53 reviews
I was an extra in this film.. We had an hilarious time in Malta and the whole cast was great fun.. (I'm the blonde girl - tallest of them all - in the scene when they check in at the hotel..
The whole film team was living at a hotel called the PRELUNA in Malta - fantastic place still. and someone managed to use a euro-plug in the British style sockets and short-circuited the whole hotel.. Everyone pretended not to know who!!
The plot is weak but Rooney was great and Michael Caine is and will always be just Michael Caine.. He is good.. It's a pity you can't see this film on TV any more.. I have a real OLD video copy,.,,
The whole film team was living at a hotel called the PRELUNA in Malta - fantastic place still. and someone managed to use a euro-plug in the British style sockets and short-circuited the whole hotel.. Everyone pretended not to know who!!
The plot is weak but Rooney was great and Michael Caine is and will always be just Michael Caine.. He is good.. It's a pity you can't see this film on TV any more.. I have a real OLD video copy,.,,
Mike Hodges' GET CARTER (1971) is, supposedly, a realistic gangster flick about a hit man, played by Michael Caine, who murders without demur and, indiscriminately, screws every bird in sight; yet, wells up at the thought that - is it his niece? - has been snatched up by a porno-movie ring. He systematically knocks off mob kingpins and we are invited to watch him do it - with cold-blooded relish.
PULP is gangster related too, but pure Lewis Carroll in narrative plausibility; nevertheless, Caine's Mickey King is amusingly credible in the manner in which he drinks in the dream world that happens to him.
PULP pulls off something that few films (including SUNSET BLVD., with the marvelous William Holden) are able to do. It makes an author its central character and you believe, from start to finish, that he is, in fact, a man of curiosity and invention, who makes his living by the employment of words.
Among Hodges' other films, CROUPIER (1998) is closer to PULP than GET CARTER is because its protagonist's literary pretensions resemble King's habit of describing a shady milieu which operates in moral twilight. Both pictures suffer from direction too tightly melded to intriguing fictional conceits. However, the phlegmatic understatement of Caine's voice-over commentary (written by Hodges) is maintained impressively, the Malta locations and surprising russet colors - not to mention the freak-show supporting cast of Mickey Rooney, Lionel Stander, Lizabeth Scott, Dennis Price, Nadia Cassini's mile-long legs and, Bogart look-a-like, Robert Sacchi make it a must for connoisseurs of the truly offbeat.
Was this comment useful to you?
PULP is gangster related too, but pure Lewis Carroll in narrative plausibility; nevertheless, Caine's Mickey King is amusingly credible in the manner in which he drinks in the dream world that happens to him.
PULP pulls off something that few films (including SUNSET BLVD., with the marvelous William Holden) are able to do. It makes an author its central character and you believe, from start to finish, that he is, in fact, a man of curiosity and invention, who makes his living by the employment of words.
Among Hodges' other films, CROUPIER (1998) is closer to PULP than GET CARTER is because its protagonist's literary pretensions resemble King's habit of describing a shady milieu which operates in moral twilight. Both pictures suffer from direction too tightly melded to intriguing fictional conceits. However, the phlegmatic understatement of Caine's voice-over commentary (written by Hodges) is maintained impressively, the Malta locations and surprising russet colors - not to mention the freak-show supporting cast of Mickey Rooney, Lionel Stander, Lizabeth Scott, Dennis Price, Nadia Cassini's mile-long legs and, Bogart look-a-like, Robert Sacchi make it a must for connoisseurs of the truly offbeat.
Was this comment useful to you?
- jacegaffney
- Dec 31, 2010
- Permalink
PULP re-teamed Actor Michael Caine and Director Mike Hodges just a year after their Box-Office hit and Modern Classic GET CARTER (1971)
Anyone hoping for a Film that is up there with GET CARTER will be sorely disappointed as PULP fails to match the success and quality of the former.
PULP has Michael Caine playing Mickey King a rather seedy Author of trashy Pulp Fiction who is hired by a reclusive and quirky former Actor Preston Gilbert (played with huge enthusiasm by Mickey Rooney) to ghostwrite his Autobiography.
PULP was a big flop on its original release back in '72 and to a large extent I can understand why, very little actually happens in the Film and Caine's sarcastically witty narration - although funny - has to carry the entire Film - and it ends very suddenly which makes you think 'Oh, that's it then?' which is never a good sign.
Filmed on the beautiful surroundings of Malta and Co-starring Lionel Stander and 40/50's star Lizabeth Scott with a rather pointless role played by Dennis Price (in one of his last roles) - PULP is worth watching, but it's never as good as it probably should have been and isn't a patch on GET CARTER.
Anyone hoping for a Film that is up there with GET CARTER will be sorely disappointed as PULP fails to match the success and quality of the former.
PULP has Michael Caine playing Mickey King a rather seedy Author of trashy Pulp Fiction who is hired by a reclusive and quirky former Actor Preston Gilbert (played with huge enthusiasm by Mickey Rooney) to ghostwrite his Autobiography.
PULP was a big flop on its original release back in '72 and to a large extent I can understand why, very little actually happens in the Film and Caine's sarcastically witty narration - although funny - has to carry the entire Film - and it ends very suddenly which makes you think 'Oh, that's it then?' which is never a good sign.
Filmed on the beautiful surroundings of Malta and Co-starring Lionel Stander and 40/50's star Lizabeth Scott with a rather pointless role played by Dennis Price (in one of his last roles) - PULP is worth watching, but it's never as good as it probably should have been and isn't a patch on GET CARTER.
- WelshFilmCraze
- Mar 25, 2010
- Permalink
While Hodges and Caine's 'Get Carter' has long since become a classic movie, it's follow up, 'Pulp' has been largely forgotten about. This is a shame, as, on it's on its own terms, and 'Pulp' is as rich a film. Like the previous movie, 'Pulp' is influenced by such noir writers as Chandler, Hammett and MacDonald (all three are referenced during the film), however, the big difference lies is the amount of comedy used. The first half is full of comic moments and (even though it does turn darker) comedy is ever-present.
Most obviously, it's in the way the movie parodies such clichés as voice overs (people who complain of it's over use are, I think, missing the point, as the tension between King's voice over and the actual events help give the movie it's kick).
Michael Caine's 'Micky King', is light-years away from his role as the vengeful 'Jack Carter', slightly pathetic, constantly trying to keep up with the plot, is an enjoyable performance, as is Mickey Rooney's over the hill movie star.
The 'Loaded' generation who took 'Carter' into their hearts are never, ever going to understand this movie, but in its own quirky way, it's up there with such key 'seventies movies as 'The Long Goodbye' or 'Chinatown'.
Most obviously, it's in the way the movie parodies such clichés as voice overs (people who complain of it's over use are, I think, missing the point, as the tension between King's voice over and the actual events help give the movie it's kick).
Michael Caine's 'Micky King', is light-years away from his role as the vengeful 'Jack Carter', slightly pathetic, constantly trying to keep up with the plot, is an enjoyable performance, as is Mickey Rooney's over the hill movie star.
The 'Loaded' generation who took 'Carter' into their hearts are never, ever going to understand this movie, but in its own quirky way, it's up there with such key 'seventies movies as 'The Long Goodbye' or 'Chinatown'.
This starts of with quite a few good laughs some visual, some slapstick and a few situation based but gets a little more serious as it progresses.
The acting is good with Rooney as the slightly mad client being especially good and Caine is his usual self in the lead.
The one liners are delivered well and the occasional difference between what is narrated and what is acted out is amusing.
The plot is a little thin and when it gets serious it doesn't do it too well.
It's a watchable film with no bad bits and a few good ones but it's nothing special.
The acting is good with Rooney as the slightly mad client being especially good and Caine is his usual self in the lead.
The one liners are delivered well and the occasional difference between what is narrated and what is acted out is amusing.
The plot is a little thin and when it gets serious it doesn't do it too well.
It's a watchable film with no bad bits and a few good ones but it's nothing special.
- imdb-19548
- Oct 31, 2007
- Permalink
A pulp novelist (Michael Caine) goes to Italy to ghost the autobiography of an old time Hollywood film gangster (Mickey Rooney), but maybe not everyone wants to see the book written?
One of these films that was under regarded upon release, but has more going for it than you might imagine. The real Italian locations and Caine's dry understated voice-over play well against the gags and situations. Rooney sends himself up something rotten as a George Raft style figure; and we keep on watching wanting to know how it all turns out.
While far short of a classic, I got dragged in and was very well entertained during its 90 minutes. However it's slow nature and lack of pyrotechnics might alienate the modern audience. Worth giving a go with if it is playing on late night TV, especially if you like a bit of black humour.
One of these films that was under regarded upon release, but has more going for it than you might imagine. The real Italian locations and Caine's dry understated voice-over play well against the gags and situations. Rooney sends himself up something rotten as a George Raft style figure; and we keep on watching wanting to know how it all turns out.
While far short of a classic, I got dragged in and was very well entertained during its 90 minutes. However it's slow nature and lack of pyrotechnics might alienate the modern audience. Worth giving a go with if it is playing on late night TV, especially if you like a bit of black humour.
A seedy writer of sleazy pulp novels (Michael Caine) is recruited by a quirky, reclusive ex-actor (Mickey Rooney) to help him write his biography at his house in Malta.
This is Mike Hodges' follow-up to "Get Carter" (1971) and takes a bit of a different turn. Though there does remain that seedy element, only this time transported to Malta. Fans of Italian exploitation and Z-grade science fiction are sure to recognize Nadia Cassini ("Starcrash", 1978).
Hodges spent a long time coaxing noir veteran Lizabeth Scott out of retirement to fly to Malta for the shooting. Scott said that while she enjoyed the beauty of Malta, she was not pleased that most of her footage was cut out — eight scenes in all. Hodges for his part reported that Scott was challenging to work with while shooting. Scott "hadn't make a picture in 15 years and I had to really coax her into coming back." But Scott overcame her stage fright and Hodges was pleased with Scott's performance.
This is Mike Hodges' follow-up to "Get Carter" (1971) and takes a bit of a different turn. Though there does remain that seedy element, only this time transported to Malta. Fans of Italian exploitation and Z-grade science fiction are sure to recognize Nadia Cassini ("Starcrash", 1978).
Hodges spent a long time coaxing noir veteran Lizabeth Scott out of retirement to fly to Malta for the shooting. Scott said that while she enjoyed the beauty of Malta, she was not pleased that most of her footage was cut out — eight scenes in all. Hodges for his part reported that Scott was challenging to work with while shooting. Scott "hadn't make a picture in 15 years and I had to really coax her into coming back." But Scott overcame her stage fright and Hodges was pleased with Scott's performance.
Murder! Mystery! Michael Cain! Mickey Rooney! Lizabeth Scott, for goodness sake! How could this not be good.
I'll tell you how.
This tale of a pulp writer who gets involved in real murder features an unfocused story, a diffident Caine and a low budget that leads to the sort of artificial voice inserts and poor lighting you would expect from a TV movie of the era.
To some extent, you could argue that it's not so much inept as it is representative of the early 70s, where directors like Robert Altman tossed out a lot of the cinematic gloss of earlier eras in favor of a messier, more "realistic" style. But the movie fails even in that regard compared to something like Altman's more watchable The Long Goodbye, which came out the following year.
The beginning isn't terrible, offering a little humor, but as the movie wanders into its absurd story, it gets harder and harder to sit through. About two-thirds of the way through I gave up and read how it ended on wikipedia.
I wouldn't recommend this for fans of pulp detective novels, but if you like that 1970s pseudo-naturalistic style you might find this more tolerable than I did.
I'll tell you how.
This tale of a pulp writer who gets involved in real murder features an unfocused story, a diffident Caine and a low budget that leads to the sort of artificial voice inserts and poor lighting you would expect from a TV movie of the era.
To some extent, you could argue that it's not so much inept as it is representative of the early 70s, where directors like Robert Altman tossed out a lot of the cinematic gloss of earlier eras in favor of a messier, more "realistic" style. But the movie fails even in that regard compared to something like Altman's more watchable The Long Goodbye, which came out the following year.
The beginning isn't terrible, offering a little humor, but as the movie wanders into its absurd story, it gets harder and harder to sit through. About two-thirds of the way through I gave up and read how it ended on wikipedia.
I wouldn't recommend this for fans of pulp detective novels, but if you like that 1970s pseudo-naturalistic style you might find this more tolerable than I did.
Despite an half decent cast, Michael Caine ("King") just can't carry this and after about fifteen minutes, once we have established the premiss, it all just falls into a well trammelled line of mediocrity. He is a sort of penny dreadful style of author, who is offered the opportunity to write the biography of former Hollywood star "Preston Gilbert" (Mickey Rooney) at his Maltese home. Once there, he soon appreciates that his employer is the target of an assassin working for some mobsters. Suffice to say, he doesn't remain a target for long - and it falls to "King" to stay alive himself, whilst completing his story about the eccentric "Gilbert". It had potential, this - but sadly the plot runs out of steam very quickly, the humour is too sparse and contrived and though there are plenty of bit-part characterisations that try to keep the story interesting, it all just withers on the bough. Not terrible, but unremarkable.
- CinemaSerf
- May 27, 2023
- Permalink
One reviewer suggested that "Pulp" never became a box-office hit because it can't be easily classified into a genre. That's certainly a legitimate way of explaining it. Another explanation could be that it's just not a very good movie. It wants to be a mystery, but the plot never grips you like it should; it wants to be a comedy, but the laughs are not as frequent as they should be (one great line, though: after trying to watch a film that is projected upside down, a guy says "This would be a big hit in Australia!"); it wants to "say something" about the thin line separating reality from fiction, but that "something" doesn't come through very clearly. Michael Caine gives a sly performance, full of his typical cool bemusement, and he just about manages to get you through the film (with some help from the pleasant Malta locations and Nadia Cassini's long legs). Near the end, there is a scene on a deserted beach that may remind you of the finale of "Get Carter". That's not a good thing, however, as you may find yourself wishing you were (re-)watching that film instead of this one. (**)
"Can you walk a little faster?" said the whiting to the snail. "There's a porpoise right behind me, and he's treading on my tail..."
Michael Caine had a pretty good year in 1972. GET CARTER was one of his best-ever films, but he was also nominated, along with Laurence Olivier, for an Academy Award for his rôle in the film adaptation of Anthony Shaffer's stage play SLEUTH (neither of them got it, though - that year it went to Marlon Brando in THE GODFATHER).
More an off-beat comedy than a drama, PULP is a nice little blend of Alfie and Harry Palmer, and is a sadly unregarded gem that has nevertheless become a bit of a cult film loaded with many inside jokes. The 'three Michaels' - Mike Hodges, Michael Caine and Mike Klinger - may not have hit similar paydirt as with their GET CARTER, but the sheer knowing coolness of pulp writer Mickey King's (Caine) Chandleresque voiceover dialogue is carried off with caustic wit, panache and style ("The day started quietly enough, then I got up."); in fact, there are four Michaels if one adds Mickey Rooney - and a fifth if one includes the main character, Mickey King. Fearing possible stereotyping as a Hard Man, PULP was intended to be the opposite of Caine's hard-hitting Jack Carter character: affecting the relaxed raffish air of the self-satisfied ex-pat (he left London and his lucrative job as a funeral-director, and elbowed the wife and three kids), Mickey King glides about the Mediterranean in a dapper white corduroy suit, churning out cheap gangster fiction paperbacks under ludicrous aliases (Guy Strange, Gary Rough, Dan Wilde, Les Behan, newly-discovered Indian writer Dr. O.R. Gann, and struggling Nigerian author S. Ódomi) and hard-boiled titles (Kill Me Gently, The Kneetrembler and My Gun Is Long). In fact, his voiceover dialogue of heroic action is the opposite of his real-life reaction when confronted with dangerous situations - starting with a succession of taxis completely ignoring his hails!
Neatly filmed on Malta, G.C., the film is an odd joy from beginning to end, with little pastiches that are hommages to John Huston (the FBI agent who appears to be Bogart enquiring from whom appears to be Peter Lorre after what turns out to be a Maltese falcon ...) and wonderful quirky characters. King's publisher, Markovic, is "a Greco-Albanian born in Budapest" with a bladder problem. Obviously vegetarian, the Mysterious Englishman, Mr. Balmoral (Dennis Price), is reading Alice In Wonderland for the 118th time, and so well able to insult steak-eatin' folks from steak-lovin' Texas from it; could he be part of the developing mystery? Lionel Stander puts in a nice turn as a laid-back, ageing wiseguy ("His name was Ben Dinuccio. It was the nicest thing about him."). Starting at the Temples of Zonq, leggy Nadia Cassini (Liz Adams) shows why hotpants were - and still are! - great [Cassini went on to become a 1970s and 1980s starlet in Italian erotica and Trash flics]. Swarthy and moustachioed, Al Lettieri (Ben Miller) plays ... well, Al Lettieri, the stereotyped rôle he can never get away from: the 'heavy' - as he did in The Getaway and Mr. Majestyk - who dons the priest's garb and eventually meets with an undignified (for a heavy, that is) end. One of Gilbert's ex-wives, sexy-voiced Lizabeth Scott (Princess Betty Cippola) shmoozes suggestion as she knows The Establishment are really In Control of events (she calls her husband Dago).
But the real treat is Mickey Rooney as the faded film star, Preston Gilbert, ejected from Hollywood for his Mob associations. In a villa on a private island, with his deaf mother, companion Liz and his PR-man Dinuccio, semi-reclusive Gilbert lives the life of the wealthy idler reliving past glories by playing old 78s and corny soundbites from his Cagneyesque old gangster films, and inflicting practical jokes on unsuspecting tourists. Delightfully hamming it up, his poncing around in his skivvies [I creased-up at the double-mirror bit] and applying his toupée is a marvellous send-up of himself! With the Big Sleep approachin' Gilbert hires King to ghostwrite his lifestory plus a few revelations - "a death-rattle in paperpack, eh?" according to a sceptical King. Preston insists the book come with an opening quote from Samuel Goldwyn, "We all passed a lot of water since then."
Hodge's cutaway scenes show a nice eye for detail. Elections are due, so throughout there are street marches by elderly and not-very-impressive hangers-on of the New Front party of creepy law-and-order politician Prince Frank Cippola - a comment on then-topical real-life Prince Borghese and the quasi-establishment, certainly neo-Fascist, Spada movement. "The wizard ringing in," the dignified pain of ashamed former Partisan Signor Lepri, and the "retired gunman who drew too late - twice" supping cola at the 42nd Street Bar (King sits under a plaque saying Ave Maria) add to the quirky mystery.
Poignant are the closing scenes. Whilst King feverishly hammers out the imagined ending to his own ordeal (in which he re-uses passages from previous novels), Cippola's shooting-party have hounded a wild boar toward his shooting platform (in a scene that would be unacceptable today). Trapped, the wretched beast has nowhere to go. Safe from the boar's frantic attempts to charge the wire, it's an easy shot, no real competition. Having bagged his kill, unassailable aristocrat Cippola raises a glass of champagne to the camera. "I'll get you, you bastards ..." wails King, unable to scratch an itch ...
Yup, a gem.
Michael Caine had a pretty good year in 1972. GET CARTER was one of his best-ever films, but he was also nominated, along with Laurence Olivier, for an Academy Award for his rôle in the film adaptation of Anthony Shaffer's stage play SLEUTH (neither of them got it, though - that year it went to Marlon Brando in THE GODFATHER).
More an off-beat comedy than a drama, PULP is a nice little blend of Alfie and Harry Palmer, and is a sadly unregarded gem that has nevertheless become a bit of a cult film loaded with many inside jokes. The 'three Michaels' - Mike Hodges, Michael Caine and Mike Klinger - may not have hit similar paydirt as with their GET CARTER, but the sheer knowing coolness of pulp writer Mickey King's (Caine) Chandleresque voiceover dialogue is carried off with caustic wit, panache and style ("The day started quietly enough, then I got up."); in fact, there are four Michaels if one adds Mickey Rooney - and a fifth if one includes the main character, Mickey King. Fearing possible stereotyping as a Hard Man, PULP was intended to be the opposite of Caine's hard-hitting Jack Carter character: affecting the relaxed raffish air of the self-satisfied ex-pat (he left London and his lucrative job as a funeral-director, and elbowed the wife and three kids), Mickey King glides about the Mediterranean in a dapper white corduroy suit, churning out cheap gangster fiction paperbacks under ludicrous aliases (Guy Strange, Gary Rough, Dan Wilde, Les Behan, newly-discovered Indian writer Dr. O.R. Gann, and struggling Nigerian author S. Ódomi) and hard-boiled titles (Kill Me Gently, The Kneetrembler and My Gun Is Long). In fact, his voiceover dialogue of heroic action is the opposite of his real-life reaction when confronted with dangerous situations - starting with a succession of taxis completely ignoring his hails!
Neatly filmed on Malta, G.C., the film is an odd joy from beginning to end, with little pastiches that are hommages to John Huston (the FBI agent who appears to be Bogart enquiring from whom appears to be Peter Lorre after what turns out to be a Maltese falcon ...) and wonderful quirky characters. King's publisher, Markovic, is "a Greco-Albanian born in Budapest" with a bladder problem. Obviously vegetarian, the Mysterious Englishman, Mr. Balmoral (Dennis Price), is reading Alice In Wonderland for the 118th time, and so well able to insult steak-eatin' folks from steak-lovin' Texas from it; could he be part of the developing mystery? Lionel Stander puts in a nice turn as a laid-back, ageing wiseguy ("His name was Ben Dinuccio. It was the nicest thing about him."). Starting at the Temples of Zonq, leggy Nadia Cassini (Liz Adams) shows why hotpants were - and still are! - great [Cassini went on to become a 1970s and 1980s starlet in Italian erotica and Trash flics]. Swarthy and moustachioed, Al Lettieri (Ben Miller) plays ... well, Al Lettieri, the stereotyped rôle he can never get away from: the 'heavy' - as he did in The Getaway and Mr. Majestyk - who dons the priest's garb and eventually meets with an undignified (for a heavy, that is) end. One of Gilbert's ex-wives, sexy-voiced Lizabeth Scott (Princess Betty Cippola) shmoozes suggestion as she knows The Establishment are really In Control of events (she calls her husband Dago).
But the real treat is Mickey Rooney as the faded film star, Preston Gilbert, ejected from Hollywood for his Mob associations. In a villa on a private island, with his deaf mother, companion Liz and his PR-man Dinuccio, semi-reclusive Gilbert lives the life of the wealthy idler reliving past glories by playing old 78s and corny soundbites from his Cagneyesque old gangster films, and inflicting practical jokes on unsuspecting tourists. Delightfully hamming it up, his poncing around in his skivvies [I creased-up at the double-mirror bit] and applying his toupée is a marvellous send-up of himself! With the Big Sleep approachin' Gilbert hires King to ghostwrite his lifestory plus a few revelations - "a death-rattle in paperpack, eh?" according to a sceptical King. Preston insists the book come with an opening quote from Samuel Goldwyn, "We all passed a lot of water since then."
Hodge's cutaway scenes show a nice eye for detail. Elections are due, so throughout there are street marches by elderly and not-very-impressive hangers-on of the New Front party of creepy law-and-order politician Prince Frank Cippola - a comment on then-topical real-life Prince Borghese and the quasi-establishment, certainly neo-Fascist, Spada movement. "The wizard ringing in," the dignified pain of ashamed former Partisan Signor Lepri, and the "retired gunman who drew too late - twice" supping cola at the 42nd Street Bar (King sits under a plaque saying Ave Maria) add to the quirky mystery.
Poignant are the closing scenes. Whilst King feverishly hammers out the imagined ending to his own ordeal (in which he re-uses passages from previous novels), Cippola's shooting-party have hounded a wild boar toward his shooting platform (in a scene that would be unacceptable today). Trapped, the wretched beast has nowhere to go. Safe from the boar's frantic attempts to charge the wire, it's an easy shot, no real competition. Having bagged his kill, unassailable aristocrat Cippola raises a glass of champagne to the camera. "I'll get you, you bastards ..." wails King, unable to scratch an itch ...
Yup, a gem.
Michael Caine plays Mickey King--a guy who writes crap novels under a variety of pseudonyms. The titles of these books and his pen names are very funny--but also belie the fact that it is all sleazy crap. Out of the blue, Mickey gets an odd visit. Ben Dinuccio (Lionel Stander) has come to hire Mickey as a ghost writer for some famous man--but who that man is he will not say. All he's told is to go on some bus tour in Europe and wait for someone to contact him. Most of the trip is pretty boring for Mickey until someone he THINKS is his contact winds up dead. However, like a bad dime novel, the body disappears and everyone behaves as if nothing happened.
Soon the man he's supposed to meet is revealed--Preston Gilbert (Mickey Rooney). Preston is apparently a rather famous but bad actor who has a lot of mobster friends--so many that he ended up getting deported. Now on an island in Europe, Preston holds court in front of a bunch of sycophants. These people don't seem to mind that Preston is a boorish, very crude jerk. Caine is sick of the guy after a while and tells him off--though right after this, an assassin kills Preston and tries to kill Mickey. Why? Who wants to kill Mickey and why?
In many ways, "Pulp" flows like a bad old novel. Mickey narrates as if it's some sort of Mickey Spillane story and the story elements also, at times, seem right out of one of these stories. The problem is that when it's not, the story drags and drags. For a while I could enjoy it but it just kept going on and on and never seemed to pick up any steam. I wanted a big payoff but the best thing I got was seeing Mickey Rooney curse and act like a jerk. Overall, a misfire that started with an interesting idea but never developed into anything.
Soon the man he's supposed to meet is revealed--Preston Gilbert (Mickey Rooney). Preston is apparently a rather famous but bad actor who has a lot of mobster friends--so many that he ended up getting deported. Now on an island in Europe, Preston holds court in front of a bunch of sycophants. These people don't seem to mind that Preston is a boorish, very crude jerk. Caine is sick of the guy after a while and tells him off--though right after this, an assassin kills Preston and tries to kill Mickey. Why? Who wants to kill Mickey and why?
In many ways, "Pulp" flows like a bad old novel. Mickey narrates as if it's some sort of Mickey Spillane story and the story elements also, at times, seem right out of one of these stories. The problem is that when it's not, the story drags and drags. For a while I could enjoy it but it just kept going on and on and never seemed to pick up any steam. I wanted a big payoff but the best thing I got was seeing Mickey Rooney curse and act like a jerk. Overall, a misfire that started with an interesting idea but never developed into anything.
- planktonrules
- Feb 3, 2014
- Permalink
Great film that doesn't take itself too seriously. For me, the parts played by Dennis Price and Lionel Stander kind of steal the show. Narrated in the first person throughout, if I remember rightly, I guess it could also have been called "An Innocent Abroad" or something similar, as Micheal Caine finds himself "up against it" and completely out of his depth in comfortable surroundings he feels uncomfortable in as violence hovers just beneath the surface. So, for those reasons it's a bit like "Get Carter", only this time around there's no personal crusade he's on; he's just a writer of pulp fiction out for what he can get from an ageing Hollywood actor (played by Mickey Rooney) who wants him to ghost-write his autobiography. I suppose this film is a bit like "Chinatown" in some respects as it deals with the futility of attempting to tackle corruption on a grand scale - only unlike the Polanski movie, it never won any awards because it never really took itself too seriously. How can one take Caine as a tough, gritty Londoner, when he swans around Malta in a white suite and sunglasses - smoking through a cigarette holder like a Cockney Noel Coward?
- erol_galip
- Jul 9, 2003
- Permalink
- Hey_Sweden
- Mar 1, 2012
- Permalink
The people that are complaining that this film is "no Get Carter" are missing the point entirely. This film is more Get Smart than Get Carter. Just as that '60's television series was a send up of the James Bond films,this '70's film is a send up of the gangster films and pulp fiction novels that a lot of them are based on. In that respect,it shouldn't be taken seriously, just enjoyed for the sight gags and one-liners. Sure,some of it is ridiculously obvious. There is an actor that could have doubled for Bogart if he had been around in the '40's and '50's. Lizabeth Scott,a femme fatale from many noir pictures plays a "princess" married to a politician and making no bones about the fact that she got where she is by being good in bed. Michael Caine is fine as the hack pulp fiction writer that gets caught in a real life murder mystery. But the real gem here is Mickey Rooney as the over the hill former movie tough guy with mob ties that hires Caine to ghost write his autobiography. I was never a big Mickey Rooney fan. I didn't dislike him,but I never got into his Andy Hardy or "Let's put on a show" flicks with Judy Garland. In fact,except for this film,I've really only seen one other MR film that I liked,a little b-picture from the '50's called "Quicksand." So his turn here as the movie star/mob guy/practical joker was a surprise and a delight.
- wmss-770-394192
- Jan 28, 2014
- Permalink
An amusing spoof of the film-noir genre from that greyest of hippie years - 1972. I enjoyed Michael Caine's laconic cockney humour and syntax. He plays Mickey King a professional pulp-fiction writer involved in an actual murder. In appearance he sports medium-length wavy auburn-hair and sideburns, a white flared corduroy suit and spectacles with mauve lenses and thick black frames. The Maltese settings and views of Valletta - some anthropological - are evocative. English actor, Dennis Price plays a rude tourist who doesn't suffer fools gladly while Mickey Rooney is an obnoxious diminutive freckled brash exiled US actor with underworld connections called Preston Gilbert and who is the mooted topic of a biography to be written by King. The film features a Bogart look-a-like and Godfather heavy, Italian-American actor, Al Lettieri plus gruff pugnacious cigar-chomping Lionel Stander.
- mark-rojinsky
- Mar 29, 2022
- Permalink
Dryly irreverent, but sadly unfunny satire of detective movies, with stony-faced Michael Caine playing a British author of trashy crime stories traveling to the Mediterraean to assist in writing the memoirs of a would-be gangster; soon, he realizes he's being followed and his life is in danger. Caine narrates the proceedings with considerable sly wit and low-keyed sarcasm, but his actual performance is bereft of energy (Caine's shrill bursts of anger or frustration seem to come out of nowhere, and he connects with nobody on the screen). Other cast members (particularly Mickey Rooney, a silver-haired Lionel Stander, and Lizabeth Scott) do very well in colorfully outré roles, though Al Lettieri has an ungainly part as an apparent cross-dressing homosexual (Lettieri gets insulted without being able to defend himself, an unenviable position). Writer-director Mike Hodges has the germ of a good idea (satirize the detective movies of the 1940s without compromising the hard-boiled talk and milieu), but he hasn't a very sharp sense of humor. When a Bogart lookalike--asking a question about a falcon--is the best joke, what follows is anemic indeed. ** from ****
- moonspinner55
- Aug 1, 2008
- Permalink
In Italy, Mickey King (Michael Caine) is a prolific pulp writer working under various pen names. He gets recruited to ghostwrite for a mystery man. He boards a tour bus and told to wait for his contact. He encounters a mysterious murder and other strange occurrences. Finally, he meets his subject, Preston Gilbert (Mickey Rooney).
I like the general surreal tone of this journey. It meanders a bit but I actually would like the injection of more strangeness. It needs to get weirder. It's holding back. Michael Caine is a little too cool for school. He needs to get in touch with his inner Kafka. In the end, it falls a bit short. It could have been a cult classic but it's only half-forgotten pulp.
I like the general surreal tone of this journey. It meanders a bit but I actually would like the injection of more strangeness. It needs to get weirder. It's holding back. Michael Caine is a little too cool for school. He needs to get in touch with his inner Kafka. In the end, it falls a bit short. It could have been a cult classic but it's only half-forgotten pulp.
- SnoopyStyle
- Jun 16, 2021
- Permalink
In Rome, British pulp fiction writer Michael Caine (as Chester Thomas "Mickey" King) is hired to ghost-write the memoir of a mysterious American celebrity. This turns into a bizarre adventure which, we're told in the opening, will put five people in the cemetery. It's written and directed by Mike Hodges, and producer Michael Klinger makes "Pulp" a three Michael affair. Apparently a satire of secret agent films, "Pulp" is neither witty nor intriguing. The Beatles' producer George Martin composed the serviceable but unmemorable soundtrack music. A good supporting cast helps during the dull periods. You get Mickey Rooney (as Preston Gilbert) essaying a gross old movie star (in his underwear, no less). Lionel Stander (as Ben Dinuccio) is a shady publicist (earning a cigar). Lizabeth Scott (as Betty Cippola) appears for the last time before the camera. And, leggy Nadia Cassini (as Liz Adams) has to be the sexiest model "hot pants" ever had.
**** Pulp (8/16/72) Mike Hodges ~ Michael Caine, Mickey Rooney, Lionel Stander, Lizabeth Scott
**** Pulp (8/16/72) Mike Hodges ~ Michael Caine, Mickey Rooney, Lionel Stander, Lizabeth Scott
- wes-connors
- Aug 15, 2013
- Permalink
This film confounded those who were expecting a performance from Caine that echoed the 'hard man of few words' character which he mastered in Get Carter only one year before Pulp. Some saw it as playing his recent success for laughs, but when viewed separate from Get Carter, the jokes still stand up. The sense of farce builds and the sinister setting and plot twists move the story along without breaking the essential flow. Much of the comedy comes from well delivered one liners parodying the pulp novelist, so often seen today but done well for the first time in this film, but the understated "black slapstick" and the stoic character portrayed by Caine have much comedic value. The main reason this film is little known now is that it never quite fit into a genre very well. The only advice I can offer is to watch the film without Caine preconceptions and let the laughs come.
- ms015g6428
- Apr 18, 2005
- Permalink
- kirbylee70-599-526179
- Dec 18, 2017
- Permalink
Mickey King is a jobbing writer, spitting out lurid gangster novels under various fake names with the usual mix of violence and sex making them sell. He is approached to ghost write for an unnamed Hollywood "legend" and, pocketing a nice advance for his troubles, he agrees. He travels by coach to meet his subject and meets several strange characters along the way. One of them ends up dead and King steps into the background to let the police find the body but keep himself out of it however when the body seemingly disappears he is at a loss to explain it and unable to report it.
A misfire this one but one that does have some reasonable ideas within it. The gimmick of king's narration versus what is happening and the simple view of his books versus the complex unfairness of reality is a nice idea but it does not translate into a good film. Those that really like the film (both of them) claim that this is not given enough credit because the majority of viewers don't "get" it but I beg to differ I think it is rating "average" and remembered as such because of the film itself being just that average. The gimmick wears thin when you realise that there is nothing else than a poorly delivered mystery. Towards the end there are themes and things of interest that vaguely start to drift out but by then it is too little too late. Comparing it to things like Chinatown is a joke and those that have suggested this have offered nothing by way of justification.
The cast are mixed. Caine plays to play into his character and indeed he does get some moments of interest with his essentially harmless character, but as the material thins so does his performance. Rooney is interesting for playing an unusual character but offers little more than novelty value. The rest of the cast fill in around the edges in strange turns here and there. Malta as a setting is filmed with a real lack of interest and comes over as dry and colourless a visual impression that does not help the material one little bit.
Overall then an OK idea falls flat as it brings nothing else of interest to the room. Caine tires of it long before the end so it should be of no surprise if you the viewer do as well.
A misfire this one but one that does have some reasonable ideas within it. The gimmick of king's narration versus what is happening and the simple view of his books versus the complex unfairness of reality is a nice idea but it does not translate into a good film. Those that really like the film (both of them) claim that this is not given enough credit because the majority of viewers don't "get" it but I beg to differ I think it is rating "average" and remembered as such because of the film itself being just that average. The gimmick wears thin when you realise that there is nothing else than a poorly delivered mystery. Towards the end there are themes and things of interest that vaguely start to drift out but by then it is too little too late. Comparing it to things like Chinatown is a joke and those that have suggested this have offered nothing by way of justification.
The cast are mixed. Caine plays to play into his character and indeed he does get some moments of interest with his essentially harmless character, but as the material thins so does his performance. Rooney is interesting for playing an unusual character but offers little more than novelty value. The rest of the cast fill in around the edges in strange turns here and there. Malta as a setting is filmed with a real lack of interest and comes over as dry and colourless a visual impression that does not help the material one little bit.
Overall then an OK idea falls flat as it brings nothing else of interest to the room. Caine tires of it long before the end so it should be of no surprise if you the viewer do as well.
- bob the moo
- Oct 13, 2007
- Permalink