I bought the video for my mother last Christmas, and have to say I was a little dissapointed. Firstly, it's pretty obvious that this film was made on the cheap; there are hardly any sets other than the drawing room, a few bedrooms, the kitchen etc. The constant drizzle at the start of the movie gives me the impression the director was worried sick of some background distraction such as a vapour trail, electricity pylon etc. The movie is basically split in half - an hour pre-murder, and an hour post (the latter with the inclusion of Stephen Fry), and frankly it really smacks of a whodunnit pretending it isn't pretending that it is. This makes it pretentious in the extreme (and isn't helped by the presence of Fry impersonating himself as per usuall). I just don't know why they didn't call this film "Cluedo: The Movie", or something similar as it's really just a feature lengthed episode of "Upstairs Downstairs" that never really goes anywhere or makes any kind of point. I mean, I wouldn't mind if it actually had anything to say, only it doesn't ... so I just give in. (The camera work, studios sets, photography, cinematography though, aren't bad.)
Reviews
2 Reviews
Pulp
(1972)
Entertaining
10 July 2003
Great film that doesn't take itself too seriously. For me, the parts played by Dennis Price and Lionel Stander kind of steal the show. Narrated in the first person throughout, if I remember rightly, I guess it could also have been called "An Innocent Abroad" or something similar, as Micheal Caine finds himself "up against it" and completely out of his depth in comfortable surroundings he feels uncomfortable in as violence hovers just beneath the surface. So, for those reasons it's a bit like "Get Carter", only this time around there's no personal crusade he's on; he's just a writer of pulp fiction out for what he can get from an ageing Hollywood actor (played by Mickey Rooney) who wants him to ghost-write his autobiography. I suppose this film is a bit like "Chinatown" in some respects as it deals with the futility of attempting to tackle corruption on a grand scale - only unlike the Polanski movie, it never won any awards because it never really took itself too seriously. How can one take Caine as a tough, gritty Londoner, when he swans around Malta in a white suite and sunglasses - smoking through a cigarette holder like a Cockney Noel Coward?
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