Get Carter (1971)

When his brother dies under mysterious circumstances in a car accident, London gangster Jack Carter travels to Newcastle to investigate.

Director:

Mike Hodges

Writers:

Mike Hodges (screenplay), Ted Lewis (novel)

Stars:

Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, Britt Ekland

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael Caine	...	Jack Carter
Ian Hendry	...	Eric Paice
Britt Ekland	...	Anna
John Osborne	...	Cyril Kinnear
Tony Beckley	...	Peter the Dutchman
George Sewell	...	Con McCarty
Geraldine Moffat	...	Glenda (as Geraldine Moffatt)
Dorothy White	...	Margaret
Rosemarie Dunham	...	Edna
Petra Markham	...	Doreen Carter
Alun Armstrong	...	Keith
Bryan Mosley	...	Cliff Brumby
Glynn Edwards	...	Albert Swift
Bernard Hepton	...	Thorpe
Terence Rigby	...	Gerald Fletcher

Storyline

A vicious London gangster, Jack Carter, travels to Newcastle for his brother's funeral. He begins to suspect that his brother's death was not an accident and sets out to follow a complex trail of lies, deceit, cover-ups and backhanders through Newcastle's underworld, leading, he hopes, to the man who ordered his brother killed. Because of his ruthlessness Carter exhibits all the unstopability of the android in Terminator, or Walker in Point Blank, and he and the other characters in the film are prone to sudden, brutal acts of violence.

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Plot Keywords:

gangster | death | funeral | murder | hit with a car door | 

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Taglines:

What happens when a professional killer violates the code? Get Carter!

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Genres:

Crime | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 March 1971 (USA)

Also Known As:

Jack rechnet ab

Filming Locations:

Horden Beach, Peterlee, County Durham, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min 103 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Carter (Michael Caine) enters Cyril Kinnear's house, there is a Zulu shield and assegais on the wall. This is an in-joke about Michael Caine's first screen success in Zulu.

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Goofs

During the nightclub scene where Jack is tracking down Thorpie; Thorpe pushes past two men coming up from the toilets/cloakrooms. When Jack arrives in the toilets moments later one of the men Thorpe passed on the stairs going to the toilet can be seen combing his hair.

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Quotes

Edna: What's that gun doing in your room? Suppose I phone the police, told them there's a bloke in my hotel... who's planning to shoot somebody?
Jack Carter: You wouldn't do that.
Edna: How do you know I wouldn't?
Jack Carter: 'Cause I know you wear purple underwear.
Edna: What's that supposed to mean?
Jack Carter: Think about it.

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Connections

Referenced in Get Sykes: An Interview with Production Designer Brian Sykes (2006)

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Soundtracks

"Love Is A Four Letter Word"
Music by Roy Budd
Lyrics by Jack Fishman

User Reviews

One Of The Best British Films Ever Made

Michael Caine has often said that GET CARTER was the first gangster movie not to portray gangsters as either being stupid or funny . He`s right , but he could also have added that this was probably the first film not to show gangsters as being sexy in anyway . Sure Glenda , Magaret etc might be physically attractive but sexy ? I don`t think so . And the men aren`t any less unattractive , almost all of them are cowardly two faced weasels or violent thugs and often these character traits overlap.

Director Mike Hodges has made a bleak , nihilistic classic film . He isn`t flashy unlike present day film makers associated with gangster flicks but that`s not a criticism . I love the way Hodges makes use of the locations in showing the North East of England as a cold , austere windswept urban area of high rise council estates and red brick terraced houses with outside toilets . There is a train of thought that by showing the audience all this it dates the film but it`s also true that it reminds us that living standards are also different today . No one takes a phone call in the pub because everyone has a mobile phone nowadays , the internet and videos have replaced slide shows and silent 8mm as the medium for porn , and it`s now illegal to dump the slag from coal mining into the sea because of EU regulations

GET CARTER also has some really great dialogue which I could sit here all day quoting . But I won`t bother except to say my favourite line is when Carter jumps out of bed naked and holds a gun on Con and Peter

Con : Put it away jack you know you won`t use it

Peter : The gun he`s talking about

classic dialogue from a classic film