Pulp - A Mike Hodges Film Starring Michael Caine

Get Carter Duo Reunite for this Unusual Comedy Thriller

Sep 17, 2009

Michael Caine stars as Mickey King, a writer of crime novels who finds himself caught up in a murder mystery while visiting an ageing Hollywood star.

Having worked together on Get Carter (1971) director Mike Hodges and star Michael Caine teamed up again for this underrated comedy- thriller. Pulp sees Caine playing Mickey King, a hack writer specialising in crime fiction. While collecting transcripts of his latest novel, Mickey is approached by Ben(Lionel Stander) and offered a job ghost-writing an autobiography for a client who wishes to remain anonymous.

On a bus journey to meet his mysterious client Mickey has an awkward conversation with Miller, a fan of detective novels, who criticises his work. Mickey assumes Miller is the contact who will take him to his client, but Miller claims to be an academic and leaves. At the hotel there is a mix-up with the rooms and Miller stays in the room originally meant for Mickey. Miller also ends up dead and Mickey finds himself up to his neck in the kind of murder plot he likes to write novels about.

Mickey’s client turns out to be Preston Gilbert (Mickey Rooney), a former Hollywood star famed for playing gangsters. Preston claims to have been friends with Al Capone and Bugsy Siegel. US immigration forced back to Italy, the country he was born in due to his apparent links to organised crime. Preston has cancer and wants Mickey to write his auto-biography before he dies. However Preston is convinced a hitman has been hired to kill him in case he reveals any dirt on his past associates.

Mike Hodges is best known for making tough thrillers like Get Carter and Croupier (1997) which focus on masculinity and criminal behaviour. While Jack Carter was a genuine tough guy, he was an empty shell of a human being. Caine’s iconic performance in that film became part of the naff ‘Cool Britannia’ culture of the 90’s despite being an ice-cold portrayal of a killer who cares about nothing except revenge

Though Pulp is lighter in tone than Get Carter, there is an underlying seriousness. Few directors are as cynical as Hodges about the motives of the powerful and wealthy. Mickey uncovers a political cover-up with a human tragedy at the heart of it. Hodges also wrote the screenplay for Pulp and provides a faux-noir narration for Mickey King. Caine delivers these occasionally daft pulp monologues completely straight as if he is the protagonist in one of his books.

Although he fancies himself as being the archetypal detective hero; tough, cynical and alone, deep down Mickey knows he is faking it. Even his name is made-up, one of many aliases he has used over the years. ‘Mickey’s real name is the rather less macho Chester Thomas King. Caine gives one of his best performances as Mickey, hinting at the insecurities behind Mickey’s deadpan façade.

Special praise must also go to the gravel-voiced Lionel Stander, narrator of one of the great lost thrillers Blast of Silence (Allen Baron 1961) and best known for playing Max in the 70’s TV show Hart to Hart. Stander is a hoot as Preston Gilbert’s bodyguard, especially during a scene where he mistakes the popping of a champagne cork for gunfire and begins randomly returning fire in various directions.

Pulp must have been a disappointment to any fans of Get Carter expecting more of the same from Caine and Hodges. Pulp deals in absurdity, sending up the detective novel and the film noir genre, but without resorting to parody. Hodges takes apart these male-dominated genres and shows up their romanticised machismo and notions of honour as artifice.

The copyright of the article Pulp - A Mike Hodges Film Starring Michael Caine in Action Films/Thrillers is owned by Kevin Sturton. Permission to republish Pulp - A Mike Hodges Film Starring Michael Caine in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.