Main Cast: Michael Caine, Mickey Rooney, Lionel Stander, Lizabeth Scott, Nadia Cassini
Release Year: 1972
Country: UK
Run Time: 95 minutes
Plot
A year after Get Carter (1971), director Mike Hodges and star Michael Caine reunited for this comic crime thriller. Caine stars as Mickey King, a writer of cheap paperback detective novels, living in Rome and cranking one noir book after another. King is approached by Ben Dinuccio (Lionel Stander) and offered an abnormally large sum to ghost write the autobiography of a mystery celebrity. The intrigued King agrees and is transported to a remote island where he meets his subject, Preston Gilbert (Mickey Rooney), a one-time movie star known for playing gangsters and notorious for hanging out with real-life mobsters off the set (a sly jab at Frank Sinatra and George Raft). Now dying of cancer, Gilbert wants King to jot down his life story before he dies. Although he's an abusive jerk, Gilbert's had an interesting life and King sets about getting it all down on paper, but then the star is murdered at a party, leaving King with no conclusion to his tale. Playing detective like the heroes of his stories, King pieces together a mystery involving Gilbert's past, his ex-wife, a transvestite who's supposed to be dead, and an Italian prince running for office. Though largely dismissed at the time of its release by fans and critics disappointed at its dissimilarity to Get Carter, Pulp (1972) was championed by a few and became something of a cult favorite over subsequent decades. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Dennis Price - Mysterious Englishman; Janet Agren - Silvana; Joe Zammit Cordina - Santana; Cyrus Elias - First Guide; Louise Lambert - American Tourist; Al Lettieri - Miller; Ave Ninchi - Chambermaid; Luciano Pigozzi - Del Duce; Robert Sacchi - Jim Norman; Amerigo Tot - Sotgio; Leopoldo Trieste - Marcovic; Kate Sullivan - Joan Crawford; Maria Cumani Quasimodo - Senora Pavone; Giulio Donnini - Office Manager of Typing Pool; Louis Caruana - Toni; Iver Gilborn - Bus Tourists; Werner Hasselman - American Tourist; Roy Marmara - Mario; Victor Mercieca - Prince Cippola; Cettina Borg Oliver - Gilbert's Mother
Credit
Darrell Lass - Art Director, Gitt Magrini - Costume Designer, Michael Dryhurst - First Assistant Director, Graham Easton - First Assistant Director, Mike Hodges - Director, John Glen - Editor, George Martin - Composer (Music Score), Paul Engelen - Makeup, George Partleton - Makeup, Patrick Downing - Production Designer, Ousama Rawi - Cinematographer, Michael Klinger - Producer, Patrick Downing - Set Designer, Ron Ballanger - Special Effects, Christian Wangler - Sound/Sound Designer, Mike Hodges - Screenwriter
King, living in Rome churning out one noir book after another, is offered an abnormally large sum to ghostwrite the autobiography of a mystery celebrity. The intrigued King agrees and is transported to a remote island (Malta, where the entire film was shot) where he meets his subject, Preston Gilbert (Mickey Rooney), a one-time movie star known for playing gangsters and notorious for hanging out with real-life mobsters off the set. Now dying of cancer, Gilbert wants King to jot down his life story before he dies. However, the star is murdered at a party, leaving King with no conclusion to his tale. Playing detective like the heroes of his stories, King pieces together the mystery.
