Get Carter

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Get Carter
A promotional poster featuring Michael Caine as Jack Carter with a cigarette in his mouth.
Original UK film poster by Arnaldo Putzu
Directed byMike Hodges
Screenplay byMike Hodges
Based onJack's Return Home
by Ted Lewis
Produced byMichael Klinger
Starring
Cinematography
MGM-EMI Distributors
Release dates
  • 3 February 1971 (1971-02-03) (Los Angeles)
  • 10 March 1971 (1971-03-10) (United Kingdom)
Running time
112 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£750,000[1][2]

Get Carter is a 1971 British

directorial debut and starring Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, John Osborne, Britt Ekland and Bryan Mosley. Based on Ted Lewis's 1970 novel Jack's Return Home, the film follows the eponymous Jack Carter (Caine), a London gangster who returns to his hometown in North East England
to learn about his brother's supposedly accidental death. Suspecting foul play, and with vengeance on his mind, he investigates and interrogates, regaining a feel for the city and its hardened-criminal element.

Producer

criminal behaviour than had previously been seen in British films: Caine, who also served as an uncredited co-producer, incorporated aspects of criminal acquaintances into his characterisation of Carter, while Hodges conducted research into the criminal underworld of Newcastle (in particular the one-armed bandit murder). Cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky worked with Hodges to give scenes a naturalistic feel, drawing heavily on their backgrounds in documentary films
.

Turning a respectable profit upon its initial UK release, Get Carter initially attracted mixed reviews. Critics begrudgingly appreciated the film's technical achievements and Caine's performance while criticizing the complex plot, violence and amorality, in particular Carter's apparent lack of remorse for his actions.[1] American critics were generally more enthusiastic, but the film languished on the drive-in circuit, while MGM focused its resources on producing Hit Man, a blaxploitation-themed remake of the film.

Get Carter eventually garnered a cult following, and further endorsements from directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie led to the film being critically re-evaluated,[3] with its depiction of class structure and life in 1970s Britain and Roy Budd's minimalist jazz score receiving considerable praise.[4] In 1999, Get Carter was ranked 16th on the BFI Top 100 British films of the 20th century; five years later, a survey of British film critics in Total Film magazine chose it as the greatest British film of all time.[5] A poorly received second remake under the same title was released in 2000, with Sylvester Stallone portraying Jack Carter and Caine in a supporting role.

Plot

organised crime bosses Gerald and Sid Fletcher. Jack is sleeping with Gerald's girlfriend Anna and plans to escape with her to South America, but he must first return to Newcastle and Gateshead
to attend the funeral of his brother, Frank, who died in a purported drink-driving accident. His bosses warn him not to stir up trouble, as they are friendly with the Newcastle mob. Unsatisfied with the official explanation, Jack investigates for himself. At the funeral, Jack meets his teenage niece Doreen, and Frank's evasive mistress, Margaret.

Jack goes to

country house
of crime boss Cyril Kinnear. Jack confronts Kinnear but learns little from him; he also meets a glamorous drunken woman, Glenda. As Jack leaves, Eric warns him against damaging relations between Kinnear and the Fletchers. Back in town, Jack is threatened by henchmen who want him to leave town, but he fights them off, capturing and interrogating one to find out who wants him gone. He is told the name "Brumby".

Jack knows Cliff Brumby as a businessman with controlling interests in local seaside

multi-storey car park
. Brumby identifies Kinnear as being behind Frank's death, also explaining that Kinnear is trying to take over his business. He offers Jack £5,000 to kill the crime boss, which he refuses.

Jack has sex with Glenda at her flat, where he finds and watches a

boot
of her own car, Jack drives off to find Albert.

Jack tracks down Albert, who confesses he told Brumby that Doreen was Frank's daughter. Brumby showed Frank the film to incite him to call the police on Kinnear so Eric and two of his men arranged Frank's death. Having extracted this information, Jack fatally stabs Albert. Jack is attacked by the London gangsters and Eric, who has informed Fletcher of Jack and Anna's affair. In the ensuing shootout, Jack shoots Peter dead. As Eric and Con escape, they push the sports car into the river, unaware that Glenda is in the boot. Returning to the car park, Jack finds and beats Brumby before throwing him to his death. He then posts the film to the Scotland Yard vice squad.

Jack abducts Margaret. He telephones Kinnear (who is in the middle of a wild party at his home), telling him that he has the film, and makes a deal for Kinnear to give him Eric in exchange for his silence. Kinnear agrees, sending Eric to an agreed location; however, he subsequently phones an associate. Jack drives Margaret to the grounds of Kinnear's estate, kills her with a fatal injection, and leaves her body there. He then calls the police to raid Kinnear's party.

Jack chases Eric along a beach. He forces Eric to drink a bottle of whisky as Eric had done to Frank, then beats him to death with his shotgun. Having avenged Frank and Doreen, Jack walks along the shoreline, where he is shot dead from a distance by Kinnear's associate.

Cast

There was pressure from MGM to have more big-name American stars in the film, which was successfully resisted by Hodges. As well as Telly Savalas, names posited by Klinger and studio executives were Joan Collins, and someone Hodges described as "the Canadian lead actress in TV's Peyton Place", which is likely a reference to Barbara Parkins.[2] The production also utilised a large number of extras, most of whom were locals who just happened to be on scene when filming was happening. Others were sourced from local casting company Beverley Artistes, which sent everyone registered with it for auditions, one of these being Deana Wilde, who was cast as the pub singer. Several of the company's actors were also in background shots in the film including the casino, streets, bars and the police raid scene.[6]

  • working-class upbringing, having friends and family members who were involved in crime[8] and felt Carter represented a path his life might have taken under different circumstances: "Carter is the dead-end product of my own environment, my childhood; I know him well. He is the ghost of Michael Caine".[9] He made subtle changes to Hodges' depiction of Carter in the script, cut out pleasantries and gave him a cold, hard edge; closer to Lewis's original envisioning of the character.[7] Although he is not credited as such in the film, Caine has been acknowledged in retrospect as a co-producer.[4] In a strange coincidence, Caine's stand-in on the film was a man called Jack Carter.[7]
  • Ian Hendry as Eric Paice. Hendry had previously been cast by producer Klinger in Roman Polanski's Repulsion, and was Hodges' first choice to play Carter, but by 1970 his career was rapidly declining. Hendry's alcoholism[10] and poor physical condition[11] were apparent on set in Newcastle, and his envy at the success of his contemporary Caine was exacerbated by his drinking. Hodges and Caine used his animosity towards Caine to their advantage to create extra tension in the scenes between Carter and Paice.[12]
  • John Osborne as Cyril Kinnear, Jack's main adversary. Osborne, a famous playwright, was an unusual choice of actor; he was suggested by Hodges' agent.[13] The writer enjoyed the change, and saw it as a way to erase the image in the public's mind of him as an angry young man.[10] Osborne had never played card games before and practised poker before the shoot to lend realism to the gambling scene. Osborne's portrayal was a contrast to the description in Lewis's novel of Kinnear as an uncultured, corpulent spiv, giving him an urbane and relaxed demeanour, his delivery being so relaxed and quiet that it was difficult for the sound recordist to pick up, but Hodges liked the "menace in that quietness".[14]
  • gangster's molls before Carter.[10] She was also reluctant to take the part as she did not want to take her clothes off; however, she had financial problems at the time as a result of bad investment decisions by her accountant. She was later happy that she had been involved with the project.[15]
  • criminal behaviour, and consulted his priest over the moral implications.[17]
  • George Sewell as Con McCarty. Sewell was the man who introduced Barbara Windsor to Charlie Kray. He grew up in working-class Hoxton and had come to acting late when, in 1959, he joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop. A well-known face on British television in the 1960s, his sandblasted features and shifty, haunted looks made him ideal for playing villainous characters or hard-bitten detectives. He seemed ideally cast as a London gangster colleague of Carter's. After Carter, Sewell became more known for playing policemen rather than villains.[10][18]
  • Tony Beckley as Peter. Lewis depicted Peter as a misogynistic homosexual in his novel; these elements were not emphasised in the film, although the character is flamboyant and camp. Beckley had developed a specialism of playing sadistic criminals, so his part in Carter was somewhat similar to his role of "Camp Freddy" alongside Caine in The Italian Job.[13]
  • Glynn Edwards as Albert Swift. Like Sewell, Edwards was an apprentice of Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop who had come to acting in his thirties. He had previously appeared alongside Caine in Zulu and The Ipcress File. After the film Edwards found work as a character actor and appeared regularly in the TV show Minder.[19]
  • Alun Armstrong as Keith. This was Armstrong's screen debut. The themes of Get Carter echo to a certain extent those of Armstrong's better-known role 25 years later in BBC drama Our Friends in the North. He wrote a letter to MGM when he learned it was making the film in Newcastle, and he was invited to meet director Mike Hodges, who wanted to cast local actors.[20]
  • Bernard Hepton as Thorpe. Bradford-born Hepton was cast by Hodges as Kinnear's nervous messenger.
  • Rose Chapman in EastEnders.[21]
  • television plays Stella and Doreen.[22]
  • Dorothy White as Margaret. White had a successful career as a television actress and was particularly well known for Z-Cars, but the part of Margaret was her first credited cinematic role (the only other being a part in the 1955 film Touch & Go). She had previously worked with Mike Hodges on the television play Suspect.[22]
  • Rosemarie Dunham as Edna, Carter's landlady. Although she had appeared in The Avengers and A Family at War on television, this was Scottish-born Dunham's film debut.
  • protection racketeering in Fulham and was acquitted of murder at the Old Bailey.[23]
  • Terence Rigby as Gerald Fletcher, one of the London crime boss brothers. Rigby was another actor Hodges cast from his familiarity in television police drama.[24]

Mike Hodges recruited a band of experienced character actors to play the small supporting roles. Godfrey Quigley was cast as Eddie, a colleague of Frank Carter's. Kevin Brennan appears as Harry the card-player. Ben Aris, who plays one of the architects, had previously appeared in such films as if...., The Charge of the Light Brigade and Hamlet.[24]

Carl Howard's character of the assassin, "J", is only identified by the initial on his ring, in his only film role, and an appropriate mystery surrounds his real identity. His name does not appear on the credits of some prints. Mike Hodges explained that Howard was an extra in his TV film Rumour, and the director gave him a line to say, but another extra was wrongly credited. Hodges promised he would make it up to him and cast him in Carter, but his name was missed off some of the original prints. When the film credits were printed in the

TV Times, Howard was also trimmed. Hodges said in 2002 that "Carl and credits don't seem destined for each other".[25]

Production

Development

In the late 1960s, a relaxation in film censorship produced an increase in dark, uncompromising films, with many directors pushing the boundaries of acceptability. Get Carter was a film that explored this freedom.[26] The project went from concept to finished film in just 10 months.[2]

In 1969, producer

Kray Twins' convictions. Klinger was invited to view a first print of Peter Walker's Man of Violence (1969) and was unimpressed, telling the director "I'm going to make a gangster film, but it's going to cost a lot more than this and it's going to be better".[27]
After searching many publishers for material to adapt into a film, Klinger purchased the rights to Ted Lewis' novel Jack's Return Home. Andrew Spicer has written that "he [Klinger] sensed its potential to imbue the British crime thriller with the realism and violence of its American counterparts".[28]

Klinger had been approached in 1969 by another producer, Nat Cohen, to make films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).[29] In financial trouble and shutting down its British operations, MGM was in the process of closing its British studios at Borehamwood[30] and was looking to make smaller-budget films to turn a profit. At this time Klinger's friend Robert Littman had been appointed head of MGM Europe and so Klinger took his proposal to him.[27] MGM agreed to a reasonable but below-average budget of 750,000 (there is some dispute as to whether this figure refers to dollars or pounds)[2] for the production.[31] Within months of agreeing to the deal MGM had pulled out of the UK.[27] Klinger had seen Mike Hodges' television film Suspect (1969) and immediately decided he was the ideal candidate to direct his new project.[27] Hodges had also previously worked on current affairs programme World in Action, the arts programme Tempo and a 1968 children's television serial, The Tyrant King, and all these past experiences informed his approach to his film debut.[32]

Klinger contacted Hodges on 27 January 1970 with a copy of Jack's Return Home and contracted him

B-movies such as Kiss Me Deadly, because they showed "how to use the crime story as an autopsy on society's ills".[33] He did not, however, employ a traditional noir technique of using a voiceover to expose the character's inner feelings.[35] He also dispensed with flashbacks to Carter's youth featured in the novel which explored his relationship with his brother Frank, streamlining the plot to a linear narrative spanning a single weekend. As Chibnall writes:

The immediate consequence was the loss of the insights into Carter's motivations provided by his memories of boyhood and his relationships with brother Frank and delinquent gang leader Albert Swift. Also lost was the backstory of Carter's dealings with Eric Paice during their time as rival gangsters in London, in particular, Eric's violent treatment of Carter's lover Audrey (Anna in the screenplay) the memory of which fuels Carter's hatred.[35]

The significance of the

double-barrelled shotgun
as Carter's choice of weapon (which in the novel symbolises family ties and Carter's memories of more innocent times hunting with his brother) was lost in the film adaptation.

Carter's killing of Brumby[37] and his own assassination were further alterations from the novel, emphasising the film's parallels with revenge tragedy[35] and Carter's role as what Geoff Mayer calls "the moral agent [...] a "knight" forced to dispense his own sense of justice in a corrupt world".[31] However, in his DVD commentary Hodges implies that he did not see Carter as morally any more justified than those he kills, and his death is intended to present his actions to the audience as morally bankrupt and futile: "I wanted him to be dealt with in exactly the same way he dealt with other people. Now that's a sort of Christian ethic in a way [...] That was a prerequisite of the film for me, that the hitman should go [click] and that's it".[38] Hodges' decision to kill off Carter was initially protested by MGM executives, as they wanted the character to survive in the event that the film proved successful enough to warrant a sequel.[4]

Pre-production

Trinity Square car park, with Brumby's rooftop cafe, was demolished in 2010.

Locations along the east coast of England had been scouted by Hodges and Klinger in the spring of 1970, to find a landscape that suggested a "hard, deprived background".[6] Newcastle was selected after Hodges' first choice of Hull proved to be unsuitable.[6][35] Hodges thoroughly researched the local Newcastle crime scene, adapting the script to make use of settings and incorporating elements of his research into the story.[33] His background at World in Action had made him accustomed to making films based on hard investigation and this informed his approach to Get Carter.[2][32] One of the first locations which attracted Hodges' attention was the Trinity Square multi-storey car park, which dominated the centre of Gateshead. To Hodges, the car park and the cast iron bridges over the Tyne, "seemed to capture the nature of Jack Carter himself".[36] The car park embodies one of the film's more subtle themes, which is the destruction of an old cityscape and its rebuilding in line with modern Brutalism.[39] Hodges described how wandering alone through the upper structure, he realised how the different levels could be used to reveal the hunter, Carter, and the hunted, Brumby, simultaneously but without either being aware of the other – adding to the suspense.[36] The shopping centre and car park were closed in early 2008 and demolished in late 2010.[40]

Beechcroft, Broomside Lane, County Durham, the location of Cliff Brumby's house, awaiting demolition in 2007. Beechcroft stood derelict for many years and was finally demolished in December 2008,[41] despite a campaign to preserve it as a tourist attraction.[42]

The location for Cyril Kinnear's house, Dryderdale Hall, near Hamsterley, Bishop Auckland, provided a real-life connection with organised crime.[43] It was the recently vacated country house of North East fruit machine businessman Vince Landa, who had fled the country in 1969 after the murder of his right-hand man Angus Sibbett, the so-called one-armed bandit murder. Many believed the crime was part of a failed attempt by the Kray twins to gain control of the Newcastle underworld.[44] Michael Klinger and the MGM publicity spokesman dismissed the use of the location as mere coincidence; however, Hodges was aware of the significance of the house and chose it deliberately.[33] Steve Chibnall writes "It proved a perfect location, wreaking [sic] of authenticity and full of useful details such as the cowboys and Indians wallpaper [...] the African shield and crossed spears on the wall of the crime lord's living room".[45] The Landa case also is referenced at the start of the film with a shot of a newspaper bearing the headline "Gaming Wars".[46] Other locations in Newcastle and Gateshead, Northumberland and County Durham were also used.[47][48]

Filming

Principal photography took place in the

ACTT called the crew out on a one-day strike.[52] At the advice of Richard Lester, Hodges and his assistant director stayed at a separate hotel to the rest of the cast and crew, which enabled him to have some respite from the production after the shooting day was done. Klinger was present on set for much of the film shoot. However, Hodges said he encountered very little interference from the producer. At one point Klinger and Caine asked if Hodges might work in a "chase sequence", but he persuaded them that it would draw too many comparisons with Bullitt[2] (a chase sequence between Carter and the London gangsters is mentioned in the shooting script).[53] Hodges tried to rehearse the racecourse scene between Caine and Hendry in their hotel the night before shooting, but "Hendry's drunken and resentful state forced Hodges to abandon [the] attempt".[54] Hodges described Caine as "a complete dream to work with".[55] Caine only lost his temper once on set, during the very tense and emotional day filming in Glenda's flat, when the focus puller ruined his first take. Caine apologised immediately.[7]

The most complicated scene to shoot was Kinnear's game of cards. There are four simultaneous conversations, with a lot of plot exposition and the introduction of two important characters, Kinnear and Glenda. The technical complexity was compounded by the variation in light coming through the windows, and Osborne's whispered delivery[45] which made microphone placement difficult. Hodges moved the camera and the boom closer to Osborne as the scene progressed.[13] Chibnall says that Hodges regretted not rehearsing the scene more thoroughly.[45]

The location of the closing scene of the film, Blackhall Beach near Hartlepool
North Blyth
, Northumberland. Near the film's conclusion, Carter chases Paice along these. The tops of the staithes as they appear in the film have been demolished; only the base of the structure remains.

In shooting the scene in which Carter throws Brumby to his death from the multi-storey car park, Hodges used four shots: one of the pair struggling high up on the stairs; one from the lowest level of the stairwell where Caine actually threw Bryan Mosley over the side onto mattresses; one shot of a dummy falling; and one of the body of Brumby on top of a crushed car.[36]

Carter's climactic pursuit of Eric used an amalgamation of two locations spaced 35 miles (56 km) apart: Blyth staithes and Blackhall Beach near Blackhall Colliery.[56][57] The chase scene was shot in reverse, with Hodges filming Eric's death scene first because of Hendry's poor condition, Hodges being worried that he would be too out of breath to play the death scene after running. Hodges chose the beach for its bleak, dark atmosphere but when he returned to shoot the scene he found it bathed in bright sunshine, unsuitable for the sombre conclusion he was hoping for. He waited hours until the sun began setting to capture the overcast shadowy lighting seen in the film.[58] The film shows the beach black with coal spoilings, dumped there by the mine's conveyor system. The conveyor, a common sight on the East Durham coast, was known locally as 'The Flight'. In the early 2000s, £10 million was spent removing these conveyors and the concrete towers, and cleaning tons of coal waste from the beaches of East Durham. The cleaning programme was known as 'Turning the Tide'.[59]

Post-production and music

Klinger was a hands-on producer who remained present throughout shooting and in post-production. He suggested Hodges use John Trumper as editor. Hodges said that he and Trumper argued and disagreed constantly, but he still thought he was a "brilliant, brilliant editor" and was "very grateful to him for [...] how much he contributed". Sound editing and dubbing was done by Jim Atkinson, whom Hodges described as "so obsessive about the job". He gave Hodges multiple possibilities of how the sound could be dubbed, and explored every angle. Klinger was worried that the debut director might be overwhelmed with too many options, but Hodges said he and Atkinson got on very well.[2]

The majority of the film's music was composed by

Wurlitzer electric piano and a grand piano.[61][62]
Budd described the experience as "uncomfortable, but it sounded pleasant". The theme tune features the sounds of the character's train journey from London to Newcastle.

As Carter drives away from the flats, with Glenda in the boot of the car, the tyres make a screeching sound. This was later sampled by Vangelis, who used it on the 1981 Jon and Vangelis track The Friends of Mr Cairo.

The theme was released as a 7" vinyl single by Pye Records in 1971, titled simply Carter and backed with "Plaything", another piece composed for the soundtrack. Original copies of the record are much sought after by collectors and sell for around £100.[63] The soundtrack—including pieces not used in the film—was originally only available in its entirety in Japan, where it was released on Odeon Records.[64] It was released in the UK in 1998 by the Cinephile label, a subsidiary of Castle Communications. In 2012, the theme was included on the Soul Jazz Records compilation British TV, Film and Library Composers.[65]

The film includes other music which is not included on the soundtrack LP. The music playing in the nightclub scene is an uptempo cover of the 1969

When The Saints Go Marching In" and "Auld Lang Syne".[4]

Release

Theatrical

A London AEC Routemaster bus bearing promotional posters for Get Carter.

The world premiere for Get Carter was held in Los Angeles on 3 February 1971.

Teaser posters for the film appeared on the front of buses across London, featuring the tagline "Caine is Carter".[2]

The original

pump-action shotgun
; in the finished film, the only shotgun used by Carter is a double-barrelled shotgun, which Carter finds on top of his brother Frank's wardrobe.

MGM sold distribution rights to the film in the U.S. to its future subsidiary United Artists, which promoted it poorly, amidst worries the cockney dialogue in the opening scene would be unintelligible to U.S. audiences. The film's release was delayed while parts of the film were redubbed, with no great improvement.[71] In the process of redubbing the opening, the version of the film with the original dialogue was lost. For years the version shown on British television was the redubbed American cut.[71] UA placed the film on the declining drive-in movie circuit,[1] where it played at the bottom of a double bill with Dirty Dingus Magee, a vehicle for Frank Sinatra.[72][73] Michael Klinger complained in 1974 to president of UA Eric Pleskow about the lacklustre promotion of Carter, and tried to get him to relinquish the U.S. rights to the film so that Klinger could find a better distributor.[74]

The film did not encounter many censorship problems, although the scene where Carter knifes Albert Swift caused concern for the censor John Trevelyan.[75] In South Africa the censor cut out Britt Ekland's phone sex scene, shortening her already brief role; her name was still left on the poster, leaving filmgoers to wonder why she was advertised as appearing.[76]

A resurgence of critical and public interest in the film in the 1990s led to the

National Film Theatre[77] and went on general release on 11 June 1999, showing at the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle.[71]

On 16 March 2022, the BFI announced that they would be partnering with

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment for a re-release of the film at the BFI Southbank as part of their retrospective program Return of the Outsider: The Films of Mike Hodges, which ran from May 1 to May 31 and included various in-person events such as "Mike Hodges in Conversation" on May 3; this was followed by a wide release in British and Irish cinemas on 27 May. This release utilised a new 4K restoration of the film's original camera negative, which was approved by Hodges.[78]

Home media

Chibnall has established that the film was shown on

Empire, where it was described as "one of the best British films of the 70s". Chibnall notes "it did not, however, find a place in Empire's top fifty videos of the year".[79]

Warner Bros. reissued the film in a special edition on DVD in October 2000 in its original

commentary from Caine, Hodges and Suschitzky, constructed from separate interviews with the three. The soundtrack was presented in 1.0 mono Dolby Digital.[80]

The film was bundled in the 2008 "Movies That Matter – 70's Classics" DVD set with

16:9 ratio.[82]

Get Carter was released on

Blu-ray Disc by Warner on April 22, 2014; this release features the same extras as the special edition DVD, but due to a manufacturing error, American pressings of the disc utilize the dubbed American version of the opening sequence instead of the original audio. This change was carried over to the initial British pressings of the disc, but was later reversed following public backlash; later British pressings sold by outlets such as Amazon UK feature the original audio track.[83]

BFI Video released its 4K restoration of Get Carter on August 1, 2022 on standard and Ultra HD Blu-ray;[78] the two-disc sets include the special features of earlier home media releases of the film, as well as a new audio commentary with critics Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw, an isolated music track, interviews with Hodges, Trunk Records founder Jonny Trunk, actress Petra Markham and Michael Klinger's son Tony, Philip Trevelyan's 1966 documentary film The Ship Hotel, Tyne Main, a booklet containing various essays on the film and other paraphernalia, postcards and a double-sided poster for both the restoration and a replication of the original UK poster art.[84]

Reception

Critical response

Jack's pursuit of Eric as seen in the film's trailer

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 87% based on 38 reviews, with an average rating of 7.50/10; the site's critical consensus reads "Darkly entertaining and tightly wound, Get Carter is a gritty revenge story done right".[85] In 2003, Steve Chibnall observed a large gender imbalance in voting on the film up to April 2002, with less than 6% of votes cast (where the voters gave their gender) by women (53 out of 947). He also noticed a substantial increase in women voting on the film in the eight months leading up to April 2002.[86]

Describing the initial critical response to the film, Steve Chibnall wrote "Initial critical vilification or indifference establishes the conditions in which a cult can flourish. Get Carter had to make do with ambivalence".[87] He thought the general stance of British critics "was to admire the film's power and professionalism while condemning its amorality and excessive violence".[86] Geoff Mayer observed that "Mainstream critics at the time were dismayed by the film's complex plotting and Carter's lack of remorse".[88] In Sight and Sound, Tom Milne said the film was well-constructed and had good characterisation, but lacked the mystery and charisma of the earlier American crime films it attempted to emulate. He found Carter's motivations were inconsistent, either being an avenging angel or an "authentic post-permissive anti-hero, revelling in the casual sadism".[89][90] In contrast, Nigel Andrews found the characters to be clichéd archetypes of the criminal underworld, such as the "homosexual chauffeur, bloated tycoon, glamorous mistress", describing the film as "perfunctory".[91] Richard Weaver in Films and Filming praised the realism of the film, describing it as "crime at its most blatant",[89][92] while George Melly writing in The Observer confessed to vicarious enjoyment of it, but admitted it was "like a bottle of neat gin swallowed before breakfast. It's intoxicating all right, but it'll do you no good".[93]

Steve Chibnall writes that "America was rather more used to hard-boiled storytelling" and that reviewers there were "more prepared than British criticism to treat Get Carter as a serious work",

Box Office gave a cautiously approving review, describing the film as "nasty, violent and sexy all at once". It predicted that "It should please in the action market, but won't win any laurels for Caine although his portrayal of the vicious anti-hero impresses".[97] The reviewer also opined that "Tighter editing would help considerably". Roger Ebert was less reserved in his praise, writing that "the movie has a sure touch". He noted the "proletarian detail" of the film which is "unusual in a British detective movie. Usually we get all flash and no humanity, lots of fancy camera tricks but no feel for the criminal strata of society".[98] Of Caine's performance he wrote, "The character created by Caine is particularly interesting. He's tough and ruthless, but very quiet and charged with a terrible irony". Judith Crist in New York magazine gave a glowing review, saying "Michael Caine is superb, suave and sexy" and describing the film as "a hard, mean and satisfying zinger of the old tough-tec school done in frank contemporary terms".[99] Variety also praised the film, saying it "not only maintains interest but conveys with rare artistry, restraint and clarity the many brutal, sordid and gamy plot turns".[100] However, Jay Cocks writing in Time was disparaging, calling the film "a doggedly nasty piece of business" and comparing it unfavourably to Point Blank.[101] The film appeared on several US critics' lists of best films of the year.[74]

In Michael Klinger's The Guardian obituary in 1989, Derek Malcolm remembered the film as "one of the most formidable British thrillers of its time".[102]

Box office

Get Carter was a financial success, and according to Steve Chibnall its box office takings were "very respectable". On its opening week at

Edgware and Fulham Road. On its general release in the North of England, Chibnall notes it had a "very strong first week", before an unseasonal heatwave damaged cinema attendance. Chibnall writes that "Interestingly, although [the film's] downbeat and unsentimental tone is now thought to express the mood of its times, the mass cinema audience preferred Love Story (Arthur Hiller 1970), which remained the most popular film in Britain throughout Get Carter's run".[94] It was the sixth-most popular "general release" movie at the British box office in 1971.[103]

Accolades

At the time of its release, the only recognition the film received was a

Time Out London placed the film at 32 in its 100 Best British Films list, which was selected by a panel of 150 film industry experts.[107]

Remakes

In 1972, MGM released the blaxploitation film Hit Man, written and directed by George Armitage and produced by Gene Corman; the film's credits identify Lewis' Jack's Return Home as its basis. This was the second time that Corman had produced a blaxploitation film based on a novel that had previously been adapted for film, following Cool Breeze (1972), the fourth adaptation of W. R. Burnett's The Asphalt Jungle.[108] However, Hodges and critics have identified Hit Man as a remake of Get Carter, transposing the action from Newcastle to Los Angeles. The film stars Bernie Casey as Tyrone Tackett, the story's counterpart to Jack Carter, while Glenda is reimagined as Gozelda, a "sultry skin flick star" portrayed by Pam Grier.[109] Armitage revealed that he had not seen Get Carter at the time he worked on the film, and that Corman had given him an untitled copy of Hodges' script, asking him to rewrite it in an African-American context; he did not learn that the film was based on Get Carter until he was informed by his agent.[110][111] While the films share several plot details and treatments, such as a sniper aiming at Carter/Tackett on a rocky beach,[112] Hit Man includes several divergences from Get Carter, including a scene in which Gozelda is mauled to death by tigers,[109] and does not end with the main character's death.[108] Hodges and Klinger were incensed by MGM's decision to remake the film, as they considered Hit Man inferior to Get Carter; Lewis later claimed that he never received any royalties from Hit Man.[109][113] The film was released by Warner Archive Collection as a MOD DVD-R on May 4, 2010.[114]

Warner Bros., which holds the rights to the pre-1986 MGM library, produced another remake of Get Carter in 2000 under the

Lovefilm).[123] On 13 February 2001, the remake was released on Region 1 DVD by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.[124]

Legacy

Tom Cox writes that many British film makers "have stolen from Hodges without matching the cold, realistic kick" of Get Carter.

Life on Mars also cited Get Carter as one of their influences for the programme.[128]

The film's music also enjoyed its own resurgence in popularity, for it tapped into a 1990s interest in vintage film soundtracks.

dub cover version of the theme tune in 2009.[129][130] Wobble had long been a fan of the bassline of the track, saying in a 2004 interview with The Independent that "There are some bass lines that contain the whole mystery of creation within them".[131]

See also

References

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Bibliography
  • Steve Chibnall: Get Carter. British Film Guides #6. I.B. Taurus, 2003, .

Further reading

External links