Get Carter - Releases

Releases

The film's premiere was held in Los Angeles on 3 February 1971, with a preview held in New York on 3 March that year. The film finally opened for general release across the UK on 10 March 1971 and in the USA on 18 March, where it was rated 'X' rating for violence and female nudity, meaning it was for adults only. It was later reclassified as 'R', meaning under 17's had to be accompanied by an adult. A censored edited version was released in West Germany on 6 August 1971, with a running time 9 minutes shorter than the original. Michael Klinger was involved in promotion of the film in the UK, using the experience from his background as a distributor to conduct a strong advertising campaign. Teaser posters for the film appeared on the front of every London bus, with the tag-line 'Caine is Carter'.

The original British quad poster with artwork by Arnaldo Putzu, in common with many film posters, has aspects or images that differ from the finished screen version. Carter is depicted wearing a gaudy floral jacket, as opposed to the dark raincoat and mohair suit he wears in the film. Asked in 2006, Putzu could not remember his artistic rational for painting the floral jacket, but said he was painting a lot of flowers in designs at that time. Chibnall describes the flower power imagery as "what seems like a desperate and misguided attempt to suggest the hipness of a genre which had largely fallen out of favour." However, movie poster expert Sim Branaghan liked its eccentricity, calling it was "that kind of quirkiness you wouldn't get these days." Jonny Trunk of Trunk Records (a long time aficionado of the film and its history) has observed that the floral pattern of Carter's jacket is taken from the distinctive pillow and matching sheet design from the bed in the scene where Britt Ekland writhes naked on the phone to Jack. The poster also places Carter's shotgun in Eric's hands, and features a grappling man and woman who seem to belong to a different film. Promotional shots and poster artwork exist from the film showing Carter holding a pump action shotgun; in the finished film the only shotgun used by Carter is a double-barrelled shotgun which Carter finds on top of his brother Frank's wardrobe.

M.G.M. sold distribution rights to the film in the U.S.A. to United Artists, who promoted it poorly, amidst worries the cockney dialogue in the opening scene would be unintelligible to US audiences. The film's release was delayed while parts of the film were redubbed (with no great improvement). In the process of redubbing the opening, the version of the film with the original dialogue was lost. For years the version shown on British television was the redubbed American cut. UA placed the film on the then in decline drive-in movie circuit, where it played at the bottom of a double bill with Frank Sinatra vehicle Dirty Dingus Magee. In 1974 Michael Klinger complained to president of UA Eric Pleskow about the lacklustre promotion of Carter, and tried to get him to relinquish the US rights to the film, so Klinger could find a better distributor.

The film did not encounter many censorship problems, although the scene where Carter knifes Albert Swift caused concern for the censor. In South Africa the censor cut out Britt Ekland's phone sex scene, shortening her already brief role; her name was still left on the poster, leaving filmgoers to wonder why she was advertised as appearing. In France and Belgium the film was released under the title La Loi Du Milieu. In Germany it was called Jack Rechnet Ab (literal: Jack Settles Accounts), and in Spain and Mexico it was Asesino Implacable, (Implacable/Relentless Assassin) whilst in Turkey the film was named Alacaklar (payback of debts).

A resurgence of critical and public interest in the film in the 1990s led to the BFI releasing a new print of the film in 1999. They worked with Hodges to restore the film, with Hodges sourcing another set of negatives of the original opening, which were found in the archives of the BBC. The team then spliced the beginning segment onto a high quality print of the film. The reissue premiered at the National Film Theatre and went on general release on 11 June 1999, showing at the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle. It was also re-released in Germany and Greece in 2000, and in France in 2004.