We are the Self-Preservation Society

 THE ITALIAN JOB (1969)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

There is nothing particularly thrilling about the caper in "The Italian Job," other than the complications in setting it up. At the point this caper comedy was released in 1969, and we already had the standard set by the wonderful 1964 heist picture "Topkapi." The truth is that "The Italian Job" is a hysterical, partly wacky comedy that is more concerned with the aspects of escape than the caper itself. 

Michael Caine is an affable crook just out of the pokey named Charlie Croker, who is ready for a new heist job just as he's being released! The heist includes robbing a truck containing 4 million dollars worth of gold in Turin, Italy and part of the plan involves replacing computer data reels to cause a traffic jam and knock out surveillance cameras so the thieves can escape with the loot. Benny Hill (yes, Benny Hill) is the Professor who is something of a computer expert...and a sexual pervert! We also have the Mob on hand who materialize out of nowhere on the cliffs just as our robbers travel through dangerously curvy roads. 

"The Italian Job" contains many laughs throughout and the extended chase finale involving mini Cooper vehicles is comically zany and enticing on many levels (literally). Unfortunately, the thieves are nondescript at best with no color or variety to them except for Benny Hill as the beaming Professor who just has to grab a woman's behind. Michael Caine comes off best of course and dominates the proceedings, especially the brief interlude that involves having a romp in the hay with a few women (Swinging 60's after all)! But even Caine's relationship with his dutiful girlfriend Lorna (Maggie Blye) comes off stale - there is not much chemistry there and hardly any close-ups. However there is Noel Coward as a crime lord still serving time in prison who finances the plot - he has a patriotic bent to him as if this heist was a political statement of England winning one over Italy.  

"The Italian Job" is a nutty 99-minute entertainment with a nerve-frying cliffhanger of an ending that is just about perfect. The characters are colorless yet it is Caine who gives it enough maximum vitality to maintain interest. No movie this zany is worth passing up.  

Getting Away with Murder

 A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM (1990)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Michael Caine's smoldering anger and witty charm can easily go hand-in-hand with black comedy. "A Shock to the System" is the perfect film to encapsulate his gifts because Caine can do just about anything - he is at your disposal to entertain and boy does he deliver.

Something is already off at the beginning of this lacerating black comedy. Caine's Graham Marshall is fixing a light bulb in the basement and almost gets electrocuted as he holds onto a lead pipe. He starts laughing, thought not maniacally. Boom, he has an idea but we don't know what that is. Graham and his semi-annoying wife (Swoosie Kurtz) are hoping for Graham's promotion as boss of the marketing firm in Wall Street. Lo and behold, he doesn't get the job. It angers him to such a boiling point that he accidentally pushes a homeless person onto a speeding subway. Graham gets away with it, and that light bulb in the basement? Well, geez, imagine if his wife were to touch the bulb and the pipe! Once, it doesn't work, second time's the charm? 

Graham has a snarling contempt for his boss (Peter Riegert) who got the promotion and has a wealthy lifestyle that includes a speedboat, a ranch and a stunning girlfriend named Tara, not the plantation! Yet Graham is old-school since he has no use for such wealth, he only wants to rewire his house! Graham knows he is older than the yuppies at the firm and possibly on exit mode soon enough. Yet the murders keep him young and alert. Oh, yes, more murders and twists and turns are to be expected. Elizabeth McGovern plays the caring account executive who falls for Graham in a time of need yet slowly becomes suspicious of his behavior. It all comes down to a gold lighter and a smart, knowing detective (Will Patton), though nothing that happens can be anticipated. Boom and Bravo!

"A Shock to the System" is neither too sardonic nor too satirical - think of it as "American Psycho," in retrospect, without the bloodshed. Director Jan Egleson sometimes refuses to show certain violent acts committed by Graham - the director often quickly cuts away from a murder that is about to happen. When Egleson shows a violent act, it has black-humored impact. One superbly-timed explosion in the film will rattle your nerves not to mention the clickety-clack music score to provide extra tension. And sometimes you think Graham is ready to show how much power he has, and he doesn't use it. "A Shock to the System" is shocking in how clever the film plays with us. Michael Caine is the movie and has a great supporting cast to keep him and us on our toes. Boom!

Half-baked gumshoe plot

 PEEPER (1975)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Michael Caine has always had the uncanny ability to make us notice him, his every move, his every gesture. Caine makes the most of it in "Peeper" and for the first forty minutes or so, he's got us glued to the screen wondering what playful excursion he will be embroiled in next. "Peeper" unfortunately loses ground and can only keep its flimsy plot aloft for long.

Caine exudes the mannerisms of a private detective way in over his head as Leslie Tucker. His name comes with some derisive laughter and, naturally being a noir story to some degree, he is the narrator and since that it is Michael Caine with his dry delivery, this works for a while. An irascible client (Michael Constantine) wants Tucker to find his long-lost daughter who may been adopted and could be the potential heir to a fortune. Enter the less than pleasant Prendergast family, who have a wealth of riches, and there are two key sisters in the family who might fit the bill of the adopted daughter. Kitty Winn is one daughter and there is the resplendent glow of Natalie Wood (all apologies to Winn, an exemplary actress in her own right, but Wood steals the movie from her). There is also the kooky Uncle Prendergast (Thayer David), a grumpy old man who seems to hate everything and everyone, including Tucker. Oh, lest we forget there are two goons after Tucker and Natalie Wood, both well-played with pizzazz by the reliable Timothy Carey and Don Calfa.  

"Peeper" has a smooth handling of itself at first, poking fun at the noir trappings of a silly plot and investigation but it ultimately doesn't lead to much. But that is only part of the problem: as good as Caine is as a bumbling detective, we only believe it for so long. The screenplay doesn't give him or the plot any real spin or find any real twists. The finale aboard a cruise ship is so flat and poorly edited that it is difficult to figure out what happened to the two goons who have been hounding Tucker throughout the movie. There is a vicious, snarling dog at one point threatening Tucker and his ability to outsmart the dog lacks basic comic timing. The scenes do not gel or provide much payoff. Only Caine gives it his all because the guy is that damn good an actor. It also needed a damn good screenplay. 

Footnote: Why start the film with a Bogart impersonator and not end it that way as well?