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Posted: |
Jun 29, 2009 - 12:11 PM
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By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
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There's a Persuaders episode ("Greensleeves") where Roger Moore's Lord Brett Sinclair character poses as an out-of-work actor. He goes to a talent agency and asks for any work. The harried manager of the agency says "I couldn't get you any work if you were Michael Caine!"
So that got me thinking.
Just how popular was Caine after ALFIE? In his prime, that is. He did some high-profile pics like THE ITALIAN JOB, GET CARTER, SLEUTH, etc. Was he "The Guy" circa 1968-72 give or take a couple years? American superstars like De Niro, Pacino, and Hackman were not quite there yet, so was Caine the one who filled the vacuum, so to speak?
Tell me, old timers! Tell me about "My-Cool Kyne"!
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Posted: |
Jun 29, 2009 - 12:29 PM
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By: |
dragon53
(Member)
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JIM PHELPS:
I first saw Caine in ZULU when it was released in the early 1960s, and it's still one of my favorite movies. There's a scene in BATTLE OF BRITAIN where Caine, an RAF pilot, gets in his sports car and drives off. In fact, he gets in the car, but the car is towed off in front of the camera simulating Caine driving it. When asked about why he couldn't drive, Caine replied when he was young and poor, he always wanted to have a chauffered car. Now that he was successful and wealthy, he now had his chauffered car and he didn't need to know how to drive.
PS...Do you like gladiator movies?
(Sorry, I couldn't resist using that line)
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Posted: |
Jun 30, 2009 - 1:40 AM
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By: |
MusicMad
(Member)
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In my youth and when I was a regular cinema-goer I would always see a new Michael Caine film ... certainly he was one of my favourite actors.
But then I found that a lot of his films were not that good. I suppose that as I got older I became more critical: had I really enjoyed Zee And Co., Pulp or Sleuth, were Peeper, The Wilby Conspiracy, The Man Who Would Be King really any good ~ entertaining? - and when it came to some of the awful ones, such as The Black Windmill, The Swarm and The Island my patience was exhuasted.
I do watch his films but I don't watch them because he's in them; similar to Clint Eastwood in that respect. Whereas some actors, such as Robert Redford got better as they got older, for me, Michael Caine became a far less interesting film-star.
As for him being "Popular" - most definitely yes but only really when the US A-list were either unavailable or not interested. IMHO, that is ... I have no inside info on which to base my views.
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During his Alfie prime, the top stars were Julie Andrews, Sean Connery, Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Lee Marvin, John Wayne, Richard Burton, Doris Day and Jack Lemon. Caine was not in that league. He was more in the James Garner league. Popular and well-liked, but not quite A-list.
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Posted: |
Dec 3, 2009 - 6:35 AM
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By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
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During his Alfie prime, the top stars were Julie Andrews, Sean Connery, Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Lee Marvin, John Wayne, Richard Burton, Doris Day and Jack Lemmon. Caine was not in that league. He was more in the James Garner league. Popular and well-liked, but not quite A-list.
This I knew, but when I started hearing more references to Caine from that period I wondered if there was something about his popularity that people have forgotten. Pop culture chews and spits out the "flavor of the day" often (not that Caine fits in with that), and yet I'm often surprised looking back and discovering the once-popular performers who have since been relegated to the dust bin of history.
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Posted: |
Dec 18, 2009 - 8:27 AM
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By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
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VARIETY article on Michael Caine:
Caine makes it look easy
Actor has enjoyed performing wide range of roles
By ADAM DAWTREY
No British movie star of the past 50 years is more iconic than Michael Caine, with his golden hair, glasses and Cockney accent. Yet for an actor with such a clearly defined public image, the range of characters he has played onscreen is remarkably wide.
From his breakthrough role, cast against type as a posh officer in "Zulu," to his latest tour de force as a geriatric vigilante in "Harry Brown," he has reinvented himself time and again in more than 100 films while always remaining unmistakably Michael Caine.
Now 76 and still going strong, Caine is proud to call himself an actor, not a star.
"When a movie star reads a script, he asks, 'How can I change this to suit me?' He'd say, 'Michael Caine wouldn't say this, Michael Caine wouldn't do that.' When you're a movie actor, you change yourself to suit the script," he explains.
"I started out 56 years ago in rep theater playing a different part every week," he continues. "So when I got into films, my one criteria was that each role should be different from the last one. After 'Alfie,' I got offered 30 womanizers, but I didn't do any of them."
Caine always had bigscreen charisma, but it took awhile for people to take notice of his acting skill.
"The art is to make it look easy, and when you do that, people think you're not doing anything," he says. "It's like the difference between Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. When Kelly danced, you'd think, I couldn't do that. When Astaire danced, you'd think, I could do that. I'm in the Fred Astaire school."
That's why Caine never went back to the theater. "In the theater, you are there to reveal yourself to the man at the back of the balcony who's paid his money so he can see how well you are acting," he says with a hint of scorn. "In movies, you must conceal your acting from a camera that might be only three feet away."
According to Caine, there's no such thing as an easy part -- even when it's Harry Brown, the character whose background is closest to his own: Brown, like Caine, is an ex-soldier from the rough Elephant & Castle district of south London.
"I'm my own severest critic. My standard for what I do is that I look at the film and ask, 'Did the acting disappear, did I disappear?' With 'Harry Brown,' the answer was yes."
Asked to name other films where he felt that satisfaction, he lists "The Quiet American," "Educating Rita," "The Cider House Rules," "Little Voice," "Hannah and Her Sisters" and both versions of "Sleuth." He says the roles got better as he got older and he left the romantic leads behind.
"When you're young, you get the girl, you lose the girl, you get her back. There's not a lot of scope for performance there. You get more interesting parts eventually. I remember when the change came: A producer sent me a script and I said no, because the part was too small. He said, 'You're not supposed to be reading the lover, you're supposed to be reading the father!'
"I'm everybody's father now," he laughs. "I'm Austin Powers' father, Nicolas Cage's father, Nicole Kidman's father."
He loves being part of Christopher Nolan's rep company, having just finished a cameo in "Inception" to accompany his larger work in the Batman movies. "I think he's one of the greatest directors there is."
So what's next? "I wait for the offer I can't refuse. It's got nothing to do with money. What I'd love now is for another 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' to turn up. I've done a lot of dark films recently; I'd love to do another comedy."
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118011854.html?categoryId=3822&cs=1
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he was known after Zulu - even though hed previously popped up as a sailor helping norman wisdom! It was Ipcress that kicked him off big. Bond was huge but harry palmer was the antithesis and very popular.
Throughout the late 60s he grew in stature and italian job and Get Carterreally put him on the map. Italian job was massive and Carter was popular but a bit of a slow burn - it grew in gravitas. Back in those days films often got a wider audience and a bigger following once they got tv premieres and more people saw them, often X films had reps but tv meant everyone got to see them.
Caine did do some bum films Pulp, etc and seemed to choose erratically.
That said he then moved to america and became an even bigger star. Dressed to kill, etc.
Problem was, like terence stamp, he has fantastic delivery, and he also that fabulous rhythm of talking in clumps of two words and three four or five words - alternate short and long bursts, which is the impression everyone does.
But he went to america and his whole accent became some mid-atlantic hotchpotch.
Almost like he was trying to be something he wasnt.
For me he lost his cool.
And then there was the 80s period where he took ssme shocking films (the swarm etc) and when asked why he said "oh that paid for my house in malibu" (or wherever).
Still love the guy but somewhere along the line something unique evolved and was abandoned.
Perhaps he was determined to morph into a different kind of actor and prove he could do more sensitive work, and he did.
But what id give for 5 more Get Carters and couple more Palmers in his prime !
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