pulp

Year

1972

directed by

Mike Hodges

starring

Michael Caine

Mickey Rooney

Lionel Stander

Synopsis

Michael King is a disreputable writer of sleazy pulp novels, published under half a dozen sensational pseudonyms. His ambition is to dictate ten thousand words per hour to stenographers à la Erle Stanley Gardner. He's recruited by the agent of Preston Gilbert, a quirky former Hollywood star now living reclusively in exile in Malta, to help him write his biography. Despite being pursued by an enigmatic hitman, Gilbert maintains a large entourage of eccentrics and remains an inveterate practical joker. After Gilbert is eventually murdered by someone posing as a priest, King struggles to stay alive while interacting with a variety of idiosyncratic characters, including a faux princess, a henpecked clairvoyant, and a cross-dressing hitman.

pulp scenes on GOZO

Visiting the victim's grave at Ramla Bay.

Crossing to Gozo on the Minor Eagle.

pulp filming locations map

Did you Know?

During the filming of Pulp in Malta, Michael Caine told journalists that he didn't enjoy working there, criticising the barren landscape and lack of trees. When asked what no visitor to the island should miss, his reply was brief and pointed: "The plane home." However, twenty years later in his autobiography, Caine reflected differently on the experience. He wrote, "Pulp never made any real money, but I had a wonderful experience making it, so I remember it with affection."