his last acting gig, saying: "I've played the lead and it's got incredible reviews. The only parts I'm going to get now are old men - 90-year-old men, or maybe 85, you know - and I thought well I might as well leave with all this. I've got wonderful reviews. What am I going to do to beat this?"

Caine starred alongside the late Glenda Jackson in the movie, playing Bernard Jordan, a 90-year-old who absconds from a care home to attend the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Landings in France.

"We had a great time on the movie and I thought, you know, why not leave now?" Caine added.

Also speaking on the podcast, "The Great Escaper" director Oliver Parker said, "Michael has this ability to turn his performance into something else," crediting his "charisma" and "sheer presence."

Caine began his acting career on the stage in the early 1950s, before making his movie debut in 1956.

Originally called Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, Jr., he adopted the screen name Caine - taken from the 1954 film "The Caine Mutiny" - and later made it legal.

[LuFins Dad]

I will definitely want to see The Great Escaper. Is it a streaming movie or at the theater?