Although it had previously existed as both a novel and a stage play, no small controversy was attached to Alfie upon release. The film's main character, played by Michael Caine, is a cad who shamelessly seduces and discards young women. He indifferently refers to them as "it" or "bird", and is unmoved by their expressions of devotion.

We eventually realize that Caine is not evil. He doesn't mean any harm to anyone. He simply lacks perspective about the consequences of his actions. His theories on life, which he delivers in a stream of consciousness to the audience, seem like common sense, at least to a hedonist. But what works in the short term fails in the end, much to his bewilderment.

While Caine dominates the film, several of his "birds" also have notable appearances. Shelly Winters is wonderful and brassy as always, and noted stage actress Vivien Merchant makes her film debut as one of Caine's more unlikely conquests. Jane Asher, who had recently been engaged to Paul McCartney, plays a woman whose compulsive housekeeping masks a broken heart. Another memorable cameo role is given to Denholm Elliott, who plays a reluctant and contemptuous abortionist.

Since it was Alfie that gave Michael Caine his first important leading role, it was only appropriate that he used it for the title of his 1994 autobiography, "What's It All About?" Alfie asks this question at the end of the film, when his rampant womanizing has left him with nothing to show for it except a series of broken relationships.

The question also became the hook for an early top ten hit for Cher, whose song closes the film. While it is odd that a British film would turn to an American pop star, we can be thankful that Petula Clark did not record it instead.

Most of the additional music in the film is by Sonny Rollins, who contributed a steaming jazz score. Pub singer Queenie Watts also belts out a couple of numbers, which help to save perhaps the weakest scene in the film: a cartoonish bar-room brawl that is straight out of a formula western.

Alfie is probably the most significant film not to display any credits until after the film has ended, not even the title. The name of Lewis Gilbert, who both directed and produced the film, does not appear until the final frames. Gilbert later directed a trio of James Bond films, and reunited with Caine for the 1983 film Educating Rita.

A belated sequel to Alfie emerged in 1975. None of the original cast from the earlier and far more notable film appeared in Alfie Darling, which had Alan Price in the lead. Price was better known as the keyboard player of the British blues-rock group The Animals.

Alfie was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best adapted screenplay (Naughton), Best Actor (Caine), Best Supporting Actress (Merchant), and Best Song ("Alfie", which was a Hal David and Burt Bacharach composition). (92/100)

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