Sleuth

Rating:
Summary: Absolute gem
Review: I've only seen the video (not the DVD) but it's one of my favorite films. It's a joy to see two great actors in unusual roles, playing them with such relish and infectious delight. I recommend it to all my friends - but I never lend them my copy.. in case they don't return it!

Rating:
Summary: A Great Director!
Review: Joe Mankiewicz seems to be one of Hollywood's great film directors, but he has not enjoyed the Renaissance of appreciation given to many other filmmakers of the 1950s. All About Eve and Sleuth are among his great creations. He almost worked with Laurence Olivier 20 years earlier in another movie. Read about Mankiewicz and Olivier in a new book that explains how this happened: it's called A THINKER'S DAMN, and I loved finding out what goes on behind the scenes.

Rating:
Summary: A great movie, definitely worth owning.
Review: Lawrence Olivier and Micheal Cane show thier best in one of the greatest movies of all time. Though they are the only two actors in the film, they manage to tell a complete story without being monotonous or boring. Definitely one of the best around.

Rating:
Summary: THIS IS THE NEW & IMPROVED DVD EDITION!!!
Review: Most of the reviews here refer to the OLD DVD edition (notice they are all from 2000 or before). The edition offered here is NEW, and a vast improvement. Don't let the old reviews prevent you from buying this new DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful surprise..
Review: My mother rented this one and I decided to stick around for it. Glad I did. I have never seen such an intriguing film as this...Caine and Olivier play their parts very believable and their dialogue is fun to listen to and timed to perfection. I also saw a stage presentation of this that was done just as well. By the way...the same night we also rented a movie called Being There with Peter Sellars which would also get an enthusiastic 5 stars from me.

Rating:
Summary: Laurence Olivier is a real master
Review: now, this is my type of movie, it's excellent, the script is strong, the acting is extraordinary and just when you think it's over, the whole situation changes...Of course, Laurence Olivier is the icing on the cake in this movie. I just wish they released it in dvd zone two for us in europe as well!!!

Rating:
Summary: Games Within Games Within Games...
Review: Okay, this is the serious stuff here. Movies like Sleuth are the reason I love movies -- the reason anybody should love movies, now that I think of it. Why, you ask? Well, the reasons are numerous. First off, I'm a sucker for a well-adapted film version of a stage play -- Oleanna springs immediately to mind, as do Look Back In Anger (the Richard Burton version), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (again because of Burton, and what a shame he didn't get the Oscar he so richly deserved), and Branagh's stunning Henry V (the promise of which K. B. has been trying, and mostly failing, to live up to ever since), as well as about a dozen others I haven't the space to mention. Sleuth, adapted by Anthony Shaffer from his own play, stands right up there with those films. It helps that Shaffer has an idea of what a good screenplay should be -- he has a fine visual sense, as witness the first meeting between Olivier and Caine, shifted from the house's interior to the wonderful topiary maze, which sets the mood, provides moments of both humor and suspense, and establishes character, all in a span of a few minutes. Of course, I've no doubt that director Mankiewicz had a hand in this fine sequence as well, but in any event I've rarely seen such a nicely-handled piece of visual foreshadowing in any film.

I will not spoil the plot for you -- that would be unfair, even cruel. It's far better, where this film is concerned, to allow the viewer to watch the events unfold on his/her own, and to be completely dazzled by them. I will say that Sleuth is about games, games of every type and stripe, from the subtlety of chess to the pretend (or is it pretend?) brutality of cops and robbers. There are several games being played in Sleuth, sometimes more than one at the same time, and just when you think you've learned the rules of one, you find that not only have the rules changed, you're not even playing the same game any longer. All this is a roundabout way of saying that Sleuth is as delightful as the best sleight-of-hand magic trick, as intellectually rigorous as Arthur Conan Doyle's most dexterous Sherlock Holmes stories, and more wantonly, gleefully devious with its audience than the great Hitchcock ever dreamed of being (with the exception of Psycho, of course, but that's a review for another time!). Sleuth pulls the wool over your eyes so many times, and in so many ways, that even when you think you know what's going on, you don't. Behind each mask is another mask, behind each truth is the lie from which it grows...and each new surprise is delivered with Macchiavellian subtlety and nitroglycerine force. Ah, but I wax rhapsodic; excuse me. Onward:

As to the performances of the actors -- what can I say except, BRAVO! There is nothing on God's green earth like watching two supremely talented actors "going at it," so to speak -- playing roles to the hilt, with such verve and energy that you lose yourself totally in the delight of it. Such is the joy of watching Michael Caine and Sir Laurence perform in Sleuth. Two moments in particular stand out in my mind, for very different reasons. First is the sequence where the two literally play "dress-up", trying on costumes in Olivier's basement, camping it up to beat the band and having a high old time doing it. (I love Caine with the slap shoes: "I always wanted a pair of these!") The whole thing is so deliciously silly it puts me in tears of laughter, no matter how many times I see it. The second moment is the scene on the staircase (near the end of what would be Act One in the play), which pulls the rug out from under you, and sets you up for more of the same later on. Caine and Olivier here achieve something so incredible, so intensely-felt and riveting, that words fail me (for once). Caine has gone on record as saying that he was petrified by the idea of having to hold his own with Sir Laurence -- his fear must have served him admirably in this scene.

Two final notes: the most underrated aspect of this film is Mankiewicz's able, artful direction -- simply because it's also so unobtrusive. One might think, given the rich script and fine actors, all he had to do was just point the camera and shoot. Not so. Any director who can do what Mankiewicz did here is not just brilliant but a genius. Second, I would also be remiss if I didn't single out the wonderful performance of Alec Cawthorne, who takes a minor role and makes it the equal of the two leads. And those of you who know Cawthorne's other work will agree with me that this is his finest moment. (You there in the back, stop laughing.) Of course, fans of this movie will get the joke right away -- please don't spoil it for those who haven't! Cawthorne is the best surprise in Sleuth, a movie with no small store of surprises to begin with. It will fool you completely, and you will love every second of it.

Rating:
Summary: Still marvelous despite technical flaws
Review: Reading the reviews here, they all seem to make two points: 1) this is a wonderful film, and 2) this is a terrible DVD.

Well, #1 is definitely true. This is a wonderful film, deliciously dark. Marvelously written, directed, and acted. To tell much would endanger giving away the plot, but the basis of the story is a proposition by Olivier's aging writer to Caine's virile salon owner (who happens to be sleeping with Olivier's wife)of a scheme to rid Olivier of his wife for good and guarantee Caine financial security. The ride starts there and never stops. Cynical viewers (like myself) who think they're clever enough to stay two steps ahead will think they can anticipate all of the twists and turns, and they may catch a few ahead of time, but I can guarantee that any viewer will be delighted with the surprises this film has in store. Just when you think you know which way it's going it turns again. Just when you think it's over, there's a bit more.

As far as #2 goes, I don't have too many bad things to say about the DVD presentation. Yes, the ratio is barely 1.66:1. Yes, the sound is of middling quality. And, yes, you do have to flip the disc halfway through. BUT - it appears as if this DVD has fallen out of print, so I'm sure an improved reissue is around the corner. This film is worth having in any form regardless - it's the type of picture you won't mind paying for twice.

Rating:
Summary: A virtual feast in the artform known as acting
Review: Simply put, Sleuth leaves me in awe after every viewing. To watch Olivier and Michael Caine, who reportedly was a little nervous squaring off agaist the master, is like watching an excerise in Acting 101.

The plot is convoluted, in a good way, and uses dialogue to push the story. Very much like a play, the joy in watching the movie is the two actors squaring off, always trying to one up each other, both in character and most likely as themselves. Michael Caine might have been reported being nervous, but it doesn't show. This might be one of his greatest performances, and this was before his indy boom of the late nineties. This was Caine in his prime, and Olivier winding down his career in a performance only Marlon Brando could have beaten, a la "The Godfather" released the same year.

Joseph L. Mankiewicz's certainly surprises as a director. The legendary director of "All About Eve" shows a bit of flash and art to go with the solid substance of his profession. The segues using the many prop pieces in the main setting is ingenious, and quite honestly, a little unsettling. Watching a horde of puppets seemingly moving on their own, banging and laughing, certainly adds a uniqueness to the picture that stands up with the two major performances.

DVD-wise, it's not Criterion, but the sound is average and the picture is better than it's probably ever been on home video. Not that that has any influence over my decision to purchase this DVD. Nope, this is simply one of my favorite films, a gem that a lot of people don't even know exists. Well, if you like twist and turns, great actors, and a stylish presentation, then this movie is for you.

Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Unfolds with clock-like precision
Review: Sleuth is a difficult film to review without hindering the pleasure it offers the newcomer, since watching the film's twists and reversals reveal themselves is a big part of the fun. Lawrence Olivier is mystery author Andrew Wyke, a cuckold who invites his wife's lover, Michael Caine's Milo Tindle, to hear a proposal. Wyke keeps up appearances as a blase Englishman who's just relieved to be rid of his profligate wife, and wishes to help the more earthy Tindle to support her financially, though a staged burglary of his insured jewels. Yet there is more to Wyke's scheme, we soon see, just as there is more to his attitude toward Tindle, the son of an immigrant watchmaker who would dare step out of his place to take the wife of a well-placed Englishman.

Olivier and Caine are both fantastic in this film, and their performances alone make the film come alive. But the fantastic script is just as compelling. Sparklingly witty and droll dialogue with a sinister undertone building as the plot twists just keep coming, impeccably paced all contribute to a film that is a thrill to watch the first time, in a state of ignorance, and almost as fun to watch when you know what's coming, admiring just how masterfully it all unfolds.