Other Titles • Der Verführer läßt schön grüßen (1966)
Synopses for Alfie (1966)
1.
In this extremely grim comedy, Michael Caine plays a ne'er-do-well who never does good. The rakish Alfie moves from woman to woman with the emotional maturity of Bill Clinton, and even less morality. Alternately talking up to the camera and talking down to his sexual conquests, Alfie maneuvers through the minefield of emotions by remaining aloof, until of course, he is left alone. A fine performance by Shelley Winters as the wealthy woman Alfie seeks to court rounds out this well-aimed attack on the lady's man lifestyle. Nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award. --James DiGiovanna
2.
Michael Caine stars as ALFIE, a feckless London lothario whose chief pleasure in life is to have a good time on dates with a different woman each day of the week. When he accidentally impregnates his live-in girlfriend, Gilda (Julia Foster), he takes a vacation in the country to think about his life--while still managing to engage in sexual affairs with a variety of women, including millionairess Ruby (Shelley Winters), young runaway Siddie (Millicent Martin), and even his friend's wife, Lily (Vivien Merchant). However, Alfie can't vacation forever. Before long, his fatherly responsibilities catch up with him and he's forced to face the product of his debauchery.
Based on the novel of the same name by Bill Naughton, ALFIE touches on a number of controversial topics (polygamy and child abandonment, for starters). Director Lewis Gilbert cleverly mixes comedy and tragedy with a crucial lesson about immorality. The film features one of Caine's finest performances.
3.
What's it all about…
Alfie is not really a bad sort. It's just that he has overwhelming desire for the opposite sex. You might sat that "birds" are irresistible to him, sort of second nature. With Michael Caine in the title role, Alfie is a ribald and wild comedy, filled with sex and sin. For those who want to be entertained, Alfie is charming, delightful and quick-moving. For those who want more, there is beneath the surface a lingering tragedy, simply and poignantly told, about the taker and the taken.
4.
"What's it all about, Alfie?" asked the hit Burt Bacharach/Hal David title song, to which the less philosophical answer might be: an amoral young man comically seducing a succession of beautiful women in swinging-sixties London. Michael Caine was the titular anti-hero, here consolidating his new star status from Zulu (1964) and The Ipcress File (1965), his conquests including Shelley Winters, Jane Asher and Shirley Ann Field. Alfie was a huge success, bringing a new frankness about changing sexual attitudes to the screen, in which respect it was almost the male companion to Julie Christie's then shocking, Oscar-winning performance in Darling (1965). It was also a sort-of contemporary Tom Jones, which had swept the Oscars for 1963, however, Alfie was not only better made, but in Michael Caine's guilelessly amoral asides to camera, offered a groundbreaking illustration of a newly self-conscious cinema. It is a technique Caine would reprise as the middle-aged philanderer in Blame It On Rio (1983). With Blow Up also released in 1966, and Ken Russell's Women In Love following in 1969, British film-making was truly in the midst of a sexual revolution. Michael Caine would reunite with director Lewis Gilbert and meet his female match in Educating Rita (1983). --Gary S. Dalkin
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