Trailer
Plot summary
Alfie Elkins drives other people's cars in London for a living, and takes what he can from their owners as well. He carries on with married and single women at the same time and promises none of them anything. His affair with Siddie, a married woman, is winding down when Gilda, his girlfriend, learns she is pregnant. Alfie will not marry her, though he tells her to pocket money from her own employer, as he does from his. Gilda chooses to keep the child instead of giving it up, and he goes on seeing other women. He speaks to the camera as he tells his story, explaining himself along the way.
Cast
Show all 15 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Alfie (1966)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Michael Caine won the lead role after director Lewis Gilbert's son, a friend of Caine's, suggested him; Gilbert admired Caine's work in The Ipcress File and got him approved by Paramount.
- James Woolf, who bought a share of the film rights, wanted Laurence Harvey for the lead, and Lewis Gilbert agreed only if Harvey first played the part on Broadway; Harvey refused and appeared in Camelot instead.
- Terence Stamp read the script and wanted to play Alfie for a reduced fee, which pleased Paramount because he was also making The Collector for William Wyler; Gilbert insisted Stamp do the Broadway play first, and after it flopped Stamp decided not to do the film.
- Vivien Merchant was a last-minute replacement in the cast for Rachel Roberts, who had to drop out because her father was ill.
- The title song "Alfie", written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, was sung by Cher over the US release's closing credits and reached number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100; it also became a hit for Cilla Black, Madeline Eastman and Dionne Warwick.
- Lewis Gilbert said the film's success led Charles Bluhdorn, who bought Paramount Pictures in 1966, to make around twenty pictures without stars at about $500,000 each, and they all failed.
