Deified by an icon: The director Michael Caine said had the “voice of god”
It doesn’t take six degrees of separation to link the actor and director most heavily celebrated by Michael Caine, and the direct links between the trio remain endlessly fascinating in the way they eventually coalesced.
It’s no secret the two-time Academy Award-winning legend holds Humphrey Bogart in the highest of esteem as his favourite actor, with Casablanca being named the film Caine cherishes above all others. Not only that, but he derived his stage name from 1954’s The Caine Mutiny, which saw ‘Bogie’ leading the cast of the militaristic legal drama as Philip Francis Queeg.
When Caine finally got the chance to work with his directorial idol, it came as part of a project where Bogart had initially been earmarked for the lead role, although he passed away before it had the chance to come to fruition. Not to sound too morbid about it, but on a personal level, at least, cinema’s loss was Caine’s huge gain.
Bogart collaborated with the inimitable John Huston on The Maltese Falcon, Across the Pacific, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Key Largo, The African Queen, and Beat the Devil, a fruitful partnership that saw them go down in the history books as one of the industry’s premiere actor/director double-acts.
It was only natural that the filmmaker would be eying ‘Bogie’ for a key part in The Man Who Would Be King, a passion project Huston had been harbouring dreams of realising on-screen since he was a child. He originally wanted Bogart and Clark Gable for Daniel Dravot and Peachy Carnehan before moving onto Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, then Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole, and Robert Redford and Paul Newman.
All of them would have made for iconic pairings, but it was Newman who suggested the leads should be played by British actors. Taking the advice on board, Huston ended up hiring Caine and Sean Connery as Peachy and Danny respectively, which proved to be an inspired move for the period-set adventure.
Caine once told Rotten Tomatoes, “If you ever heard the voice of god it would be John Huston,” so it’s easy to imagine how he felt about being hand-picked by his favourite director to embody a character that began life in Huston’s mind as being played by his favourite actor. That’s the sort of wish fulfilment that comes around once in a lifetime at the very most, so it’s no wonder the actor seized the opportunity as quickly as possible to tick a major box off his professional bucket list.
Huston would direct Caine for a second time in the World War II-era sports story Escape to Victory alongside a cacophony of footballers and actors, but it would be fair to say The Man Who Would Be King exists on a plane of its own after he was drafted in as a Bogart replacement.
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