Mickey Rooney: A Belated Centenary Blogathon – Pulp (1972)

This is my first of 3 submissions for the Mickey Rooney: A Belated Centenary Blogathon being run by Kristen of KN Winiarski Writes

Tnx for letting me take part!

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“The writer’s life would be ideal, but for the writing.” – Mickey King

Number of Times Seen – 1 (18 Nov 2020)

Brief Synopsis – A writer who specializes in seedy crime novels, gets in over his head when he is hired to write the biography of a mysterious celebrity.

My Take on it – This is a movie that I had never heard about before doing research for this blogathon.

I was quite happy to find three films starring Rooney that sounded interesting based solely on the synopsis.

The idea is a big too corny here and that makes things not as enjoyable as one might hope.

The cast is great and both Michael Caine and Mickey Rooney give nice performances here even if both of their characters are far too eccentric for their own good.

The film uses narration in an unique way that helps make the mystery of this film seem even more like a noir style film than it truly is.

The movie has some nice twists that help the viewer get an even better understanding of why things play out as they do along the way.

This was filmed almost entirely in Malta and the cinematography is quite beautiful to look at because of the beauty of that country throughout.

Bottom Line – A big of a corny idea that doesn’t work as well as one might hope. Caine and Rooney are both great here since they both play very eccentric characters. The film has a pseudo noir feel to it due to the way that the narration is presented. The mystery is played out well and allows us to try and get a better understanding of why things are as they are as the story progresses. The cinematography is great especially since we get to see the beauty of Malta throughout.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Writer and director Mike Hodges always wanted Mickey Rooney for the role of Preston Gilbert, but did also consider Elisha Cook, Jr. for the part for a time until Rooney committed to the movie. (From IMDB)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy (6/10)