A year after they'd created one of the defining British gangster pictures with Get Carter, three Michaels - writer-director Mike Hodges, producer Michael Klinger and star Michael Caine - reunited for another crime picture, albeit with a more oddball flavour... <p> Caine plays Mickey King, a successful pulp novelist responsible for such titles as My Gun Is Long and The Organ Grinder, who is invited to ghost-write the autobiography of a mystery celebrity. His client turns out to be a former actor, played by Mickey Rooney, well-known for his gangster roles and real-life gangster connections - but death is around the corner, and King finds his commission to be a lot more complicated than he first imagined.