Michael Caine names his most unfairly overlooked movies: “Should have been a much bigger hit”
As anyone would expect from an actor who enjoyed a 70-year career before retiring at the age of 90, Michael Caine stepped away from the silver screen with his legacy intact as a legend and one of Britain’s greatest-ever acting exports.
Hollywood’s favourite cockney endured several ups and downs, which was to be expected when he spent seven decades onscreen and weathered several seismic shifts in the industry during that time, but he’s always rolled with the punches and managed to find the positives in his worst pictures.
On the back of Zulu, The Ipcress File, Alfie, and The Italian Job, Caine crossed the Atlantic in the 1960s and became an even bigger star, a position he held for over two decades. Even when he reached his lowest professional ebb and contemplated washing his hands of acting completely, salvation lurked right around the corner, leading to a second wind as an esteemed veteran, which carried him right through to his final credit.
He made some right old shite, though, which included Jaws: The Revenge, The Swarm, Vin Diesel’s The Last Witch Hunter, and Steven Seagal’s On Deadly Ground, to name just four of his worst efforts. Of course, a career like Caine’s will experience its ups and downs, but the two-time Academy Award winner was left to lament several unsung gems that slipped through the cracks.
In an interview with Richard Luck, Caine was asked if any of his 100+ credits didn’t get their due credit, and several immediately came to mind. “Yeah, there are a few,” he said. “I made a film with Sean Young a while back called Blue Ice, which I really liked, but nobody really took notice of.”
Highlander director Russell Mulcahy’s 1992 crime thriller was released during Caine’s wilderness years when he struggled to find many parts worthy of his talents, although he’s in the minority thinking the turgid tale of a former spy and jazz club owner dragged back into the world he left behind didn’t get its flowers.
“I thought Without a Clue was very funny and should have been a much bigger hit,” he continued, pointing to his Sherlock Holmes comedy, where he played the legendary detective opposite Ben Kingsley’s Watson. He’s got a point there, right enough, with the light-hearted caper having earned its spurs as a cult favourite over time.
“And then there was The Last Valley, which was a very good film,” Caine offered. “It was written and directed by James Clavell, the guy who wrote Shogun. I made it around the time I made Get Carter, but it should be pretty clear which of those films I get asked about more often.”
The historical drama flying under the radar has long been a thorn in Caine’s side after the only set on which he flew off the handle and went on a psychotic rant ended up being declared by the man himself on several occasions as the single most underrated movie he’d ever been a part of.
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