Alfie

Now Showing

On Sky Movies Classics 10/12/09 23:30

Director: Lewis Gilbert

Stars: Julia Foster, Millicent Martin, Michael Caine, Shelley Winters, Jane Asher

Year: 1966 Running Time: 114 mins Rating:

Michael Caine is mesmerising - both amoral and likeable - as the slick, womanising cockney who eventually meets his match. Jude Law brought back the role in a 2004 remake but it remains quintessentially Caine's. Several well-known actors (including Laurence Harvey and Anthony Newley) turned down the part due to the then taboo subject matter of abortion.

Review

Bill Naughton wrote this screen adaptation of his own highly successful play and the result, which cemented Michael Caine's screen stardom, was one of the British cinema's biggest comedy hits of the mid-Sixties.

Caine scores in spades as the totally amoral anti-hero who still remains engaging and likeable - a girl-chaser de luxe.

And there's a remarkable supporting cast, in which the women - especially Vivien Merchant - are all particularly good.

Funny, yes, but with some very dark moments - and the now seriously dated style does work against the film.