MICHAEL CAINE & MIKE HODGES FOLLOW 'GET CARTER' WITH 'PULP'

Michael Caine gets fiction in PULP Year: 1972 Rates: ****

Director Mike Hodges and his GET CARTER anti-hero Michael Caine found the perfect antidote in PULP, a dark comedy in which a deliberately bad "gangster fiction" novelist becomes part of his own style of flimsy storytelling while narrating along in the usual Gumshoe fashion... 

Then landing a plot/purpose after a random and eclectic forty-minutes of anticipation for a has-been actor that Caine's slippery scribbler will ghostwrite an autobiography for... 

Al Lettieri and Michael Caine in PULP

Enter Mickey Rooney as a George Raft/James Cagney hybrid who, for no reason, annoys Caine immediately. Sure he's obnoxious but doesn't seem bad enough to steer the audience to dislike. Meanwhile, Hodges trades his dark and dangerous GET CARTER Newcastle, England location for the sunny biblical-like island of Malta...

That eclectically harbors a pool of shocked secretaries transcribing King's erotic prose; Lionel Stander as Rooney's mafioso partner; Noir veteran Lizabeth Scott as a Fascist candidate's sultry wife; stock ingenue Nadia Cassini as our own stock ingenue; GODFATHER villain Al Lettieri as an enigmatic red-herring; and Al Pacino's GODFATHER II bodyguard Amerigo Tot as a helpful communist... 

Nadia Cassini in PULP

All reminding the smug central character and audience there's a movie going on that he's more stuck inside of than an integral part in: So between the talky meantime and sporadic sudden bursts of jarring, noisy, deliberately overblown violence: you have to simply let go and just go with it...

And, while quite silly compared to Mike Hodges' and Michael Caine's previous neo noir, GET CARTER, both share an extremely dark backstory serving into each twist ending.

Michael Caine in PULPMichael Caine in PULPMichael Caine in PULPMichael Caine in PULP

Lizabeth Scott in PULPMichael Caine in PULP with Mickey Rooney
Michael Caine in PULPMichael Caine in PULPItalian bombshell Cristina Gaioni as 2nd Typist in PULP
Cristina Gaioni steps out to see Michael Caine in PULP Swedish hottie Janet Agren with Leopoldo Trieste & Lionel Stander in PULPGorgeous coach hostess Irene Sophie Opperman in PULPAl Lettieri and Michael Caine in PULP
Swedish hottie Janet Agren with as the secretary in PULPSwedish hottie Janet Agren with as the secretary in PULPMichael Caine, Nadia Cassini and Lionel Stander in PULP"The cock crowing made me uneasy" Michael Caine in PULPSweeney 2 Malta-born actor Joe Zammit Cordina in Malta for PULPAnother Four-Letter Word for Mike Hodges' pulpy picture PULPNadia Cassini films within the film PULP by Mike Hodges
Mickey Rooney as Preston Gilbert in PULPMichael Caine hails PULP as Mickey Rooney's creditedDouble Artwork Covers for Dueling PULP artwork dammitDouble poster cover images for PULP

Sculptor Amerigo Tot in PULP and THE GODFATHER II
Lionel Stander in PULPNadia Cassini sits poolside in Mike Hodges' PULPLionel Stander in PULP