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Alfie (1966)
Michael Caine earned his first Best Actor nomination for his bold and unapologetic performance in Alfie, an adult drama that looks at the sexual mores of the 1960's through the eyes of a truly reprehensible central character who learns there are consequences related to his behavior.
Alfie is a womanizing stud who thinks sex with as many women as possible is the only reason to live. He doesn't care how old they are or their marital status, as long the "birds" are in "beautiful condition." During the course of this story, we see Alfie's backstreet affair with a married woman (Millicent Martin), a young woman who he actually gets pregnant (Julia Foster), a wealthy American divorcee (Shelley Winters) and a young hitchhiker (Jane Asher) Alfie brings home to cook and clean for him.
This film is based on an unsuccessful play by Bill Naughton, that premiered on Broadway in 1965 with Terrence Stamp in the starring role and ran for an unimpressive 21 performances. I'm sure the play's limited run had a lot to do with the subject matter and the central character, a slime bucket who treats women like possessions. More than once when talking about women here, Alfie actually uses the word "it" instead of "she" or "her". His reaction to learning that he's gotten a woman pregnant doesn't exactly burst with politically correctness, but we do see him begin to bond with the child and think there might be some redemption for this character, but it's not to be.
This was also one of the first mainstream theatrical films where the central character actually talks directly to the camera, taking us inside Alfie's world and hopefully making the character a little more sympathetic, but that never really happens. Alfie is a charmer on the surface and as much as we want to like him, watching the way he treats these women makes that pretty much impossible.
Michael Caine delivers a rich performance that simultaneously works hard at making the character likable and wanting to punch him in the mouth for treating these women the way he does. Shelley Winters is terrific as Ruby and Vivien Merchant's pathetic Lily earned her a Supporting Actress nomination. Lewis Gilbert's direction employs some really interesting camerawork and makes the viewer comfortable with Alfie speaking directly to us, even though the guy is such a jerk, but the character gets payback for his behavior even if it isn't enough, but it's enough to make Alfie's journey a credible one. Gilbert would direct Caine to another Oscar nomination 17 years later in Educating Rita. This film was remade in 2004 with Jude Law playing Alfie.
Michael Caine earned his first Best Actor nomination for his bold and unapologetic performance in Alfie, an adult drama that looks at the sexual mores of the 1960's through the eyes of a truly reprehensible central character who learns there are consequences related to his behavior.
Alfie is a womanizing stud who thinks sex with as many women as possible is the only reason to live. He doesn't care how old they are or their marital status, as long the "birds" are in "beautiful condition." During the course of this story, we see Alfie's backstreet affair with a married woman (Millicent Martin), a young woman who he actually gets pregnant (Julia Foster), a wealthy American divorcee (Shelley Winters) and a young hitchhiker (Jane Asher) Alfie brings home to cook and clean for him.
This film is based on an unsuccessful play by Bill Naughton, that premiered on Broadway in 1965 with Terrence Stamp in the starring role and ran for an unimpressive 21 performances. I'm sure the play's limited run had a lot to do with the subject matter and the central character, a slime bucket who treats women like possessions. More than once when talking about women here, Alfie actually uses the word "it" instead of "she" or "her". His reaction to learning that he's gotten a woman pregnant doesn't exactly burst with politically correctness, but we do see him begin to bond with the child and think there might be some redemption for this character, but it's not to be.
This was also one of the first mainstream theatrical films where the central character actually talks directly to the camera, taking us inside Alfie's world and hopefully making the character a little more sympathetic, but that never really happens. Alfie is a charmer on the surface and as much as we want to like him, watching the way he treats these women makes that pretty much impossible.
Michael Caine delivers a rich performance that simultaneously works hard at making the character likable and wanting to punch him in the mouth for treating these women the way he does. Shelley Winters is terrific as Ruby and Vivien Merchant's pathetic Lily earned her a Supporting Actress nomination. Lewis Gilbert's direction employs some really interesting camerawork and makes the viewer comfortable with Alfie speaking directly to us, even though the guy is such a jerk, but the character gets payback for his behavior even if it isn't enough, but it's enough to make Alfie's journey a credible one. Gilbert would direct Caine to another Oscar nomination 17 years later in Educating Rita. This film was remade in 2004 with Jude Law playing Alfie.