The most devastating moment of Michael Caine’s career: “It was a terrible thing for me”
Any actor who spends 70 years constantly working and retires with a cabinet full of trophies and a status as one of the all-time greats isn’t going to harbour many regrets, with Michael Caine always managing to see the positives, even when it comes to his greatest failures.
The retired veteran might have a pair of Academy Awards and countless iconic performances to his name, but he also starred in many terrible movies. Not that he cares, though, seeing as his relentlessly optimistic nature left him in a position where, from his perspective, at least, every cinematic turd could be polished.
Jaws: The Revenge? Awful, arguably his worst ever. And yet, it famously bought his mother a house, and he only played a supporting role, so it wasn’t really his fault. The Swarm? Again, shite. Still, he got to work with Henry Fonda, Olivia de Havilland, and Richard Widmark. On Deadly Ground? Utter bollocks, but the kick in the arse Caine needed to reinvigorate a career that was in danger of stagnating.
He was fully prepared to quit Hollywood altogether and make his living as a restauranteur until the unlikely combination of Jack Nicholson and Jane Horrocks dragged him back from the brink and set the stage for a second wind that saw him spend the next three decades as one of the industry’s most beloved elder statesmen.
With all that in mind, Caine doesn’t sound like the type of actor who’d be left to lament missed opportunities. Then again, there’s always one exception to the rule, and in his case, it was the film that he not only called one of his most underrated but saw him lose his temper and go “psychotic” on a set for the first and only time.
The two-time Academy Award winner had high hopes for James Clavell’s The Last Valley, the 1971 period piece set during the Thirty Years’ War. Unfortunately, critics and paying customers didn’t agree, with the movie receiving a tepid reception that left the leading man frustrated that nobody cared about either the content or subtext.
“The most disappointing picture I ever made,” he reflected. “Disappointing not from the finished picture but the reaction to it. It is a performance of which I’m particularly proud, one of the best performances I ever gave, as a matter of fact. For a start, it was anti-religious war at the time of Northern Ireland. I did the film to show what I felt about all the religions.”
The downside was that despite his best intentions, “it meant absolutely nothing to the public.” To rub more salt into the wound, “The critics were extremely unkind, and it was a terrible thing for me because everybody was sure it would be a big hit, and so was I.” A successful movie is a hard thing to predict, and Caine got this one all wrong, which would haunt him for the rest of his professional life.
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