Get Carter is a 1971 British gangster thriller film, written and directed by Mike Hodges in his directorial debut and starring Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, John Osborne, Britt Ekland and Bryan Mosley. Based on Ted Lewis's 1970 novel Jack's Return Home, the film follows Jack Carter (Caine), a London gangster who returns to his hometown in North East England after his brother's death. Suspecting foul play, and with vengeance on his mind, he investigates and interrogates, regaining a feel for the city and its hardened-criminal element.
Producer Michael Klinger optioned Lewis's novel shortly after its publication and made a deal with the ailing Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) to finance and release the film, making Get Carter the last project to be approved by the studio's Borehamwood division before its closure. The production went from novel to finished film in 10 months, with principal photography taking place from July to September 1970 in and around Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead and County Durham. Hodges, Klinger and Caine intended to create a more realistic portrayal of violence and criminal behaviour than had previously been seen in British films: Caine, who also served as an uncredited co-producer, incorporated aspects of criminal acquaintances into his characterisation of Carter, while Hodges conducted research into the criminal underworld of Newcastle, in particular the one-armed bandit murder. Cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky worked with Hodges to give scenes a naturalistic feel, drawing heavily on their backgrounds in documentary films.
Turning a respectable profit upon its initial UK release, Get Carter initially attracted mixed reviews. Critics grudgingly appreciated the film's technical achievements and Caine's performance while criticising the complex plot, violence and amorality, in particular Carter's apparent lack of remorse for his actions. American critics were generally more enthusiastic, but the film languished on the drive-in circuit, while MGM focused its resources on producing Hit Man, a 1972 blaxploitation-themed remake of the film.
Get Carter eventually garnered a cult following, and further endorsements from directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie led to the film being critically re-evaluated, with its depiction of class structure and life in 1970s Britain and Roy Budd's minimalist jazz score receiving considerable praise. In 1999, Get Carter was ranked 16th on the BFI Top 100 British films of the 20th century; five years later, a survey of British film critics in Total Film magazine chose it as the greatest British film of all time. A poorly received remake also titled Get Carter was released in 2000, with Sylvester Stallone portraying Jack Carter and Caine in a supporting role.
Plot Newcastle-born gangster Jack Carter has lived in London for years in the employ of organised crime bosses Gerald and Sid Fletcher. Jack is having an affair with Gerald's girlfriend Anna, and plans to escape with her to South America. First, he must return to Newcastle and Gateshead to attend the funeral of his brother, Frank, who has died in a purported drunk-driving accident. Jack's bosses warn him not to stir up trouble, as they are friendly with the Newcastle mob. Unsatisfied with the official explanation, Jack investigates for himself. At the funeral, Jack meets his teenage niece Doreen and Frank's evasive girlfriend, Margaret.
Jack goes to Newcastle Racecourse, seeking his old acquaintance Albert Swift for information about his brother's death, but Swift evades him. Jack encounters another old associate, Eric Paice, who refuses to tell Jack who is employing him as a chauffeur. Jack follows Eric to the country house of crime boss Cyril Kinnear. Jack confronts Kinnear but learns little from him; he also meets a glamorous drunken woman, Glenda. As Jack leaves, Eric warns him against damaging relations between Kinnear and the Fletchers. Back in Newcastle, Jack is threatened by henchmen who want him to leave town, but he fights them off, capturing and interrogating one to find out who wants him gone. He is given the name "Brumby".
Jack knows Cliff Brumby as a businessman with interests in local seaside amusement arcades. Visiting his house, Jack discovers Brumby knows nothing about him and, realising he has been set up, he leaves. The next morning, two of Jack's London colleagues – Con McCarthy and Peter the Dutchman – arrive, sent by the Fletchers to take him back, but he escapes. Jack meets Margaret to talk about Frank, but the Fletchers' men are waiting and pursue him. He is rescued by Glenda, who takes him in her sports car to meet Brumby at his new restaurant development at the top of a multi-storey car park. Brumby identifies Kinnear as being behind Frank's death, also explaining that Kinnear is trying to take over Brumby's business. He offers Jack £5,000 to kill the crime boss, which he refuses.
Jack has sex with Glenda at her flat, where he finds and watches a pornographic film in which Doreen is forced to have sex with Albert. The other participants in the film are Glenda and Margaret. Jack becomes enraged and pushes Glenda's head underwater as she is taking a bath. She tells him the film was Kinnear's and that she thinks Doreen was recruited by Eric. Forcing Glenda into the boot of her own car, Jack drives off to find Albert.
Jack tracks down Albert, who confesses he told Brumby that Doreen was Frank's daughter. Brumby showed Frank the film to incite him to call the police on Kinnear, so Eric and two of his men arranged Frank's death. Having extracted this information, Jack fatally stabs Albert. Jack is ambushed by the London gangsters and Eric, who has informed Gerald of Jack and Anna's affair. In the ensuing shootout, Jack kills Peter. As Eric and Con escape, they push Glenda's car into the river, unaware that she is in the boot. Returning to the car park, Jack finds and beats Brumby before throwing him to his death. He then posts the film to the Scotland Yard vice squad.
Jack abducts Margaret. He telephones Kinnear (who is in the middle of a wild party at his home), telling him that he has the film, and makes a deal for Kinnear to give him Eric in exchange for his silence. Kinnear agrees, sending Eric to an agreed location; however, he subsequently phones an associate, "J". Jack drives Margaret to the grounds of Kinnear's estate, kills her with a fatal injection and throws her stripped body into a pond there to make it look like an overdose. He then calls the police to raid Kinnear's party, and the police arrest Kinnear.
Jack chases Eric along a desolate beach. He forces Eric to drink a bottle of whisky as Eric had done to Frank, then beats him to death with his shotgun and disposes of the body on a coal conveyor. Having avenged Frank and Doreen, Jack walks along the shoreline, where he is shot dead from a distance by "J", Kinnear's assassin.
Cast Michael Caine as Jack Carter. Mike Hodges wrote the screenplay with Ian Hendry in mind for Carter, but learned that Michael Klinger had already signed up Caine for the role. With the backing of a major studio, Klinger was keen to secure a big name for the lead, and Caine was very prominent at the time, having starred in Alfie, The Italian Job and The Ipcress File. Hodges was surprised that a star of Caine's stature would want to play such a thoroughly unlikeable person as Carter. Giving his reasons for wanting to be involved with the film, the actor said: "One of the reasons I wanted to make that picture was my background. In English movies, gangsters were either stupid or funny. I wanted to show that they're neither. Gangsters are not stupid, and they're certainly not very funny". He identified with Carter as a memory of his working-class upbringing, having friends and family members who were involved in crime and felt Carter represented a path his life might have taken under different circumstances: "Carter is the dead-end product of my own environment, my childhood; I know him well. He is the ghost of Michael Caine". He made subtle changes to Hodges's depiction of Carter in the script, cut out pleasantries and gave him a cold, hard edge; closer to Lewis's original envisioning of the character. Although he is not credited as such in the film, Caine has been acknowledged in retrospect as a co-producer. By a strange coincidence, Caine's stand-in on the film was a man called Jack Carter. Ian Hendry as Eric Paice. Hendry had previously been cast by producer Klinger in Roman Polanski's Repulsion, and was Hodges's first choice to play Carter, but by 1970 his career was rapidly declining. Hendry's alcoholism and poor physical conditionChibnall, 2003 p. 86 were apparent on set in Newcastle, and his envy at the success of his contemporary Caine was exacerbated by his drinking. Hodges was concerned that the character's physical exertion at the film's climax may have been too much for Hendry, and so he arranged for it to be the first sequence shot as a precaution, so that he would not have to re-shoot the rest of the film if it were necessary to replace Hendry. Hodges and Caine used his animosity towards Caine to their advantage to create extra tension in the scenes between Carter and Paice.Chibnall, pp. 37–38 John Osborne as Cyril Kinnear, Jack's main adversary. Osborne, a famous playwright, was an unusual choice of actor; he was suggested by Hodges's agent. The writer enjoyed the change, and saw it as a way to erase the image in the public's mind of him as an angry young man. Osborne had never played card games before and practised poker before the shoot to lend realism to the gambling scene. Osborne's portrayal was a contrast to the description in Ted Lewis's novel Jack's Return Home of Kinnear as an uncultured, corpulent spiv, giving him an urbane and relaxed demeanour, his delivery being so relaxed and quiet that it was difficult for the sound recordist to pick up, but Hodges liked the "menace in that quietness". Britt Ekland as Anna. Ekland was cast as the leading lady of the film, as she was a prominent sex symbol of the time and would have already been familiar to US audiences through her work in The Night They Raided Minsky's and Stiletto. Accordingly, her minor role in the film was overemphasised in the publicity. Ekland was afraid of becoming typecast, having already played two gangster's molls before Carter in Stiletto and Machine Gun McCain. She was also reluctant to take the part as she did not want to take her clothes off; however, she had financial problems at the time as a result of bad investment decisions by her accountant. She was later happy that she had been involved with the project. Bryan Mosley as Cliff Brumby. MGM executives initially wanted Telly Savalas for the part of the "big man", but were impressed by Coronation Street actor Mosley's performance in fight scenes in Far from The Madding Crowd. A devout Roman Catholic, Mosley was concerned about taking part in such a violent film with depictions of criminal behaviour, and consulted his priest over the moral implications. George Sewell as Con McCarty. Sewell was the man who introduced Barbara Windsor to Charlie Kray. He grew up in working-class Hoxton and had come to acting late when, in 1959, he joined Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop. A well-known face on British television in the 1960s, his sandblasted features and shifty, haunted looks made him ideal for playing villainous characters or hard-bitten detectives. He seemed ideally cast as a London gangster colleague of Carter's. After Carter, Sewell became more known for playing policemen rather than villains.