Alfie

“What’s it all about, Alfie?”

The opening line to Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s iconic song asks this simple question and watching this famous film from the swinging sixties that question often comes to mind, especially as it enters the second hour and still hasn’t really gotten to the point. Still, even with that slow pace and thin plot Alfie ends up having a lot to say once you finish and reflect back on it. The 1960’s was a different time, a time when the worst thing that could happen to a person of loose morals was a bad case of the clap or an unwanted pregnancy. This was the beginnings of the sexual revolution and promiscuity was running rampant. AIDS was not yet a thing and a person could theoretically sleep around without a whole lot of consequences or commitments. That mindset is what leads much of Alfie, but we see by the end that a life like that is ultimately an empty life, fun for a while but ultimately unfulfilling. 

Alfie Elkins (Michael Caine) is a handsome narcissist chauffeur in London who views the world as nothing more than a place to gain as much pleasure from before he dies. His views of women are equally as pessimistic as he jumps from girl to girl with no interest beyond the physical. Married, single, he doesn’t care so long as he can romance them into bed. He starts the film by ending his relationship with Siddie (Millicent Martin), a married woman, just as he learns that his submissive girlfriend, Gilda (Julia Foster) is pregnant. He refuses to marry her, suggesting abortion, but she insists on having the child despite his constant cheating on her. Her commitment to give the child up for adoption falters, through, after the birth and she keeps him. Over time Alfie grows attached to the child but his refusal to marry Gilda eventually forces her to break up with him and marry Humphrey (Graham Stark), a bus conductor who is in love with her and willing to take both of them in as his own. Alfie is initially devastated over losing access to his child and, combined with a health scare, he has a mental breakdown. 

As he recuperates it doesn’t take long before he is back to his usual self, seducing the female doctors and nurses as well as the wife of another patient. The latter, Lily (Vivien Merchant), succumbs to his advances just the once but ends up getting pregnant from the encounter but doesn’t tell him until much later. Upon release from the sanitarium he gets involved with a mature woman, Ruby (Shelley Winters) as well as a hitchhiker he steals away from another man he knows. The hitchhiker, Annie (Jane Asher), becomes slavishly devoted to him while Ruby replaces him with a younger man. Eventually he manages to chase Annie off, too. 

So much of this film is Alfie either pursuing women or running away from any form of commitment. He is a coward at heart, unwilling to put himself out there for fear of actually falling in love with someone. When he does let someone in, his son with Gilda, it is taken from him because as much as he adores the child he cannot commit to the mother. It will take another child, this one aborted illegally at a late stage to show him the true consequences of his actions. By then the damage is done and a child has been killed. This moment, late in the film is the first time we see a real chink in his façade, exposing his emotional vulnerability. By then it is too late for him with any of the women in his past. He may move on with his life, older and wiser, or he may backslide, but he is moved to change himself when he truly sees what he has done. 

Has there ever been such a dislikable protagonist in popular cinema? Surely there has been but I’d be hard pressed to come up with one. So much of this film is Alfie being a total misogynist, selfishly using women for his own pleasure and destroying lives and marriages in the process. Had it just been a man sleeping with women and moving on it would be bad enough but he is even worse than that. He sees a man and wife and finds a way to get between them and sleep with the wife, actively trying to destroy that marriage. He sees a man with a girl in a diner and schemes his way between them, stealing the girl away when the man is in the other room for a moment. He’s not just a misogynist, he cares for no one but himself. And when this person comes after him to confront him for his actions Alfie flees the room, afraid to even defend himself. He’s a weasel that turns cowardly and runs when caught. He may get a redemptive arc but he is such an unlikable character for so long that it’s a matter of too-little-too-late. 

This movie made Michael Caine a star. Between this and The Ipcress File he became a star almost overnight and has remained a popular actor for over six decades. It’s easy to see why. Despite being an arrogant prick for ninety percent of the film he still manages to charm us. This is achieved by Alfie breaking the fourth wall and speaking to us directly throughout, bringing us into his confidence like a good friend tagging along for the ride, privy to an inside look at his personal world view. It is ridiculously difficult to make a character like this likable but Caine manages it to a degree. Some of this could also be attributed to how he lives a life many men dream about yet instinctively understand is immature and self-destructive. It’s a fantasy life that just cannot be sustained. 

So what is it all about, Alfie? The film closes with Alfie all alone, turned down by all the women who were in his life, at least the ones we saw in the film. He tries to settle down with Ruby but discovers another man in her bed. “What does he have that I don’t?” “He’s younger.” Alfie, already feeling upset over the abortion he forced on Lily, is forced to confront that he isn’t getting any younger and there is a whole new group of men coming up behind him. He stares forlornly as another man is married to Gilda and raising his child. All he has is himself. The man who could seemingly have any woman in the city ends the film alone with nothing more than a stray dog to keep himself company.

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Lewis Gilbert

Best Actor: Michael Caine

Best Supporting Actress: Vivien Merchant

Best Screenplay - Based on Material from Another Medium: Bill Naughton

Best Song: “Alfie” by Burt Bacharach and Hal David

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Release Date: March 24, 1966

Running Time: 114 Minutes

Rated PG

Starring: Michael Caine, Millicent Martin, Julia Foster, Jane Asher, 

Shirley Anne Field, Vivien Merchant, Eleanor Bron and Shelley Winters

Directed By: Lewis Gilbert