Pulp.
1972 United Artists; released to DVD by MGM with help from their distribution pals, 20th Century Fox.
Starring: Michael Caine, Mickey Rooney, Lionel Stander, Lizabeth Scott, Dennis Price
Music: Sir George Martin
Director: Mike Hodges
Pulp is available from Amazon, and for cheap, too!
Bet you didn't know that this movie inspired a group of young British musicians led by one Jarvis Cocker to claim its name for their pop group, did you? Pulp was also the last feature film role for Lizabeth Scott.
Anyway...Michael Caine is Mickey King, the prolific author of an endless series of paperback detective novels. He is offered a ridiculous amount of money to ghostwrite the autobiography of a "mystery" celebrity. King accepts the offer, and is taken to the island of Malta where he meets the mystery celebrity: the American actor Preston Gilbert (Rooney). Preston was known for playing mobsters in Hollywood, and hanging out with real life gangsters away from the set. He's also dying of cancer, so he wants King to start work on the autobiography before he dies.
And then, Preston Gilbert is murdered at a party. Many of his friends and associates also find themselves biting the dust shortly afterwards. It's up to Mickey King to emulate his favorite literary detectives to track down Gilbert's killer while keeping himself alive to write the next chapter.
Pulp has some good performances from Caine, Rooney, and Lionel Stander, and the screenplay contained some funny lines and visual gags, but the film seemed to drag on at times. Slightly recommended.
