JohnHowardReid So far, I've not covered the noir pastiche. Two that come to mind are Gumshoe (1971), available on a 10/10 Sony DVD, and Pulp (1972) (a 10/10 M-G-M DVD). Despite its promising premise, Gumshoe is rather disappointing, thanks mainly to the obtrusively TV-style direction of Stephen Frears and the mistimed performance of Albert Finney. Aside from Janice Rule, Fulton Mackay and Billy Dean, the support players also fail to impress. Admittedly, the director occasionally uses his locations effectively, but on the whole, script, acting and direction are far too self-conscious to make the movie either involving or entertaining. Pulp, on the other hand, is everything Gumshoe is not. True, it does start a little uncertainly, but once Lionel Stander comes on stage and hero Michael Caine boards the bus with Dennis Price and Al Lettieri, the movie suddenly gets into stride. With the entrance of the wonderful Nadia Cassini (her first of only two English-language movies) and Mickey Rooney, our delight seems almost complete - only to be topped still further by Lizabeth Scott (her final film to date) and Leopoldo Trieste. If anything, both the sly humor and the edge-of-the-seat thrills increase as the film progresses.

wes-connors In Rome, British pulp fiction writer Michael Caine (as Chester Thomas "Mickey" King) is hired to ghost-write the memoir of a mysterious American celebrity. This turns into a bizarre adventure which, we're told in the opening, will put five people in the cemetery. It's written and directed by Mike Hodges, and producer Michael Klinger makes "Pulp" a three Michael affair. Apparently a satire of secret agent films, "Pulp" is neither witty nor intriguing. The Beatles' producer George Martin composed the serviceable but unmemorable soundtrack music. A good supporting cast helps during the dull periods. You get Mickey Rooney (as Preston Gilbert) essaying a gross old movie star (in his underwear, no less). Lionel Stander (as Ben Dinuccio) is a shady publicist (earning a cigar). Lizabeth Scott (as Betty Cippola) appears for the last time before the camera. And, leggy Nadia Cassini (as Liz Adams) has to be the sexiest model "hot pants" ever had.**** Pulp (8/16/72) Mike Hodges ~ Michael Caine, Mickey Rooney, Lionel Stander, Lizabeth Scott

elshikh4 This is an engaging fun indeed as a Noir movie which's too colorful this time. It looked like a noir's lover wanted to make another one yet as a big mockery at : The noir film, the American cinema, the pulp's writers, so himself. And in the same time he glorified the genre, its immortality, and the greatness of the writer.Yes, the general pulp is grounded on very weak plot, crowded with too many coincidences, and filled up with the most unusual types of people. But all of that isn't for making one hell of a drama or else. It's mostly a crazy variety to enjoy, however not all brainless. The thing to love is that this sweet (Pulp) confesses all of that and more.Look at the movie's way of making fun of the genre's writers. (Mike Hodges) put one of them as the lead of their very dark journey, and how (Hodges) made him say something in narration and do the other : (Mickey King/Caine) is telling us how he kicks the American star's hot secretary out of his bed while the image tells us the opposite, or how he faints after seeing the blood on his leg yet the narration tells us nothing about that...etc. (Hodges) mocks also at Hollywood : the publisher says that it's a fallen empire (remember that we're in a non-Hollywood independent movie and in the year of 1972), (Humphrey Bogart) the icon of the great noir movies & the living star of the pulp novels at the 1940s becomes one of the corrupted evil guys (whom he fought in the old days) and after being (Mickey) once he's now the man to impede the lead and to prevent the announcement of the hidden truths.The writer/director (Hodges) confirms here that the pulp literature or the trivial kind of novels which had been made just to entertain could contain some deep or important facts; it could be inspired by a real experience, and it could be the substitute style to say what became so difficult to declare or too bitter to face the world by, as its writer/ discoverer had been hindered to scream it openly and honestly. Look also at the bus's scene with the passengers' interior narrations like we all live our own film noir which expresses confined pulps in every one of us.Moreover, the movie presented its lead, the writer, as the less irregular, most intelligent, most sedulous character who wants to uncover the truth and expose everyone. See him on a wheeled chair (represents his incapacity of making the right thing) writing imaginary victory on his powerful enemy (the rapist prince) and how he "sheds his blue blood.." till the last line of the movie : "I'll get you busters.. Yet", while the actual criminals were merrily free, having the best times in hunting the wild boars successfully. So what a defeated suppressed knight the writer could be sometimes even if his only salvation, or his truthful deductions, became ultimately just cheap pulp ! I liked that collection of strange characters : the wife's futile detective, a communist mayor with one arm, a book publisher who has a weak bladder, a cold killer who hides his homosexuality and fakes his death, an American movie star who played a gangster many times till he became a true one ! All of them are the enjoyable reason why to read such a novel like (Mickey) told the killer at the bus. So the movie presents them frivolously as a sincere pulp would do, just like that moment when the panels made unintentionally the (F) word; it's all for the sake of absurd formation ! You'll find sarcasm also about the human civilization itself. Sense the irony when (Mickey) visits the old temple of the sexy images then discovers later that the secret behind all the cruel murders is a crime of collective rape of a little girl ! So how hundreds of years turned the human's point of view about sex from sanctification into vileness ! One of the deepest and greatest things this movie has; is its music. Among all of that fast pace and bright cinematography (George Martin)'s creation was verily the sad element; as effective elegy for the truth whether which had been sequestered by mighty busters, or the hidden truth about the pulp literature's lost or deformed value. And eventually it was a sorrowful expression about some noble militant side in the main character even if he seemed that materialistic indifferent.I have always looked at the pulp work as a clear example of life's mixed up events that look sometimes like a perfect unreasonable comedy; such as this. So I didn't wonder when a character mentioned Lewis Carroll's (Alice in Wonderland); it could be an old version of those funny nightmares and a testimony of its author about his own society's ugly extreme contradictions. (Pulp) is another good old pulp yet in a form of a movie. It utilizes intensively its elements to mock at all of those wonderlands and their peoples not for having a nice time only but also to assure that you may find at it a voice of beaten artiest, or strangulated facts.

Vincent This starts of with quite a few good laughs some visual, some slapstick and a few situation based but gets a little more serious as it progresses.The acting is good with Rooney as the slightly mad client being especially good and Caine is his usual self in the lead.The one liners are delivered well and the occasional difference between what is narrated and what is acted out is amusing.The plot is a little thin and when it gets serious it doesn't do it too well.It's a watchable film with no bad bits and a few good ones but it's nothing special.