Get Carter (1971)

When Jack Carter comes to Newcastle to inquire about his brother's mysterious death, racketeers think they can threaten him, rough him up, shoo him away like a fly. Which shows they don't know jack about Carter. Double Academy Award (r) winner Michael Caine plays the relentless title character in this gritty neo-noir (Sylvester Stallone stars in a 2000 remake). Caine's Carter is a sharp portrait of cold-blooded precision as he connects the dots of a cover-up that leads to a pornography ring (John Osborne, whose Look Back in Anger launched Britain's "Angry Young Man" era, plays the flesh peddler's ringleader). Revenge is sweet for Carter. But in the hard world of latter-day film noir, sweet is sure to turn suddenly, violently sour.