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Dom Robinson reviews
Paramount
Alfie: 
Alfie 1966 & 2004 Boxset:
- Cert:
- Cat.no: PHE 9147
- Running time: 109 minutes
- Year: 1966
- Pressing: 2007
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 20 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Mono
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: 24 languages available
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £9.99
- Extras:Theatrical Trailer, A3 Movie Poster
Director:
- Lewis Gilbert
(The Adventurers, Alfie, Before You Go, Educating Rita, Haunted, Moonraker, Not Quite Jerusalem, Operation: Daybreak, Reach For The Sky, Seven Nights in Japan, Shirley Valentine, Sink the Bismarck!, The Spy Who Loved Me, Stepping Out)
Producer:
- Lewis Gilbert
Screenplay:
- Bill Naughton (based on his own play and novel)
Music:
- Sonny Rollins
Cast:
- Alfie: Michael Caine
Ruby: Shelley Winters
Siddie: Millicent Martin
Gilda: Julia Foster
Annie: Jane Asher
Carla: Shirley Anne Field
Lily: Vivien Merchant
The Doctor: Eleanor Bron
The Abortionist: Denholm Elliott
Harry Clamacraft: Alfie Bass
Humphrey: Graham Stark
Nat: Murray Melvin
Frank: Sydney Tafler
Alfie,played by Michael Caine is a horny bastard and a sexist pig. Well, he is a bloke.
Okay, so he does take things too far at times, such as when he’s describing his passion for marriedwomen at the start and how if you get a married woman laughing you’re halfway there, continuing by sayingof the red-haired woman with him, now singing at the end of their evening, “Just listen to it. It wasdead glum when I met it tonight. I listened to its problems, then I got it laughing. It’ll go home happy.”
It’s 1966 and it’s notable that Alfie can get away without locking his car door when he goes to visit oneof his floozies. That would certainly not be advisable today, but as we’re always told, back then you could leaveyour door open and no-one would nick anything (probably because there was nothing worth stealing). Gettingback to the topic at hand, though, and it’s one of those rare films you can feel yourself enjoying whileyou watch it, always waiting to enjoy it some more and it never disappoints.
Throughout, Michael Caine does a lot of his narration directly to the camera, voicing the thoughts in hishead. All others around him are oblivious to this, and it’s clever the way it cuts between narration overthe top of the film to the spoken narration, as well as the many times where it regularly overlaps with realdialogue. This is a very clever trick to pull off without annoying the audience and Alfie‘s got itdown perfect. Narration has since been done similarly in bothFerris Bueller’s Day Off and Kuffs,but neither mixed it in with the same dexterity as this.
The key characters in his world begin with the Gilda and Humphrey situation, where he’s taken things a bittoo far with Gilda (Julia Foster) and made her pregnant, but he’s not too sure whether he’s ready tobecome a father. Snapping at his heels is local sap Humphrey (Graham Stark) who’s desperately inlove with Gilda even though she’s besotted with Alfie, and he’d do anything to make her his, regardless ofthe circumstances.
As for Alfie, Gilda may have borne his child, but he still continues his womanising ways, including with thedry cleaners’ assistant, the shop featuring the sign: “Prompt service within”(!)
At one point, Alfie spends six months in a hospital in the country due to an infection. Thesedays, they’dgive you a few pills and tell you to come back in a month rather than oversee the minutae of yourcondition, especially due to the fact that MRSA would probably do for you first and, in any case, theyneed the beds! However, that doesn’t stop him copping off with Nurse Carla (Shirley Anne Field) whilehe’s there (“It’s amazing what you can get on the National Health”, he quips).
Once back in London he takes a shine to aspiring hopeful Annie (Jane Asher, looking like a youngPatsy Palmer), who moves in with him but he’s already casting an eye at Lily (Vivien Merchant), thewife of a patient he met in hospital as well as heading into, for him at least, MILF territory withRuby (Shelley Winters) and even a trip to the doctor (Eleanor Bron) can’t help him coolhis ardour for a moment.
A fantastic cast is rounded off by Millicent Martin as Siddie, the married woman who calls hisname at the top of the film, Alfie Bass as Harry Clamacraft, the patient he meets in hospital,plus a stirling turn from Denholm Elliott as The Abortionist, giving his all as usual, althoughhe’s now sadly-departed, as are quite a few members of the cast.
Alfie’s world seems to be a more innocent time, populated with women who are all desperate to be lovedand without a thought of their own inside their heads, always needing to be validated by one man alone:Alfie. This does tend to make you wonder if it’s not just all the pieces-to-camera that are going onin his head, but everything that we see and hear, since everything’s arranged just so that it’s all at hisbeck and call.
I’d never seen this film before, mainly because it always looked like the kind of film that should only bewatched in its original 2.35:1 ratio and that was something that rarely gets an airing on TV these days,unless the film you’re watching is on FilmFour. From all I knew about it before, I was expecting nothingmore than a loveable Cockney romp, but it got far darker than I ever imagined, at times.
Thus, we get to learn that the expectations for Alfie about his life and the way he lives it, plus thoseof Gilda and the way she wants to live hers, proves that none of us can have what we want all the timeand that there’s got to be compromises found in order to get to the end.
All in all, this film was faultless, from start to finish.
The film is presented in the original 2.35:1 theatrical ratio and is anamorphic. I didn’t notice any problemswith the print and it echoes the period at the time of being filmed brilliantly, with shots of the Thamesat night, the hospital grounds by day, and the more industrial parts of the city at others all coming acrossclearly.
Soundwise, the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack has no split-surround moments, but the soundtrack is mixedenough to add to the atmosphere so that it’s better than just sticking with the original version, althoughif you prefer that, the restored mono soundtrack is present on the disc as well.
When it comes to the extras, all we get is a Trailer (2:14) which comes in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreenand is complete with announced news review quotes, and an A3 movie poster inside the DVD box, the latter of whichis also included in all the other titles in this ‘Paramount Originals’ series that includes Love Story,Barbarella, Sunset Boulevard, Shane, Escape from Alcatraz, Rosemarys Baby, Serpico, Day of the Locust, TheParallax View, The Italian Job, The Odd Couple, The Untouchables, A Place in the Sun, The Warriors, Haroldand Maude and The Great Gatsby.
However, while it’s nice to see films given the special treatment with all this ‘Paramount Originals’ garb, I have toask, where is the special treatment? Apart from the poster, it’s the same disc that’s been out before with just atrailer to accompany it. Since there might not be much supplemental footage hanging about as the film is over40 years old, What about some interviews or a director’s commentary? I know Lewis Gilbert’s 87 now, but wouldn’the like to make a few comments about one of his clasic films?
The DVD menus are static and silent, there are subtitles in 15 languages, plus a hearing-impared additionalfor the English language, so it’s unlikely anyone will miss out, and the 18 chapters is a reasonable amountbut, stupidly, some last less than a minute and two of them last over 10 and 17 minutes respectively.
Finally, there was an oddity in the scene at the doctor’s surgery, where she asked Alfie if he sweats much.He confirms he uses deodorant and her next subtitles say, “I see. Uh-huh. Do you ever sweat atnight?”. We didn’t get to hear “I see. Uh-huh. but she could certainly be seen saying it.I don’t know whether the soundtrack’s been re-edited before it was released on DVD or if the subtitleswere working from an original script, though.
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.