The movie Michael Caine can’t think about without being annoyed: “I still get angry”
Throughout his long and prolific career, Michael Caine has been lucky enough to work with some incredible filmmakers, from Joseph L Mankiewicz and Brian De Palma to Stanley Donen and Christopher Nolan.
While he has proved himself to be a versatile star, Caine is best known for his portrayals of classic British gangsters or Cockney types, suave in his horn-rimmed glasses. With this iconic image, he has cemented himself as an icon, working between both Britain and Hollywood.
While he has always stayed pretty grounded, Caine can admit when he has been blinded by the lights of Hollywood, especially when it comes to working with a big director. Naturally, the opportunity to work with a massive filmmaker, especially one that you love, is always going to be appealing, even if it’s perhaps not the best fit for you.
When Caine agreed to star in The Eagle Has Landed, he soon realised that he had picked the film for one main reason – to work with John Sturges. The classic director rose to prominence for helming movies like Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and The Magnificent Seven, becoming somewhat of a Hollywood legend.
Caine jumped at the chance to work with Sturges, but just because a filmmaker has an impressive legacy in Hollywood doesn’t always mean they’re a good person to work with. Well, it’s not that Caine had a negative experience of working with Sturges; it was the way he deserted the production as soon as filming wrapped.
In his book What’s It All About? Caine wrote, “The summer was great, as were the actors, and location … everything was fine, or almost. The picture was being directed by the Hollywood old-timer John Sturges, who has just died, and we were all very pleased that this illustrious veteran had agreed to direct our film.”
He added: “That is, until one day when I was talking to him between set-ups and he informed me that now he was older, he only ever worked to get the money to go fishing, which was his passion. Deep-sea fishing off Baja, California, he added, which was very expensive. The moment the picture finished he took the money and went.”
Caine couldn’t help but feel a little let down by Sturges’ lack of professionalism. It was Sturges’ last film, but it seemed as though he was already primed to give up. “Jack Wiener later told me that he never came back for the editing nor for any of the other post-production sessions that are where a director does some of his most important work. The picture wasn’t bad, but I still get angry when I think of what it could have been with the right director.”
What was meant to be an exciting opportunity for Caine to make a film with a Hollywood legend turned into an example of the greed that the industry often boasts. Sturges was in this final job for the money and nothing more, it seemed. “We had committed the old European sin of being impressed by someone just because he came from Hollywood.”
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