Alfie

In his younger years it would be fair to say that Michael Caine was typecast as a rough-and-ready Cockney. Whether that was agent Harry Palmer in _The Ipcress File_ or the efficacious Charlie Croker in _The Italian Job_, Caine became Britain's greatest self parody of a bygone era. In _Alfie_, Caine plays the eponymous character, a womanising lad-about-town who cares more about with who he'll be sleeping with than where he'll be sleeping that evening. The ladies - and there are more than a few - are often discarded as, literal, objects of desire, but as Alfie comes to learn, actions will…

Michael Caine is a bit too convincing as the sleazy, London man-about-town who only cares about having a beautiful girl on his arm (and in his bed). It isn't so much that he's a misogynist, more that sees women in only one linear fashion and as he has no use for them - or anyone else, for that matter, unless it is for his own immediate gratification. The narrative of the film takes us on his slow journey of self-realisation; he starts to comprehend the shallowness of his existence and embarks on his own yellow brick road to maturity. There are some great supporting contributions from Shelley…