GET CARTER ∙ MIKE HODGES

GET CARTER • Mike Hodges • 1999 Faber and Faber 61 pgs • Sight and Sound Script • Main Characters; Credits; Cast & Script • Film released in 1971, directed by Mike Hodges, based on the novel JACK’S RETURN HOME by Ted Lewis • ”For one thing, GET CARTER has the sure feel for the underbelly of society, like the good American detective novelists have always had. Carter moves through a world of working-class pubs, boardinghouses managed by sad-eyed and warm-voiced widows and off-track betting parlors. This sort of proletarian detail 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. The character created by Caine is particularly interesting. He's tough and ruthless, but very quiet and charged with a terrible irony. An early scene at a racetrack, where he quizzes a chauffeur hiding behind blank dark glasses, is as good a Caine scene as anything since he found the girl in his apartment in "The Ipcress File." A later scene, which cinematically compares lovemaking and sports car driving, is as funny as e. e. cummings' "She being brand new," the poem that's maybe about a Model T." Roger Ebert, March 15, 1971 • PVP 10,71€ • Linha de Sombra • www.linhadesombra.com • Cinemateca Portuguesa ■

“Nice family, are they? Church-goers and all that? Good. I'm off tomorrow, so I don't suppose I'll see you again. There. Go and get your hair done. Be good. And don't trust boys”

CARTER, Michael Caine