Caine is Alfie, an unrepentant ladies man who gets close to and uses several women before tossing them away at the slightest sign of complication. He eventually learns that his actions have consequences and that he faces increasingly diminishing options along the path he's chosen. Not exactly a deep film, but one that's elevated by Caine in his career defining performance. Caine walks a very thin line, never letting the audience forget that he's really a creep while simultaneously charming the pants of them with a running narration pitched directly to the audience in 4th wall breaking asides. He pretty much carries the film. It seems like Kubrick must have studied this one while preparing "A Clockwork Orange".

Alfie is very much a film of it's time, it's purpose to be a critique of the swinging 60's lifestyle. Why it was remade I do not know.Michael Caine plays Alfie, the hedonistic, sexist, hypercritical, narcissistic cockney who breaks the fourth wall letting us into his thoughts and feelings. Caine is great in the role showing the ability that would make him a household name in years to come.Lewis Gilbert's direction is extremely detailed and symbolic as meaning can be found everywhere, mainly to symbolise Alfie's inner conflict as well as the real Britain in the 60's as opposed to the media's representation of "Swinging Britain".This Kitchen Sink film stands out for its use of 4th wall breaking. Although criticised, Alfie has become infamous for his ability to break the fourth wall. This allows the audience to react to him rather differently (sort of positively) as he allows us into his life and mind.The film deals with some rather interesting issues that were deemed controversial at the time and still are today. The issues of abortion, gender equality, homosexuality, divorce etc are all at least touched on in this film. The abortion scene in Alfie (Where Alfie goes behind the blue curtain) is in my opinion the best scene in the film, as even watching it now I was shocked and to think how people would have reacted in the 60's I can only imagine. Also in the scene Alfie finally lets out a cry bringing his feelings to the surface which is the best acting Michael Caine's puts on display in the film.Alfie is a classic film, a film of its time that can be looked back at as a part of cinematic and British history of the 60's. It's a good film I just simply have no idea why this would be remade, being a film that is set, made and about the 60's. But that's a review for another day.

Michael Caine plays Alfie who is a bed hopping care free Jack the Lad. Alfie basically sees women as tools for his pleasure and they are merely objects that are there to bolster his ego. However, when one of his conquests Gilda (Julia Foster) ends up pregnant and subsequently decides that she's keeping the baby, Alfie finds that, for once, he has some responsibility in his life (which he isn't pleased about). However, the addition of a child in his life doesn't faze him and he continues with his philandering ways ultimately to his own detriment.What I really enjoy about these 'character study' type films is that when they're done right they provide so much thought for the viewer. Michael Caine narrates the films partly in person (in front of the camera) and partly through voice-over. Many films use this approach in order to help viewers to get an understanding of its characters and Alfie is no different. It's quite clear that Alfie likes to be in control - he chooses when to visit his conquests and he also never really gets too close to his conquests and tries not to get emotionally involved with any of them. A possible reason for this is that he probably feels that if he gets too attached to any single woman that he may lose control and will leave himself open to being hurt. There is a scene where Alfie is in hospital and he makes an assumption that one patient's wife is having an affair with another man because she's late visiting her husband - he has no evidence that this occurs and I believe that he makes this assumption based on the fact that he cheats on a lot of husband's wives so therefore they must be doing it to their husbands. In a twist of irony, Alfie does end up having an affair with the very women who he accused of cheating on her husband.I suspect that the premise of this film may have put some people off (particularly women) as on the surface it is about a bed hopping womaniser. It also has an abortion scene later in the film which may upset some people (depending upon what your views are on this subject). However, if you look beyond the obvious this is actually an excellent character study and as we witness Alfie losing everything and everyone it highlights the downside of promiscuity. The mother of his child marries Humphrey who is basically everything that Alfie isn't (loving, loyal, caring). The one women that he actually falls for ends up cheating on him with a much younger man - I think this was the key scene in the film as it finally brought everything home to Alfie and meant that for once in his life he wasn't in control of a relationship which was the one thing that he never thought would happen and therefore, in effect, the 'player' had been 'played'. When you think about it at the start of the film he was 'alone' and at the end of the film he ends up 'alone' - although he's learnt a lot of life lessons between A and B.Michael Caine was superb in the lead role of Alfie and due to the fact that this film acts as a character study it's down to Michael Caine to carry the film which he does with ease. Caine is always watchable, but this is probably the best I've ever seen from him. The supporting cast are all good too, but this really is the Michael Caine show.The only very minor criticism I have with this film was with the bar fight scene which just went on for far too long and seemed out of place in a character studying drama - it would have been fine in a Western, but in a serious drama it just cheapened the film a little bit (although I'll admit it was quite fun to watch).Alfie is a wonderful film and is also an excellent character study (probably one of the best I've seen). The film acts as a cautionary tale more than anything else. Alfie is film making at its absolute best. Superb!

Michael Caine gets well-deserved praise for his acting, but I'd like to give credit to Bill Naughton, the man who wrote the play on which the movie is based and who wrote the screenplay. Naughton's understanding of Alfie is deep and caring, even though Alfie is a narcissistic jerk. Caine gets the character right, showing us all Alfie's flaws without making the character unbearable.Alfie is a man whose goal in life is to screw women. His references to women in general, and each particular woman he dates, is to "bird" and "it." "It's a nice little bird, isn't it?" he'll ask us -- Alfie looks straight at the camera and addresses us the viewers as his co-conspirators in life. If you didn't see Michael Caine in the 60s when he was in his prime, you may be surprised at his good looks; he was almost pretty. It makes it totally credible that Caine's Alfie could be a ladies man and get quite beautiful women to stay with him in spite of his narcissism and lack of any caring at all. Alfie's asides to the camera are plentiful and revealing of his character. We're taken into his confidence, even as the women are taken.The film is very 60s in its view of things. Sex outside of marriage was a sin, nice girls didn't do it, and girls who did were looked down upon. And Alfie is a cad who preys upon nice girls. Among his victims are Annie, played by Jane Asher. (Asher was an actress from her pre- school days, but she may be best known as Paul McArtney's long-time girlfriend. She's said to be the inspiration for the songs "And I Love Her," "All my Loving," "Here, There and Everywhere," among others.) There's also the sad Lily, wife of a long-term patient in a nursing home who is an acquaintance of Alfie's. Lily is very well played by Vivien Merchant. (Merchant had some sad times of her own, I understand. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for this role, and she was in many other plays and movies. Married to Harold Pinter, he cheated on her, setting up his script for "Betrayal." After the divorce, Merchant died from the consequences of her alcoholism at the age of 53.) Shelley Winters plays Ruby, the character Alfie likes most of his birds. But she's too much like him for it to work."Alfie" can be seen as comedic, but the underlying themes are depressing. Naughton uses humor to make an otherwise unrelentingly inhuman and inhumane point of view -- well, not likable, but at least bearable. The script is very impressive as Naughton (and Caine) peel away Alfie's layers of defenses, baring his sorry excuse for a soul. When we finally get to Alfie's heart, there's nothing there.The music is excellent; original music is by Sonny Rollins. He did a great job of capturing the spirit of the 60s and the spirit of Alfie. Cinematographer Otto Heller and director Lewis Gilbert made great use of the sets and the camera, capturing Alfie in his milieu. "Alfie" received 5 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and Best Screenplay based on Material from another Medium.If you liked Caine in this, I suggest seeing "The Ipcress File," which came out a year earlier.I saw Shelley Winters being interviewed on TV about this movie. She said she couldn't understand a word Michael Caine said and that the movie was re-dubbed for American audiences to soften Alfie's cockney accent. At least that's my recollection, and I'm sticking with it.I haven't seen the later version with Jude Law. My impression is that the two versions cannot be compared. Don't let your like or dislike of the later version sway you in seeing the 1966 "Alfie."