Alfie (1966)

Alfie is an iconic film of the flourishing of British cinema during the 1960s, and was Michael Caine's star-making role (and his first Oscar nomination). I had never seen it before, and was surprised at how difficult it was to get involved in, as Alfie, to be sure, is not a nice guy. In fact, he's downright reprehensible, a Lothario who cares nothing about himself, and as we wait for him to have some kind of epiphany we realize that the women's movement was absolutely necessary.

Caine is the title character, a lower-middle-class bloke that takes jobs here and there but seems much more busy seducing women. He calls them birds, which is a common British slang term for girls, but more disturbingly, he refers to them as "its" rather than "shes." We first see him having it off with a married woman in a car, but he's already bored with her. Breaking the fourth wall, as he will throughout the film, he advises us, "Make a married woman laugh and you're halfway there." This won't work with single birds, he warns.

Alfie has a standby girl, one he doesn't think is very intelligent, but she's devoted to him. She's Gilda (Jane Foster), who is devoted to Alfie despite his indifference. But he has impregnated her, and a bus conductor (Graham Stark), wants to marry her. She doesn't love Stark, but respects him, and despite Alfie becoming attached to his son, in spite of himself, she moves on.

But Alfie keeps on. He picks up a hitchhiker (Jane Asher, then Paul McCartney's girlfriend), who ends up scrubbing his floors and doing his laundry and making him steak-and-kidney pie. He's also visiting a rich older American woman (Shelley Winters), who he repeatedly says is in "brilliant condition."

At one point he's sent to a sanatorium because of an infection in his lungs. He ends up seducing the wife of a co-patient, perhaps his lowest act in a series of low acts. She will become pregnant, too, and Alfie hires an abortionist (played with creepy slyness by Denholm Elliot). When Alfie sees the aborted fetus, he has an emotional response, the only one he will have in the whole movie.

So, the question becomes, is Alfie interesting enough to warrant being in his company for close to two hours. The answer is yes, barely, but mostly it's due to Caine's canny performance. We don't get obvious answers for his behavior--much of it was probably not out of character with any one of several men like him during time period. His colloquy with the audience keeps us alert, and his closing monologue, which leads into the hit song sung by Cher, is memorable: "You know what? When I look back on my little life and the birds I've known, and think of all the things they've done for me and the little I've done for them, you'd think I've had the best of it along the line. But what have I got out of it? I've got a bob or two, some decent clothes, a car, I've got me health back and I ain't attached. But I ain't got me peace of mind - and if you ain't got that, you ain't got nothing. I dunno. It seems to me if they ain't got you one way they've got you another. So what's the answer? That's what I keep asking myself - what's it all about? Know what I mean."

The film was directed by Lewis Gilbert and written by Bill Naughton, based on his play and novel. It's a good example of kitchen-sink British drama, which I will be exploring in depth over the next several weeks. I'll also take a look at the remake from 2004 to see how views of amoral hedonists has changed over the years.