Caine lobbied to keep movie from going directly to video

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- "The Quiet American" appeared doomed to go direct to video.

Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein had scheduled a release date for fall 2001. Then came Sept. 11. Concerned about the film's anti-American slant, Weinstein put it on indefinite hold, which usually results in little, if any, theatrical release, let alone Oscar consideration.

Michael Caine, who believed he had given the strongest performance of his long career, was anything but quiet about it.

"Harvey is a close friend," the actor said. "I called him up and said, 'I'm getting up there now; I'm nearly 70. How many more opportunities am I going to have'" for another Oscar?

Weinstein agreed to show "The Quiet American" -- based on Graham Greene's 1955 novel about a CIA operative whose actions lead to the deaths of dozens of innocent Vietnamese -- at the Toronto Film Festival last September.

Caine promised him: "If it doesn't go well in Toronto, I'll bring a shovel and help you bury it."

The Toronto reaction was all Caine had hoped for, and Miramax gave the movie a two-week Oscar qualifying run in Los Angeles and New York. The critics raved.

Caine and his wife were in town recently to keep the buzz going, having earned a brief hiatus from his current movie, "Secondhand Lions."

More than most longtime stars, Caine wears his years well. His face is a glowing pink; his hair remains blond. Only the bags under the eyes give evidence of his 46 years in front of movie cameras.

Caine appeared in an astonishing number of films. He rather grumpily challenges the figures: "I read about myself: 'He's done 130 movies,' and they put all the titles on the Internet. In some of them I had one line as a policeman. I've only had 76 big, proper movies, and I've only played the lead in 64."

Caine has legs in another way, too. At 69, he's been nominated for Oscars five times and has won two supporting-actor awards, for 1986's "Hannah and Her Sisters" and 1999's "The Cider House Rules."