Memoirs of a Ghostwriter

source: Memoirs of a Ghostwriter

PULP re-teamed Actor Michael Caine and Director Mike Hodges just a year after their Box-Office hit and Modern Classic GET CARTER (1971) Anyone hoping for a Film that is up there with GET CARTER will be sorely disappointed as PULP fails to match the success and quality of the former. PULP has Michael Caine playing Mickey King a rather seedy Author of trashy Pulp Fiction who is hired by a reclusive and quirky former Actor Preston Gilbert (played with huge enthusiasm by Mickey Rooney) to ghostwrite his Autobiography. PULP was a big flop on its original release back in '72 and to a large extent I can understand why, very little actually happens in the Film and Caine's sarcastically witty narration - although funny - has to carry the entire Film - and it ends very suddenly which makes you think 'Oh, that's it then?' which is never a good sign. Filmed on the beautiful surroundings of Malta and Co-starring Lionel Stander and 40/50's star Lizabeth Scott with a rather pointless role played by Dennis Price (in one of his last roles) - PULP is worth watching, but it's never as good as it probably should have been and isn't a patch on GET CARTER.

Michael Caine plays Mickey King--a guy who writes crap novels under a variety of pseudonyms. The titles of these books and his pen names are very funny--but also belie the fact that it is all sleazy crap. Out of the blue, Mickey gets an odd visit. Ben Dinuccio (Lionel Stander) has come to hire Mickey as a ghost writer for some famous man--but who that man is he will not say. All he's told is to go on some bus tour in Europe and wait for someone to contact him. Most of the trip is pretty boring for Mickey until someone he THINKS is his contact winds up dead. However, like a bad dime novel, the body disappears and everyone behaves as if nothing happened. Soon the man he's supposed to meet is revealed--Preston Gilbert (Mickey Rooney). Preston is apparently a rather famous but bad actor who has a lot of mobster friends--so many that he ended up getting deported. Now on an island in Europe, Preston holds court in front of a bunch of sycophants. These people don't seem to mind that Preston is a boorish, very crude jerk. Caine is sick of the guy after a while and tells him off--though right after this, an assassin kills Preston and tries to kill Mickey. Why? Who wants to kill Mickey and why? In many ways, "Pulp" flows like a bad old novel. Mickey narrates as if it's some sort of Mickey Spillane story and the story elements also, at times, seem right out of one of these stories. The problem is that when it's not, the story drags and drags. For a while I could enjoy it but it just kept going on and on and never seemed to pick up any steam. I wanted a big payoff but the best thing I got was seeing Mickey Rooney curse and act like a jerk. Overall, a misfire that started with an interesting idea but never developed into anything.

This is a silly spoof of private eye thrillers as a novelist(Michael Cain)is called upon to 'ghostwrite' an autobiography of a colorful, waning Hollywood star(Mickey Rooney). At times silliness becomes obnoxious. This is not Cain at his best. Rooney is way over the top. Notable support from Lizabeth Scott, Lionel Stander and the comely Nadia Cassini. Not easy to watch.

A year after 'Get Carter' revived the British gangster film, Mike Hodges and Michael Caine returned with another offering of gangster fiction. But that's where the high hopes end I'm afraid, because what we get - instead of the edgy, violent thriller we/I were expecting - is a load of nonsense involving the Mafia, farcical shoot-outs, Mickey Rooney and a Thomson's bus tour of Malta. The plot never threatened to get off the ground really - a writer shadowing an actor who is about to reveal some shady secret in his autobiography - but the filmmakers, for some reason, attempt to string it all out with the use of A LOT of shoddy sight gags - taxi's crashing into the back of each other, simultaneous car doors being ripped off by a truck, more car rams - this time into the back of a wagon with a mirror placed in between (anybody?). And there is far too much voice-over as well - a film has to be good to make it work effectively. Overall, a very big disappointment for me personally - not to say that others won't enjoy it.

I watched this video because I like Malta and this movie was filmed in its entirety there. Very disappointing, since it fails to catch any of the flavor or beauty of the island - just the hot, dry, and barren elements. The movie was dull, boring, completely incoherent from beginning to end, pretentious, and devoid of any conceivable plot. You had to be a psychic to follow the plot line, or lack thereof. It had its moments, sure; but so does going to the dentist. In short, I'd much rather endure another colonoscophy before viewing this horrible mess again. It was so bad, I actually couldn't fall asleep. There are quite a few "Eurotrash" movies out there that were obviously made without adult supervision. This is one of them. On the bright side, who is Nadia Cassini? Never before have I seen a more beautiful set of legs. She is the one saving grace of this movie. Disturbing, too, was the cruel boar hunt depicted in the closing credits. A boar that was released on someone's property (Malta has very few native mammals; all of them small - rats, bats, etc.) and then set upon by dogs before it was shot. Oh, well - go visit Malta anyway despite this film - it's a beautiful, colorful island; rich in history and lots of fun.

A pulp novelist (Michael Caine) goes to Italy to ghost the autobiography of an old time Hollywood film gangster (Mickey Rooney), but maybe not everyone wants to see the book written? One of these films that was under regarded upon release, but has more going for it than you might imagine. The real Italian locations and Caine's dry understated voice-over play well against the gags and situations. Rooney sends himself up something rotten as a George Raft style figure; and we keep on watching wanting to know how it all turns out. While far short of a classic, I got dragged in and was very well entertained during its 90 minutes. However it's slow nature and lack of pyrotechnics might alienate the modern audience. Worth giving a go with if it is playing on late night TV, especially if you like a bit of black humour.

Michael Caine is reunited with the director of 'Get Carter' for this somewhat forgotten film. Plot concerns Caine as a hack novelist drifting around in Europe assigned to write a biography of a faded Hollywood film star (played by Mickey Rooney), whose skeletons in his closet lead to multiple murders. Rather stodgy at first and only gets going when Caine learns of his assignment and then the air of mystery and menace ensures it stays fairly interesting until the end. Rooney is particularly good in his small role as the egomanical star. However, this film does have significant weaknesses - its attempts at comedy consistently fall flat (especially visual humour) and it's somewhat hard to get a grip on the motivations of Caine's character, which leads one to be somewhat distant from the film itself. Worth a look, but inferior to the similar Albert Finney film from the same era 'Gumshoe'.

Mike Hodges' GET CARTER (1971) is, supposedly, a realistic gangster flick about a hit man, played by Michael Caine, who murders without demur and, indiscriminately, screws every bird in sight; yet, wells up at the thought that - is it his niece? - has been snatched up by a porno-movie ring. He systematically knocks off mob kingpins and we are invited to watch him do it - with cold-blooded relish. PULP is gangster related too, but pure Lewis Carroll in narrative plausibility; nevertheless, Caine's Mickey King is amusingly credible in the manner in which he drinks in the dream world that happens to him. PULP pulls off something that few films (including SUNSET BLVD., with the marvelous William Holden) are able to do. It makes an author its central character and you believe, from start to finish, that he is, in fact, a man of curiosity and invention, who makes his living by the employment of words. Among Hodges' other films, CROUPIER (1998) is closer to PULP than GET CARTER is because its protagonist's literary pretensions resemble King's habit of describing a shady milieu which operates in moral twilight. Both pictures suffer from direction too tightly melded to intriguing fictional conceits. However, the phlegmatic understatement of Caine's voice-over commentary (written by Hodges) is maintained impressively, the Malta locations and surprising russet colors - not to mention the freak-show supporting cast of Mickey Rooney, Lionel Stander, Lizabeth Scott, Dennis Price, Nadia Cassini's mile-long legs and, Bogart look-a-like, Robert Sacchi make it a must for connoisseurs of the truly offbeat. Was this comment useful to you?

What bird is that ? A maltese falcon. The only thing remotely funny about this movie is Michael Caines hair. Which has more depth and character than the man underneath it. The Malta settings are as dry and as barren as the dialogue. Salutes to Raymond Chandler and Humphrey Bogart and crime fiction etc... seem obtuse and just plain silly without the salvation of any humour or pertinency. The reason this film has no 'longevity' and near forgotten is it's so vacuous, an hour and half of pointless time spent in the company of second rate actors and film makers - This film is what the title suggests...