I’ve been a Michael Caine
fan since I first saw him in the 1965 spy thriller The Ipcress File. I also
liked him in the great crime thriller, Get Carter in 1971. He was also great alongside
Sean Connery in John Huston’s The Man Who Would be King in 1975.
He has starred in so many
fine films, but my favorite Michael Caine movie is 1972’s Pulp, where he plays
a shabby hack writer who gets involved in crime on the island of Malta. When he
guesses right about a murder, the cop asks him how he knew this. “I write crap
like this every day,” Caine replied drolly.
“The writer’s life would be
ideal if not for the writing,” Michael Caine’s writer says in the film. I love this quirky, funny film.
Michael Kaplan at the New
York Post offers a piece on Michael Caine and his new book.
When Michael Caine was on
the cusp of fame, he received some helpful, if peculiar, advice from legendary
screen star John Wayne.
The up-and-coming British
actor, then 33, was visiting America for the first time, having been dispatched
to Hollywood to promote his 1966 breakout movie, “Alfie.” In the lobby of the
Beverly Hills Hotel, he encountered Wayne, then the biggest movie star in the
world.
“You’re gonna be a star, kid,” a
cowboy-garbed Wayne told Caine. “But if you wanna stay one, remember this: Talk
low, talk slow and don’t say too much.”
Then The Duke said something
strange: “Never wear suede shoes.”
Puzzled, Caine asked why
not. “Because,” replied Wayne, “I was taking a piss the other day and the guy
in the next stall recognized me and turned toward me. He said, ‘John Wayne —
you’re my favorite actor,’ and pissed all over my suede shoes.”
The Duke sauntered off, and Caine
took the star’s tale to heart. As he writes in his new memoir, “Blowing the
Bloody Doors Off” (Hachette), “I never wear suede
shoes.”
You can read the rest of
the piece via the below link:
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