The only movie Michael Caine will always regret never making: “The best film I never did”
Having spent 70 years as a working actor before gracefully retiring, Michael Caine didn’t harbour too many regrets from a legendary career that saw him exit stage left as one of the all-time greats.
However, even the man who found positive things to say about the otherwise irredeemable Jaws: The Revenge and The Swarm didn’t manage to spend seven decades in the industry without ruing the one that got away, with the two-time Academy Award winner calling it “about the only regret” he had.
Even when he was making terrible movies, of which there were many, Caine always found the positives. Each picture, whether it was an awards season contender, a box office smash, or an insult to the good name of cinema, provided him with experiences and opportunities that he’d learn from.
That’s one of the major reasons why the cockney icon refused to dwell on past failures, missed opportunities, or roles that slipped through his fingers, with one exception. In his defence, every performer of his era would kill for the chance to work with Orson Welles, and to rub salt into the wound, their unmade project was made by another creative team and released to widespread acclaim.
As he recalled in his memoir, Blowing the Bloody Doors Off, the Citizen Kane mastermind approached Caine in 1963 when he was playing the lead role in a stage production of Next Time I’ll Sing to You. Welles was in the audience, and the actor could hear him bellowing with laughter throughout.
“He said some kind things about my performance,” Caine recalled. “Which I found somewhat overwhelming, and off he went.” That was the catalyst for a friendship, and years later, “Orson approached me about a project he thought we should do together,” a feature-length adaptation of Ronald Harwood’s 1980 play, The Dresser.
“I knew and loved the play and said yes immediately,” he reflected. “I could see that it would be a tremendous vehicle for both of us. Alas, it never happened.” Welles had been beaten to the punch, with Albert Finney and Tom Courtenay acquiring the rights and tasking Harwood to pen the screenplay.
The 1983 film earned both actors Oscar, Golden Globe, and Bafta nominations, with The Dresser also shortlisted for the ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’ Oscars. In another timeline, Welles could have directed Caine as an over-the-hill actor whose personal assistant desperately tries to stop their life from coming apart at the seams.
“I still sometimes think wistfully of the Orson Welles/Michael Caine version that never got made as the best film I never did,” he admitted. It can’t have been easy for the star to know The Dresser was being made when he’d been approached by one of cinema’s most influential directors to develop it themselves, especially when he never got the chance to collaborate with Welles on anything.
Two of his peers got in on the act 20 years later when The Dresser aired as a made-for-television film starring Ian McKellen and Anthony Hopkins in the lead, which only added insult to injury.
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