Michael Caine

To make Sidney’s slump all the more painful, Clifford Anderson, a student of one of Sidney’s writing seminars, has recently sent his mentor a copy of his first attempt at playwrighting for Sidney’s review and advice. The play, “Deathtrap,” is a five character, two act thriller so perfect in its construction that, as Sidney says, “A gifted director couldn’t even hurt it.” Using his penchant for plot, and out of his desperate desire to once again be the toast of Broadway, Sidney, along with Myra, cook up an almost unthinkable scheme: They’ll lure the would-be playwright to the Bruhl home, kill him, and market the sure-fire script as Sidney’s own. But shortly after Clifford arrives, it’s clear that things are not what they seem! Indeed, even Helga Ten Dorp, a nosey psychic from next door, and Porter Milgram, Sidney’s observant attorney, can only speculate where the line between truth and deception lies.Read More »

Robert Jones (Nigel Havers) works as a Russian translator at GCHQ in Cheltenham. Meanwhile, a couple of operatives suspected of being Soviet agents have died in apparent accidents, and GCHQ staff are encouraged to look out for suspicious behaviour in their colleagues. He confides to his father Frank (Michael Caine), a former GCHQ operative turned business-machine salesman, that he thinks the CIA are insisting that the British “plug the leaks” and that British Intelligence themselves, anxious to preserve their relationship with and funding from the Americans, may be behind the killings. The two men don’t know that they themselves are under surveillance. Then one day Robert dies in a fall…Read More »

Synopsis :
A man who loves games and theater invites his wife’s lover to meet him, setting up a battle of wits with potentially deadly results.Read More »

Synopsis:
Cockney cat burglar Harry Dean needs Hong Kong dancer Nicole Chang’s help to pull off the perfect heist. With a simple makeover and a new wardrobe; Nicole’s resemblance to wealthy recluse Mr. Shahbandar’s late wife is uncanny. While Shahbandar is distracted by the mesmerizing Nicole, Harry takes steps to swipe a priceless artifact from under the tycoon’s nose. But even the most foolproof schemes have a way of backfiring.Read More »

Synopsis:
A vicious London gangster, Jack Carter, travels to Newcastle for his brother’s funeral. He begins to suspect that his brother’s death was not an accident and sets out to follow a complex trail of lies, deceit, cover-ups and backhanders through Newcastle’s underworld, leading, he hopes, to the man who ordered his brother killed. Because of his ruthlessness, Carter exhibits all the unstopability of the cyborg in The Terminator (1984), or Walker in Point Blank (1967), and he and the other characters in this movie are prone to sudden, brutal acts of violence.Read More »

Synopsis:
Charlie is just out of the prison when he learns about his friends’ failed attempt at carrying out a heist in Italy. Now with the Mafia close on his heels, he intends to carry out the job himself.Read More »

Synopsis:
Tasked with investigating the kidnappings and brainwashed reappearances of top scientists, including Dr. Radcliffe (Aubrey Richards), the insubordinate British spy Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) navigates his way through criminals, secret agents, and his superiors (Nigel Green, Guy Doleman). While attempting to bring in the suspect Bluejay (Frank Gatliff), Palmer discovers a mysterious audiotape labeled “IPCRESS,” an inconspicuous, but ominous, piece of evidence.Read More »

Quote:
The Dirty Dozen meets the Stiff Upper Lip. A British Petroleum executive (Sir Michael Caine) is assigned to work with the British Army in North Africa handling port duties for incoming fuels. This gives him the official rank of Captain in the British Army. The Colonel (Nigel Green), in charge of the Dirty Dozen, is told he must have a British officer accompany his men on a dangerous mission four hundred miles behind German lines and is saddled with the Petroleum executive, who tries to argue his way out by saying that his contract states he is to only work port duties. Read More »

By Peter Hanson
Saturday, April 7, 2012

A closely observed character drama with a few thriller elements thrown in for added tension, The Romantic Englishwoman has all the hallmarks of director Joseph Losey’s best work: evocative European locations, immaculate performances, subtle writing, and an undercurrent of menace. So, even though the story is nominally about Elizabeth (Glenda Jackson), the dissatisfied wife of successful novelist Lewis (Michael Caine), it’s also about Thomas (Helmut Berger), a German freeloader who claims to be a poet but really makes his living as a drug courier. These characters muddle through life, the Brits narcotized by their boring routine and the German energized by the dangerous unpredictability of his existence, until their collision produces an emotional explosion with lasting repercussions.
[…]Read More »