The Actors

As the lead in a dismal touring production of Richard III, Caine lets us in on a few home truths about actors (they're vain!) that were whiskery in the time of the hunchback himself. It's another actorly affectation - the Method approach to playing the villain by spending time with real criminals - which inspires Caine to scam some Dublin gangsters out of a fistful of euros. To do this he exploits the talent of struggling thesp Dylan Moran, or more precisely Moran's ability to inhabit a further set of clichés (he must impersonate, at different points, a tight arse Englishman, a feckless Irishman and a pugnacious Scot). Naturally, all does not go to plan. To Be or Not To Be comes to mind, but the threat to these actors is only notional and the film as a whole is somewhat lacking the Lubitsch touch.