Get Carter at 50
Mike Hodges classic British gangster film reviewed
Martin Davis
August 2021
Mike Hodges’ 1971 feature debut set the benchmark against which all subsequent British gangster films would be measured.
Based on Ted Lewis’s 1969 novel ‘Jack’s Return Home’, Michael Caine plays ruthless London gangster Jack Carter. Returning to his hometown of Newcastle for the funeral of his brother Frank, Carter soon becomes suspicious about the circumstances surrounding Franks death, the official line being accident or suicide. Carters London gangland bosses are keen to see him return home before he causes any trouble with the local underworld, who in turn want him gone before he uncovers the truth.
Hodges background in documentaries such as ‘World in Action’ lends the film an air of bleak realism rarely seen before in British cinema. Using locals as extras, crowded rundown dancehalls and backstreet pubs populated by old men with pints, serve as the background in which Carter starts to put the pieces together and begin a swift and brutal retribution.
The film also has a fine supporting cast including Ian Hendry as a former associate of Carters, Eric Paice, now employed as chauffeur to local crime boss Cyril Kinnear, played by playwright John Osborne and Britt Ekland as Anna, who Carter is having an affair with despite the fact she is the girlfriend of one of his mobster bosses.
Released at a time when the censors were starting to become more tolerant towards sex and violence on film, the role of a vicious anti-hero was considered something of a risk for Caine, having recently enjoyed success with more likable characters in ‘Alfie’ and ‘The Italian Job’. Caine himself said of taking the part, "One of the reasons I wanted to make that picture was my background. In English movies, gangsters were either stupid or funny. I wanted to show that they’re neither. Gangsters are not stupid, and they’re certainly not very funny".
Released to a fairly lukewarm response from both audiences and critics at the time, ‘Get Carter’ wasn’t available to view on home media until 1993 but has over the years, largely in part to late night TV re-runs, become a cult classic acknowledged by many, from Guy Ritchie to Quentin Tarantino, as a hugely influential crime thriller.
A pointless 2000 remake starring Sylvester Stallone and featuring Caine in a cameo role was considered not even worthy of a UK cinema release and really did nothing more than reaffirm the high regard for the original film.
In 2004 a survey of British film critics in Total Film magazine chose it as the greatest British film of all time. Certainly a landmark for gangster films, ‘Get Carter’ is still quite possibly the best British gangster film of them all.