Get Carter 4K Restoration

Get Carter (1971) New 4K Restoration (BFI Distribution Release) Cert 18

There are plot spoilers in this article.

Seminal gangster revenge film ‘Get Carter’ has at last been given the full 4K restoration treatment, and it looks bigger and better than ever.

Anyone who has not seen this essential film from the early 1970’s is in for a very different sort of gangster picture; one that reports but never glamorizes the grim, dangerous world of the professional criminal. Made and released in the cinemas within a few months of Ted Lewis’ original book’s publication, and with a fine stable of actors, ‘Get Carter’ possesses amazing longevity for a film of its period.

Michael Caine, in what must be the finest role in his lengthy career, brings all the controlled menace of Jack Carter the London based mobster, returning to his hometown of Newcastle in hot pursuit of information about his brother Frank’s killer. From the first shots of Carter and his fellow gang members in a smart modern flat, the gang watching pornographic slides and making ribald comments at the staged scenes, with Carter’s girlfriend Anna (Britt Ekland) a ‘plus one’ in this delightful gathering, you know the gloves are off.

The train journey to Newcastle with Carter reading Raymond Chandler’s ‘Farewell My Lovely’ as a nod to the 1940’s noir genre that ‘Get Carter’ updates, and the steely, tinkling notes that preface the cool double bass and tom-tom rhythm, make a jarring contrast to this journey into hell.

Jack’s arrival in his hometown, betraying no hint of a Geordie accent, starts in the kind of smoky, old-fashioned pub which is today much missed by a certain generation. Jack’s ordering a pint ‘in a thin glass’ not a beer-mug, is one of the arch regional jokes often missed by non-Geordie viewers of the film, – he wouldn’t have to ask, and he certainly wouldn’t click his fingers at the barman in such a place. He repairs to his lodgings nearby, the dingy ‘Las Vegas’ boarding house run by Edna (Rosemarie Dunham) which has at least the advantage of anonymity. It proves to be an unsuitable place to lie low, however, as mob lackey ‘Thorpie’ (Bernard Hepton) duly arrives, heavies in tow, to persuade Carter to leave the city that night.

The heavies’ return to the boarding house in the early hours is a masterpiece of queasy comedy, as Jack stands naked by the bed, shotgun raised, shooing them out, his landlady/lover lying terrified in the bed. Frank’s funeral has a touch of humour to it as well, as the hearse arrives at the back door of the house to take the corpse and his nearest and dearest to the cemetery.

Carter visits a race meeting to collar Eric Paice (Ian Hendry), chauffeur to mobster Cyril Kinnear (John Osborne), gently probing him for clues as to Frank’s killer with characteristic restrained menace. The scene contains one of the most famous lines in the film, as Carter gently removes Eric’s wrap-around sunglasses. No matter how many times Get Carter is viewed, his line never fails to chill the bones.

Jack’s rounds take him to a comfortable suburban home, a block of flats, a high-rise car park and a scruffy betting shop in search of information that will lead him to Frank’s murderer. From then on, we are subjected to some of the most brutally realistic scenes of revenge violence and torture committed to film in the UK at that time.

The ruthlessness of Jack’s world is slightly put into shade by the seediness of Glenda’s (Geraldine Moffatt) and Cliff Brumby’s (Bryan Mosley), after Jack views Glenda’s home-made porn film with Brumby coercing Jack’s niece (or daughter, by implication) in school clothes, into sex, after she has simulated(?) sex with Glenda.

Carter’s visit to the country house of rival gangster Kinnear provides us with another touch of drollery. A high stakes game of cards is in progress when Carter makes his unwelcome entrance, and calm, urbane Kinnear does his best to get rid of Carter without upsetting his rich, honoured guests. One of the players snaps ‘Thought you were going soon’, to which Carter smirks, ‘When you’ve lost your money. Won’t take long’.

The film is peppered with allusions to curses; the sight of a five-fingered man raising his glass in a pub, and the blind man in the betting office, where Carter stabs Albert Swift (Glynn Edwards) one of the enablers of brother Frank’s execution, standing in as a symbol of those who ‘saw nothing’. 

The body count is far higher than the single one Jack was counting on. ‘Thorpie’ (Bernard Hepton) has his head smashed through a car window after his pathetic attempt to persuade Jack to return home and keep his nose out of others’ business. Local businessman Brumby is thrown over a concrete stair in the high-rise car park, and onto a car below. Deaths involving water turn up like unlucky cards in a Tarot reading. Carter shoots blond heavy Peter the Dutchman (Tony Beckley) off a ship, Glenda, having already had a dousing in her own bath by Jack and trapped in the boot of her own sports car, is pushed into the river, unknowingly, by Eric and his heavy Con (George Sewell), Frank’s mistress Margaret (Dorothy White) having been given an overdose of heroin by Carter, is found naked and dead, floating in a lake, and Eric, battered to death with Carter’s gun, is loaded onto a coal hopper and tossed into the sea like waste. Even Carter meets his end by the sea, one clean rifle bullet shot to his head, a moment after Eric hits the water.

‘Get Carter’s importance cannot be overstated; it’s superbly written, well acted, has a genuine feel for location, a ferocity that has never been matched and is rightfully considered a classic of the British crime genre. See the 4K restoration; you won’t be disappointed.

Scenester

22/5/22