Get Carter (1971)

Michael Caine knows how to play a bad-ass in a way that's so British and yet brutish that you can't take your eyes off the screen.  Here he's a gangster that returns home for his brother's funeral only to go on a revengeful war path to find those responsible.  This is a great movie with a couple wonderful surprises and a nice film noir plot that keeps the audience guessing.  The pacing is a bit out-dated but that doesn't mean much because this in many ways enhances the film.  Director Mike Hodge would return to the feel of this movie with The Croupier in 1996.  It's clear he knows how to tell real good and believable gangster story.  Grade: A-