The most off-the-wall film Michael Caine ever made.
I can remember first stumbling upon Pulp years ago in the bargain section at my local entertainment store, and couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard of its existence before then. A ‘70s mystery/thriller starring Michael Caine and Mickey Rooney which featured the former as a writer of suspense novels?! I was instantly sold! However my excitement quickly died down following the close of the film’s first act. I just didn’t like it. The film was so completely far removed from what I had hoped for; a vintage cinematic puzzle starring two beloved movie stars. Instead, Pulp came off as a bizarre trip into a world where neither the characters nor anything, really, made sense. Watching it years later, I can say that while I still don’t quite like it, I can at least finally somewhat appreciate it.
Written and directed by Mike Hodges, Pulp stars Caine as Mickey King, a two cent mystery writer living in Europe who is commissioned by Ben Dinuccio (Lionel Stander), a representative of wealthy former actor named Preston Gilbert (Rooney) for a writing job. Preston wants Mickey to come to Malta and ghost write his autobiography, which the latter agrees to as a way of escaping the humdrum of his writer’s life. Once there, Mickey meets Preston, his beguiling ex-wife Betty (Lizabeth Scott), and finds himself immediately swept into a world full of outrageousness, decadence, and a real-life mystery.
Thank goodness for Pulp’s strong knack for comedy and how it works all the time when the schizophrenic script doesn’t. For every offputting plot move Pulp throws out to alienate its audience, it never once hits a false note where the laughs are concerned. The jokes begin before the credits have finished in an opening scene showing female transcribers getting aroused and taken by Mickey’s explicit dictation of his own novel and continues through a stellar assortment of one-liners. “Who usually types your work,” asks the head of the typing department. “My mother,” replies Mickey. “Your mother,” he asks stunned. “Yes, she prefers it to knitting,” adds the author. The script also does a fine job of weaving together silly dialogue with the genre the film is, in essence, sending up. “He was constipated with pulp,” Mickey says in voice-over narration about his new client, “and now it was coming out all over me.”
If it wasn’t for the comedy, Pulp wouldn’t have a prayer of succeeding as a thriller yarn. This is mainly because the plot and central mystery at the heart of it are just too convoluted. It’s not that the mechanics of what’s going on are necessarily difficult to follow, but rather it’s just that none of it is ever fully investigated by the script or the director. Instead, Hodges seems more interested in the setting up of elaborate set pieces and obscure camera movements which, to his credit, make Pulp more of an exciting ride than its foggy script otherwise allows for it to be. So many elements, from fully understanding what makes characters tick, to why certain individuals perform specific actions, the lack of specificity in Pulp may have been intended to add a slight surrealism to the overall experience, but instead only brings everything down. Because of this, Pulp remains less a fully realized film than a series of wonderfully oddball sequences.
Caine takes on the lead role with a restrained enthusiasm, giving a masterclass in deadpan wit in the process. The more stoic and nonplussed as he makes Mickey out to be, the more it becomes apparent just how much fun the actor is having. Stander likewise has a ball proving to be the kind of solid character actor he made a career out of. After a prolonged absence from the screen, Scott’s return to film (in what would be her final outing) is an intriguing one as she makes Betty an intoxicating figure of mystery. No one seems to be enjoying themselves more than Rooney, however. Always eager to give his all to any film project, the actor hams it up more than ever before as the larger-than-life Preston, easily and fiendishly dominating every scene he’s in.
Working strongly in Pulp’s favor is the somewhat ambiguous European setting and the different nationalities of its lead actors, all of which work in tandem to make the film feel as if it’s in another world, one which all at once feels alien and familiar. Complaints aside, it’s hard not to have pure love for titles from the ‘70s and the license taken by their makers to stray from conventions and audience expectations, an act which Pulp is more than happy to do. It takes a good while to adjust to the film’s sensibilities and the way it operates. Even when that adjustment is made, the chances of not being able to fully embrace or comprehend Pulp remains strong. Yet the idea of ever being able to forget it is not even a question.
The Package
Chief among the special features in this blu-ray release of Pulp is an interview featuring Hodges where he admits how even he wasn’t sure how the film got made.
The Lowdown
Pulp comes to Blu-ray in all its inexplicable glory.
