Alfie
1966
Produced and Directed by Lewis Gilbert
Screenplay by Bill Naughton
Based on the play by Bill Naughton
Cinematography by Otto Heller
Music by Sonny Rollins
CAST
Michael Caine- Alfie Elkins
Shelley Winters- Ruby
Millicent Martin – Siddie, the married girlfriend
Julia Foster – Gilda, the mother of little Malcolm
Jane Asher – Annie, the hitch-hiker
Shirley Anne Field- Carla, the nurse
Vivien Merchant – Lily Clamacraft
Alfie Bass – Harry Clamacraft
Eleanor Bron – The Doctor
Denholm Elliot – The Abortionist
Graham Stark- Humphrey, a bus conductor, in love with Gilda
Murray Melvin – Nat, Alfie’s pal
Sydney Tafler – Frank, a lorry driver
The 1960s retrospectives series …
The Swinging Sixties London thread continues … filmed in 1965, Premier on 29 March 1966 in the UK, general release in May 1966, 24 August in the USA.
Bill Naughton wrote it as a radio play (starring Bill Owen), then it became a stage play in 1963, before becoming a film. It was Michael Caine’s breakthrough role, having been declined by Terence Stamp, his one-time flatmate. Terence Stamp had played Alfie in the Broadway stage play which only ran for 21 performances
When Terry did the play on Broadway, which didn’t go well, he decided he couldn’t carry on with it. We were desperate for a cockney to play the part, and my son – who was associate producer and a friend of Caine’s – said: “What about Michael?” Michael hadn’t done a lot at that point. But when I saw The Ipcress File, I was impressed. So I rang Paramount and said: “There’s only one person who can play this part, and that’s Michael Caine.” “Michael who?” they said. “We’ve never heard of him.” “You will,” I said, “Trust me.” They said: “OK, it’s just a cheap little British film, you go ahead and make it.”
Lewis Gilbert, Guardian 4 May 2001
The role was also turned down by Richard Harris, Laurence Harvey, James Booth and Anthony Newley. None of them wanted to be associated with the abortion theme. Looking at that list, it’s impossible to imagine any of them in the role, so much did Michael Caine make it his own.
With this film, Michael Caine, who plays the title role, moves into the select class of top international stars. His low-key style, his immobile face, his deliberately flat voice, all seem to work against the role of invincible bird hunter, even birds of a generally rather pitiful sort. It is Caine’s success that he uses all these negatives to create a positive, a screen personality of compelling interest and impact.
Hollywood Reporter 1966
The USP of the film was Alfie breaking the fourth wall by addressing the cinema audience.
Our first idea, which was pretty revolutionary at the time, was that Alfie should talk to the camera. In my early films, it was always stressed: “Don’t let your eyes hit the lens – that would make it false.” But TV audiences became used to people looking at them out of a screen. In the event, they quickly cottoned on.
Lewis Gilbert, Guardian 4 May 2001
It was low budget, at $500,000 Lewis Gilbert compared it to the executives’ cigar budget at Paramount. It’s widescreen, but noticeably all the lobby cards and most of the publicity photos are black and white.
The 60s
Though classed as one of the main 60s London movies, it’s definitely not Swinging London. The setting is often South Bank and Tower of London area and I know that area so well now. It has changed dramatically. The characters look and dress much more 1962 than 1965, but at least three years pass, maybe four or five, between Alfie impregnating Gilda and the end. So filming in 1965, the story is starting circa 1961. Alfie’s taste runs to regimental blazers and ties with horizontal stripes, which is late 50s / early 60s not mid 60s. Alfie’s tastes don’t update with the passage of years. Then Jane Asher as Anne comes across as much younger than Alfie’s normal prey. The Sonny Rollins cool soundtrack is squarely earlier, and in the pub the band is trad jazz. When Alfie hears pop music on the radio from a Annie, he turns it off.
My Memory
Wiki calls it ‘a romantic comedy drama.’ What? Where’s the comedy, and where’s the romance?
I found the film deeply disturbing in 1966 and so avoided it for years. Mainly it was the X-ray / shadow on the lung / sanitarium sequence. My dad had a chest X-ray in just the same type of mobile unit in December 1965. He was in a sanitarium 80 miles away for months, so the story that Gilda could only visit Harry once a week rang true. The sanitarium looked similar. At the point I saw the film I knew he was terminal. He died in July 1966. It didn’t help that Alfie Bass (Lemmy in Radio’s Lost in Space) and also in The Army Game was one of my dad’s favourite actors.
I saw it with my girlfriend and the abortion sequence was a great shock to 18 year olds to the point where we didn’t even kiss at the bus stop afterwards. I must have seen it in the 70s, and I re-watched it at the time of the Jude Law remake (the original is so definitive, that much as I like Jude Law, he didn’t measure up to Michael Caine’s performance.) I can watch it dispassionately now and admire its qualities.
Three word summary …
Karen’s three phrase summary: sad, brutal, Caine is brilliant.
Alfie
Bill Naughton created the character, and Michael Caine performed to perfection. The smart costume with fake RAF squadron blazer indicates he’s a wannabe cool guy, but is basing himself on an older model, the RAF pilot of the 1950s perhaps. Alfie is out of time. Even sartorially, Alfie’s got it all wrong. There are subtle points … once Annie leaves his flat, it becomes rapidly squalid. Throughout you wonder about the back story. What made Alfie like he is?
Alfie: I says to myself, “She’s as human as you are.”
He refers to women throughout as ‘it’ not she.’ I saw online speculation as to whether Bill Naughton created that for the play. I’m not sure. By 1967 I knew two men who did the same (note, I didn’t say they were friends!) One was from South Wales, the other from Liverpool, so neither were Cockneys. They might have got it from the film, but I doubt it. It’s a sign of misogyny, on which I’ll do a fast psycho-analyse and state that it comes from a deep fear of women.
Alfie’s ‘Cockney Casanova’ is cruel, a bully, an exploiter, and (in 1940s speak) a cad. I’d use another word starting with C and preface it with ‘a total’ as in ‘a total c- – -.’ However, he pulls us in with his self-justifying addresses directly to camera. Alfie is trying to conceal his emotions throughout. Again, what in his life had made him like this?
The women
Gilda (Julia Foster) and Alfie (Michael Caine)
Alfie: She’s got a little ginger moustache. But I find I’m quite willing to overlook the odd blemish in a woman, providing she’s got something to make up for it. Well, that’s what we’re all here for, innit – to help each other out in this life.
Without being impolite to the ladies involved, they deliberately avoided very good-looking women (Jane Asher was the exception). Let’s just say that no one looked like Julie Christie or Jane Fonda. Alfie is not going to have a chance with anyone who is gorgeous, or confident, with the exception of the assertive Shelley Winters’ Ruby, but then she is older, plumper than the others, and drops him as soon as a younger model comes along. He discovers that she turned the tables and used him like he used the others. Most of the women appear to be his age or older, Jane Asher is again the exception.
They all have a weakness, some of it intrinsic (Gilda, Annie) some of it extrinsic (Siddie, Lily). Alfie homes in on weakness like a shark scenting blood.
Sex
For a film about a serial seducer the sex is extremely restrained, even by the standards of 1966. No nudity, no explicit bonking, no ‘titillation’ at all. The film is thoroughly anti-sexual in that no one appears to be enjoying it, and in culminating in the shocking abortion scene. It took place behind a curtain, and when Alfie describes the foetal remains, the camera is on his face. We see nothing.
Abortion was legalized in the UK by an Act of October 1967, going into force in April 1968. The film had been extremely successful, and may have influenced the vote in showing the horrors of back street abortion. It certainly had to get an exception from the US production code.
I know that other actors turned down the role because of the abortion scene, but one of the main reasons I wanted to do the movie was because the abortion scene was in it. I thought it was about time that the horror of these backstreet abortions was exposed … it’s one of the main lessons from the film, and Alfie was the one who suffers most — from himself.
Michael Caine, interview
The plot
It opens and closes with dogs in the street, one especially that looks like Tramp in The Lady & The Tramp. The reference is perhaps over subtle, I would have started with the dog vigorously mounting a bitch.
We see a car heaving with the sounds of Alfie and Siddie’s voices. If I may, it’s a an early 50s Vauxhall Velox, then at least ten years old. (I had one several years later). Siddie (Millicent Martin) is a married woman, supposed to be at the pictures with friends. In one of the rare cuts from Alfie, we see Siddie and her husband (Alfie never wants to see the husbands) talking about gardening.
Siddie (Millicent Martin) and Alfie (Michael Caine)
Alfie’s off to see the doormat Gilda (Julia Foster) who he describes as ‘a bit ugly’, and she’s devoted to Alfie in spite of Humphrey, the decent bus conductor (Graham Stark) who is trying to woo her.
Gilda (Julia Foster) and Alfie
Alfie gets Gilda pregnant, but he refuses to marry her and urges her to have the child, Malcolm, adopted.
Alfie: Mind you, she came over quite beautified for a while, particularly during the early months. And I told her: I said “Blimey, girl, you ain’t as ugly as I thought”.
Malcolm is born
Gilda decides to keep the baby and a couple of years pass, where while Alfie is cheating on her, they maintain a relationship. We see Alfie nipping into a dry-cleaners to screw the woman behind the clothes racks … a sign reads PROMPT SERVICE WITHIN, which it is. Alfie tells bedtime stories and becomes attached to the child. Alfie seems pretty idle while Gilda gets a job heaving beer crates around in a brewery to make ends meet.
Gilda (Julia Foster) and the persistent Humphrey (Graham Stark)
Gilda finally has had enough of Alfie, and decides to marry the faithful Humphrey, and bars Alfie from seeing Malcolm.
Alfie: If you lose a bird you can always replace her. But with a child it’s different.
Alfie goes for a mobile chest X-ray, then an examination conducted by the doctor who is singularly unimpressed with him (Eleanor Bron). During the examination he confesses a great deal about missing Malcolm.
Alfie gets the news about the TB
He has a TB shadow on the lungs and is sent to a convalescent home in the country. He has the next bed to Harry (Alfie Bass) who is a married man with three kids. His wife, Lily (Vivien Merchant) can only come to see him once a week, and Harry lives for the visit. Alfie is scornful. Alfie and Lily watch as the nurse Carla (Shirley Anne Field), puts the curtains round Alfie’s bed. They can see her feet. Then they disappear …
Lily (Vivien Merchant) and Harry (Alfie Bass). The bottle of lemon barley water is perfect.
(In the film, Alfie says in horror ‘He’s about thirty-five! Actually, Alfie Bass was already 55, and Michael Caine was 33).
Later, he takes Harry out for a walk, and offers him a cigarette. In Alfie’s opinion, if you’re in a chest hospital, five a day is alright. He suggests Lily might be putting it about at home, and Harry loses his temper.
Harry (Alfie Bass) and Alfie (Michael Caine)
Alfie leaves the convalescent home and meets up with his pal, Nat (Murray Melvin) who recruits him taking photos by the Tower of London. That was a common job in the 60s, taking photos of tourists and giving them tickets to collect the shots later. He meets the voluptuous Ruby (Shelly Winters) who is with an older (cartoon-like) British gent.
Shelley Winters as Ruby
Alfie gets a job as a chauffeur, first with a Humber Imperial (I do know 60s cars) then a Rolls-Royce. He goes to visit Harry, and he asks him to give Lily a lift home. They stop by the river. She is sad and desperately lonely and Harry takes full advantage.
Alfie (over Lily’s shoulder while hugging her): Well, what harm can it do? Old Harry will never know. And even if he did, he shouldn’t begrudge me – or her, come to that. And it’ll round off the tea nicely.
Still driving the Roller, Alfie sees a pretty young hitch-hiker, Annie (Jane Asher). A lorry driver called Frank (Sydney Tafler) stops before he can, and picks her up. Alfie follows them to a transport cafe, and unties a rope on Frank’s lorry and offers Annie a lift in the Roller.
Alfie (Michael Caine) and Annie (Jane Asher)
Annie moves in with him. She’s a domestic slave, scrubbing floors, washing shirts, cooling steak and kidney pie and Lancashire hot-pot, all to forget a lost boyfriend back in Sheffield.
There’s a big scene … for the film’s budget, an expensive scene, in a pub where Frank goes for Alfie and the ensuing fight ends up totally smashing the pub … an event I saw three times in the 60s. American sailors in Bournemouth from an aircraft carrier out in the bay, Newcastle University rugby team in Hull, and in a pub in Bournemouth which was so clearly set up, that I assume the landlord had been remiss in paying protection money.
Alfie with black eye.
Alfie goes home with a black eye in a filthy mood. He has a row and Annie runs off which he instantly regrets. Her last word is to remind him she’s left him a custard pudding in the oven.
Lily arrives. She is three months pregnant from that one afternoon. They arrange an illegal abortion.
Alfie: My understanding of women only goes as far as the pleasure. When it comes to the pain I’m like any other bloke – I don’t want to know.
Alfie, the doctor (Denholm Elliot) and Lily.
The doctor (Denholm Elliot) is world-weary. Alfie goes out while it’s happening and goes past a church. He sees Gilda and Humphrey having their new daughter baptised. Little Malcolm is playing with Humphrey and calling him ‘the best dad in the world.’
He returns. Lily had had to pay the £25 herself. Alfie borrows £25 from Nat, and slips it into her handbag, not able to admit he’s doing it. He sees the aborted foetus and breaks down. In a poignant sene he gives her a teddy bear he’d bought for Malcolm years before. She cradles it in her arms.
Alfie decides to stick with Ruby, and lets himself into her flat, only to find her with a young musician in bed. He runs into Siddie again, but she’s not interested.
Alfie’s final speech:
Alfie: So what’s the answer? That’s what I keep asking myself – what’s it all about? Know what I mean?
We see the “Tramp” dog in the street.
Credits … song, importantly by a woman in both versions, What’s it all about, Alfie?
AWARDS
Academy Award nominations for Best Actor (Michael Caine), Best supporting actress (Vivien Merchant), Best adapted screenplay (Bill Naughton), Best song (Alfie).
SOUNDTRACK
UK release on HMV
Music by Sonny Rollins. Oh, how these older 60s film directors saw jazz as the music of 60s London. Every one of them. It’s 1966, not 1961!
The soundtrack album is all Sonny Rollins, so no, it does not contain the Bacharach-David Oscar-nominated song everyone associates with the film.
Sheet music
The song was commissioned from Burt Bacharach and Hal David to publicize the film rather than be part of it. The composers wanted to use Dionne Warwick, their normal interpreter, but Paramount suggested that the setting demanded a British singer. The first thought was Sandie Shaw (who had recorded There’s Always Something There To Remind Me, by Bacharach-David.) She declined so they went to Cilla Black. I spent some time comparing versions of Anyone Who Had A Heart, and yes, Cilla surpassed even the Dionne Warwick original. Burt Bacharach has stated this too.
Like Hal David before her, Cilla was daunted by a song with that name … Alfie:
I actually said to Brian Epstein, ‘I can’t do this.’ For a start – Alfie?? You call your dog Alfie! … [Couldn’t] it be Tarquin or something like that?
Cilla Black
Cilla agreed to do if Bacharach came over:
I said I’d only do it if Burt Bacharach himself did the arrangement, never thinking for one moment that he would. [When] the reply came back from America that he’d be happy to…I said I would only do it if Burt came over to London for the recording session. ‘Yes,’ came the reply. Next I said that as well as the arrangements and coming over, he had to play piano on the session. To my astonishment it was agreed that Burt would do all three. So by this time, coward that I was, I really couldn’t back out.”
Cilla Black
She recorded the song in August 1965 with a 48 piece orchestra, plus girl group The Breakaways.
Cilla did twenty-eight or twenty-nine takes …..I kept going thinking can we get it a little better…add just some magic?. Cilla was great and wound up delivering a killer vocal as she did on so many of my songs.
Burt Bacharach
The song was deliberately released four months before the film, in January 1966. It was an unusual venture, designed to create interest in the film ahead of release. Cilla Black had a #9 UK hit with the song by May when it went on general release.
Yes, I have a copy.
Cilla’s version was not on the initial release as Lewis Gilbert wanted focus on the Sonny Rollins soundtrack (these old jazzers don’t give up). It was added to re-releases in the UK (it was still doing good business) It was placed over the end credits.
The song appeared on the American version of the film release sung by Cher, produced by Sonny Bono. Dionne Warwick, originally slated for the US release, did better in the charts than Cher, but not until 1967, when it reached US #15 (Cher was US #32).
THE DVD
What is really infuriating is that the Region 2 British DVD has Cher over the end titles. I’m a great fan of Cher normally, but with Alfie Cilla Black’s version is infinitely superior. Why the British DVD has the US credits, I have no idea.
Lip synch is imperfect, a common DVD fault, though very rare on the blu-rays and deluxe remastered DVDs.
We tried subtitles for twenty minutes (it’s useful in doing the reviews) but had to stop because they’re a loose paraphrase, NOT what Alfie says, and eliminating a bit of the Cockney. Too annoying. Bad.
MICHAEL CAINE
The Ipcress File (1965)
Alfie (1966)
The Magus (1968)
Deadfall (1968)
THE 60s REVISITED REVIEWS …
A Taste of Honey (1961)
Sparrows Can’t Sing (1963)
Tom Jones (1963)
The Fast Lady (1963)
Cat Ballou (1965)
The Ipcress File (1965)
Darling (1965)
The Knack (1965)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Morgan – A Suitable Case For Treatment (1966)
Alfie (1966)
Harper (aka The Moving Target) 1966
The Chase (1966)
The Trap (1966)
Georgy Girl (1966)
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Modesty Blaise (1966)
The Family Way (1967)
Privilege (1967)
Blow-up (1967)
Accident (1967)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
I’ll Never Forget What’s ‘Is Name (1967)
How I Won The War (1967)
Far From The Madding Crowd (1967)
Poor Cow (1967)
Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush (1968)
The Magus (1968)
If …. (1968)
The Devil Rides Out (aka The Devil’s Bride) (1968)
Work Is A Four Letter Word (1968)
The Party (1968)
Petulia (1968)
Barbarella (1968)
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
Bullitt (1968)
Deadfall (1968)
The Swimmer (1968)
Theorem (Teorema) (1968)
The Magic Christian (1969)
The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer (1970)
Performance (1970)
The film bottles out at the end. In the book Alfie meets up with Siddie and he’s off again. The film had to punish him.
LikeLike
Who is the female singer and the what is the song title sung by her during the bar brawl?
LikeLike