Customer Reviews

The Elephant to Hollywood

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I truly enjoyed reading his book. It made me want to invite him for tea and chat with him about gardening, the weather, the joy of Christmas and the ability to overcome difficulties. I enjoyed reading about his career as well as about his mother and brothers and yes, his mother really would do anything for her boys. His autobiography is a treasure, you will laugh, and cry and feel the love that he has towards his family, friends and career. He is in my humble opinion a truly remarkable man. Ah, I really enjoyed the tip the Duke gave him LOL...and Jack, thank you for dragging Sir Michael's butt back into business!!!!

This book is most entertaining! Not an "and then I did this; and then I did that" kind of autobiography but rather full of interesting and often humorous anecdotes. Michael knows a lot of famous people whom he has encountered over his long career but he does not "name drop." I am sorry the previous reviewer is unhappy with the Kindle price but this is not the place to complain about that; this place is for reviews of the book. And I give the book a five star review!

Michael Caine's book, `The Elephant to Hollywood' reveals the man behind the movie star, and he is a pleasure to meet.
Elephant refers to the London borough named after two roads called Elephant and Castle; the surrounding area was known, for short as the Elephant. It was here that Michael Caine, as well as Charlie Chaplin lived when they were young.
Michael tells of his life from birth to the present, both his personal side and his professional. He writes in a very casual first person style - you can almost hear his voice. He tells his story in an honest forthright manner and always with a sense of wonder and humility. He gives his views on those he has worked with and on violence in the movies and advice he has been given. What shines through is his love of his life and especially of his family. Without patting himself on the back you can see what an incredibly nice human being he is.

There are two sections of pictures both of Michael's family and of his friends, many of them famous entertainment figures. There are two appendixes, one with his top ten favorite movies and one with the favorite movies he has been in; there is also an index.

This is an interesting biography, both in telling the workings of the motion picture industry and in Michael Caine's revealing of his personal friendships and family and some of the surprising turns of events in his life. It is a pleasure to read and will make you a fan of his, if you are not already.

To some extent, the weaknesses of this book are somewhat inevitable. In 1992 Caine wrote What's It All About?: His Autobiography, an autobiography that was interesting and a great read from an extremely prolific movie actor who has rubbed shoulders with some of the greats. Caine is a natural raconteur and, one suspects, is terrific company. At the time, he thought that his place as a Hollywood leading man was over - and indeed in that sense it largely was. But in subsequent years he has taken on some terrific supporting actor roles and produced, in my view, some of his most interesting work. There is still then a story to tell, despite the fact that in my view no one should really be allowed to publish more than one autobiography. That could have been fine though if he had just concentrated on those 20 years, but instead, perhaps understandably, he has chosen to repeat the "full life" approach and that's the books weakness.

Since What's It All About?, there are another 20 years and countless movies to add, and perhaps in recognition that many readers will have read the first book, this time the book is about half the length of the first book. It's harsh to note that some of the stories are the same - of course they are - but with the huge number of movies, there is little scope for any detail as he attempts to precis this period that he's already covered. The result is too much like a list with little interesting detail. There's also some repetition within the book of bits from the first period and the more interesting newer work.

There's good stuff here on his later works not covered in the earlier book, but the feeling is like in pre-digital music when a band you like and have all the albums decides to issue a Greatest Hits with two new tracks. To be fair, I read his first book when it first came out (I'm a huge Caine fan) so some of the repeated stories stood a re-telling as it is nearly 20 years since I read that first book, but certainly if you have read the other more recently, you would feel a strong sense of deja vu.

Because of the brevity of this book too, the list of famous people who are all described as great friends, reads like a who's who and can be a bit repetitive. What it lacks is any insight into the hard work that Caine has undoubtedly put into his career. If we take this at face value, his career looks like an endless stream of good fortune with no work involved, which I suspect is not the case. There's much more colour provided in his first book.

He also constantly makes a point of his working class roots in a sort of "Jenny from the block" manner - and yet while this is indeed where he came from, his politics are far from the working class routes now - supporting the Conservative Party in the most recent election. Again, no problem with making that choice but if you are going to do that, then for me at least you need to tone down the "I'm just a working class boy" rhetoric.

It's just too much of a re-hash and if you are looking for a good source on Caine's life, then I'd still go with What's It All About?, even though that means you will lack the latter part of his career. It's just a better book and more thoughtful - perhaps because the discipline of thinking about these things in the first place gave more insight. If, like me, you read that book a while ago, then this is in no way a bad book - Caine remains terrific company and he has a nice, friendly and chatty style - but the combination of a longer career and a shorter book is not a good mixture and the result is more like a list of events than an analysis of a career and a life.

Ripple's review captures my feelings. Since I was a child (since Zulu at the drive-in), Michael Caine has been at the top of my list of favorite actors; of course, I read his previous autobiography as well as this new one. In this new autobiography, I did not encounter new material until page 194 out of 296 (including appendices). It appears that all pre-1992 material was copied and pasted from the prior autobiography. It would have been acceptable to include the prior material, but with new words and embellished with new information (in the manner that Caine embellished the stories in a PBS radio interview I had heard).

In either autobiography, I could do without the lists of celebrities where they don't contribute to the story (e.g., listing who attended a party). Mr. Caine is very personable and warm in live interviews; his autobiographies don't always give one the same impression. The best sections of the books (particularly the extended first autobiography versions) are his early life, army stint, and struggling actor years. Those sectons display depth, intelligence, emotion, and educate the reader.

An easy relaxed visit down memory lane is what Michael Caine offers up on his 77th birthday. He follows up his 1992 biography, WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT with what basically is an update. (My memory serves to say his first book was much better although it's been almost twenty years since I read it.) Caine is lovable rouge who thought his career was ending when in his mid 50s when he found the "movie star" film offers were fading fast. Little did he know he would have a second career as a "movie actor". In this volume Caine talks about numerous dinner parties, Hollywood deals, and his great good luck coming as he did from the tough section of London, the ELEPHANT. The book is a breezy fast and enjoyable read. Nothing deep and nothing you're going to miss if you skip it. It's most like attending a vast dinner party and finding your sitting next to Caine when he is in a talkative and boyish mood. Which might just be any time.

In 1992 was published _What's It All About?_, Michael Caine's entertaining show business memoir. If you didn't read it, you can read about it in _The Elephant to Hollywood_ (Henry Holt), his second memoir, which encompasses some of the same period (and aspects of the same stories) from the first volume and fills us in on what has come afterwards. In his prologue, he explains that he wrote the first book because he thought his career was over. He had been a Hollywood star with all the trappings attached to a fabulous career and simply had aged out of leading man possibilities, he thought. He was very wrong about that, finding that even with the satisfying novelty of the glitz of stardom over, the years since the first book have been not just different but "... better than I could have imagined," and that's the sort of cheerful optimism that can be found on every page of this amusing update. Caine is not big on introspection. He has had a unique life and has capitalized on his considerable acting talent, and clearly has enjoyed the work and the play attendant with it. He has worked with and met lots of talented people, including some of his heroes, and he is almost always complimentary about them. There are plenty of anecdotes here, but little gossip, if you want to hear about the darker sides of stardom. The meanest Caine gets is a mention of Joaquin Phoenix, whom he characterizes with a less-than-slanderous description as "a pleasant young man, but somewhat strange." You want a memoirist to have had a life worth telling about, sharp observation, a capacity as a raconteur, and a lack of self-importance or smugness even if he is the center of the book's attention. This book does all that.

Caine frequently acknowledges how much plain random luck has affected his life, no more so than the way he met his wife. He was, in the seventies, rich, busy, and unattached. One night, just too tired to hit the London clubs, he turned on TV and saw during the commercials an ad for coffee. It had what he told his mate was "the most beautiful girl in the world" in it, and he had to meet her, even if it meant going to Brazil. By chance he brushed across an acquaintance in the clubs who made the ad, and could tell him that the woman was Indian, not Brazilian, and she simply lived near Fulham Road, a mile away. He was nervous just to call her, and doubly so to meet her, but they were married within a year, and remain blissfully so 38 years later. Shakira Caine has gone with her husband on all his travels (she stepped in to play the beautiful princess of _The Man Who Would Be King_); he literally does not take a role if she can't go with him.

Michael Caine is just good company, a happy man who knows how lucky he is. He is gracious; he spends plenty of pages to tell about what good friends his agents were, besides being his agents. He is grateful to Jack Nicholson and Shirley MacLaine and plenty of others, and wants to make sure they know it. He is really rather conventional; not only is he absorbed with the jollity of family life and such endeavors as harvesting his garden's potatoes with his grandson, his taste in movies is far from idiosyncratic. He lists his top ten favorites, in an appendix, and they are all chestnuts except for one recent French thriller. The other appendix, of the favorites of his own movies, is still conventional (naturally, given the sorts of roles he has taken). It is revealing in that he has gotten nominated for Oscars playing characters least like himself, but has taken satisfaction in playing people he used to know (_Get Carter_) or playing on his own bleak home patch (_Harry Brown_). And there are oodles of enlightening stories here, like the protocol of getting his knighthood. He describes receiving it, standing in front of Her Majesty, when she said to him, "I have a feeling that you've been doing what you do for a very long time." He had to restrain himself from saying, "And so have you, Ma'am," but just assented, went down on his knee, and humbly took his honor. He has little sense of self importance. Citing a newspaper article to his wife, he told her, "I'm an icon. It says so in the paper." This got the response, "You may be an icon, but you'd better take the rubbish out!" He even shops in a Hollywood hardware store; he had to get a ball of string. Fred Astaire happened to be there (sandpaper) as did Danny Kaye (lightbulb). But the store was the scene of "my most terrifying experience in America". He saw Klaus Kinski buying an ax. "Never has a shop full of DIY aficionados cleared so quickly..." Caine's fans will enjoy the mostly funny, sometimes poignant, stories, and will be charmed by the decency and amiability of the author.

But if you read Michael Caine's first autobiography, the 1992 book WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT, then his second, 2010's THE ELEPHANT TO HOLLYWOOD, rates three stars. As I read the accomplished actor's '92 contribution, I hoped THE ELEPHANT TO HOLLYWOOD would cover what Caine did not address the first time around, namely more information about his movies. Instead, THE ELEPHANT TO HOLLYWOOD repeats a great deal of what WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT? readers already know.

There are no fewer than two reasons I'm nonetheless glad I picked up THE ELEPHANT TO HOLLYWOOD. While Michael Caine does not cover as much ground on his films as I hoped he would, his list of the best movies he made caused me catch up on one I missed, the stupendous HARRY BROWN. Second, THE ELEPHANT TO HOLLYWOOD includes an amazing picture of Caine with several famous friends including Peter Sellers. Maybe it's just me, but the look about the late, great Sellers in that photo transfixes, his talent and charm frozen in the image, reminding us of what a terrible loss to the arts his untimely death was in 1980.

This book is written in Michael Caine's voice in my opinion and that is very important because as you read this book, you will find yourself picturing him, and reading the book to you. It is inevitable, and therefore it would be unfortunate if there was a disconnect between a ghost writer and Caine.


This is the story of how a very poor boy from the slums of London who was born Maurice Micklewhite in 1933 managed to become Sir Michael Caine, all in one lifetime. Biographies of actors if you have read many, are always very interesting. This is probably because we are all star struck. What even many actors don't realize is that they are star struck too.


Thus we see Caine meeting Frank Sinatra for the first time, and Caine is immediately taken aback by the entourage that follows Sinatra around everywhere. When Caine walks into the room, one of Sinatra's handlers tells him, it's okay to come in, Frank is feeling great tonight. Caine responds what about how I feel? The handler tells him that it doesn't really matter how you feel. You will get a laugh on every page, and the laughs never stop.


You will learn how this man who has done more than 100 films thought his career was over in the 1990's. He decided to retire and run restaurants that he already owned. You will then discover how out of nowhere Jack Nicholson completely rejuvenates Caine's career, and boom we are off to the races again.


Robert Mitchum is perhaps one of the two or three most famous actors of his generation. He is receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award and he asks Caine to give the introduction. Caine wonders how did you pick me; was it my eyelids? Sir Michael finally figures it out, that no one else would do the gig for Mitchum.


It's story after delightful story of a life well worth living. When one interviewer asked him why should we read your book if you find yourself to be a boring person? Caine quickly responds, well because I have led an interesting life. They both laughed, and the laughs just continue.


My favorite story in the whole book is when acting legend John Huston is dying. Caine and best friend Sean Connery journey to Cedars Sinai Hospital in LA where Huston is on his deathbed. Two of the greatest actors in the English speaking world look down at Huston who is mumbling unintelligible babble, and tears flow down Connery's face. Caine can't help himself, and the tears start to flow freely down his face as well.


They can't bear it any longer. They say goodbye to their friend, and leave the hospital room, and go to a bar and drown themselves in sorrow. Two weeks later they read in the newspapers that Huston is off directing a new movie. Hollywood doesn't get any better than this.


This book has scores of stories about big name actors. Some gracious, and helpful to Caine, and others not so gracious. He does not use the book to malign anyone. His feeling is that if you have enemies the best thing you can do is simply ignore them. Let them know that they don't exist, and move on. Life will take care of them. He did say one thing that will stick with me. He talked when he was being reflective about "real life vs. celluloid life". One had to discern the difference between happiness in real life vs. happiness in your career which he referred to as the celluloid life. That will stick.


In the back of the book, you will find a list of the ten greatest films in Hollywood history according to Sir Michael. The top three were Casablanca, The 3rd Man, and On the Waterfront. He also discusses why he liked each one from an actor's perspective.


He goes into the different types of acting including method acting that a performer can utilize to enhance his craft. He mentions that in the method, rehearsal is the work, performance is relaxation. He also went into the concept of acting coming from sense memory which would allow him to produce real and instant emotion.


If you are into acting, and Hollywood, and you just love entertaining stories about big stars, than you must consider owning this book. You will read it from cover to cover in a short weekend. Caine delivers what he set out to do, which is to write a very entertaining autobiography of a very famous man who burned out a career, and then lived to come back bigger and better than ever, and appreciated every step of the journey. Thank you for reading this review.


Richard C. Stoyeck

One of my guilty pleasures is reading celebrity autobiographies. It can be a hit or miss proposition, not just with the quality of the writing, with or without a ghost writer, but with the revelation the celebrity is actually an insufferable bore. Name dropping becomes tiresome, particularly when the only motivation is to impress the reader. Where are the stories? What happened at the party where the impressive guests were gathered? Michael Caine's new infinitely readable biography avoids this pitfall all while dropping quite an amazing list of famous names. A pleasant surprise is his excellent writing ability.

Michael Caine is the opposite of pompous and one of the nicest things I can say about this book is that he does not betray his long list of friends. Those nasty little revelations may be interesting for the reader, but in the end it is hard to feel anything but contempt for the one exposing their friends' all too human weaknesses. He remains loyal while keeping the reader entertained - no easy feat.

If you like Michael Caine before reading the book, you will continue to after you've finished. Nothing was handed to him; he worked hard for the success he has enjoyed. He had a difficult start in both life and show business. He struggled with stage fright and self-doubt but overcame both with a clear vision that he wanted to be an actor. He sorted through the party days of the 1960's and settled into a fulfilling personal life and a long and admittedly mixed movie career.

He readily acknowledges that some of his film choices are questionable. Acting is art, and he loves it, but growing up poor left him with a strong pragmatic streak. One needs money for food and shelter, so for him, working regularly was always a priority. One minor note -- Nora Ephron did not direct When Harry Met Sally, she wrote it and Rob Reiner directed.

It is obvious why he has legions of friends and is undoubtedly a host's favorite dinner party guest. I'd certainly love to be seated next to him. This is the story of a vital man, no matter his age, living a fascinating life. If searching for an engrossing vacation read or if a fan of this exceedingly likeable man, this book is a perfect choice and would also be a great gift, too.