| Sleuth | | Cast : | Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine | | Director : | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | | Studio : | Anchor Bay Entertain | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | December 10, 1972 | | DVD Released Date : | February 05, 2002 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | March 28, 2005 | | Summary | Better than words could ever describe... | Content
 | I first saw this movie when my grandmother rented the VHS for my brother and me. I don't think we sat through the whole thing, much less appreciated what we would have seen. Having bought the DVD recently, the black copy, I can see why I, as a 12 year old, had trouble sitting through the entire movie. It's over 2 hours of suspense, intrigue, double crosses, witty and funny dialogue, and really challenges the viewer to pay attention and follow it very closely. Now I watch it every few weeks, always finding something new, and always finding something else to analyze or laugh about. Moreover, there are a lot of one liners that are as funny (and witty) now as they were then. Everyone should own this movie, for if no other reason then to have proof that great filmmaking doesn't need a lot of violence and nudity to keep you glued to the screen. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 09, 2005 | | Summary | Only a Game | Content
| The title of this movie has always seemed to compleatly fail to capture the spirit of this film. I've always thought the movie should be called 'Only A Game'. Sleuth sounds like some standard detectives fair and this is not standard. The movie is a game and it is about games and Anthony Shaffer is playing a game with the audiance.
It is hard to describe the film without giving away a twist or turn but the begining is fairly safe. Milo Tindel (Michael Caine) is invited to the country manner of Alaxander Wake (Laurance Olivier). Wake is a rather bizarre eccentric obsessed with games, the gentry, and his own unaturaly large ego. Tindel is almost his poler opposite. Tindel came from a poor background and was the son of an impoverished Itlalian watch maker. Wake who seems to have had the world handed to him on a aristocratic plate were as Tindel is a struggling self made bussness man.
Wake announces to Tindel three things: he knows Tindel is having an affair with his wife, he doesn't care, and he's willing to help Tindel commit insurance fraud if he'll just take Margarite off his hand. The film then decends into a series of twits and turns which I will not metion.
The back bone of this film is the actors. Both Caine and Olivier were nomanated for the oscar that year and they both deserved the nomination. They make all the fantastical games playing seem real and add energy to the story (which play adaptations usualy are lacking). Their perfect for their roles in this intricate game of class war fare.
This is one of the best |
| Rating | | | Date | October 31, 2004 | | Summary | Unfolds with clock-like precision | Content
| 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. |
| Rating | | | Date | October 09, 2004 | | Summary | Clarification | Content
| As an earlier reviewers has pointed out, Anchor Bay has released TWO different prints of Sleuth, so you'll want to be careful which release you purchase. The older release had an unsatisfactory transfer that looked very bad. That version was a flipper disc and was packaged with a WHITE cover, and Anchor Bay has wisely let it go out of print. Avoid it! (Unless you collect OOP DVDs....)
The newer release has a BLACK cover and boasts a much improved transfer. (Just compare the vibrancy of the colors in the film to the muted colors in the unrestored trailers to see what I mean.) In addition to putting the whole film on one side of the disc, Anchor Bay also included an extensive and fairly interesting interview with writer Anthony Shaffer. This version is probably definitive -- and certainly the one to buy.
Apparently, however, Anchor Bay is going to let this release go out of print, too. (It has disappeared from their online catalogue.) So buy this quickly if you have any interest in it at all. I can't imagine any other company giving this film a better overall treatment. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 27, 2004 | | Summary | "Be sure and tell 'em... it was just...a bloody game." | Content
| "Sleuth" stars Michael Caine as the young hair-dresser "Milo Tindle" and Laurence Olivier as an upper-crust mystery writer "Andrew Wyke". Michael Caine is having an affair with the wife of Andrew Wyke. Wyke invites Milo to his country manor to discuss a plan whereby Milo would "rob" Wyke of some expensive jewels, sell them to a pre-arranged fence in Amsterdam, and get enough money to afford Wyke's wife, thus freeing up Wyke to live with his own mistress (and get the insurance money for the stolen jewels.) Wyke outlines the complexities of the plan, which involve Milo dressing in different clothes, breaking into the house, blowing up a safe, etc, to make it appear to be a legitimate robbery. There are many appealing aspects to the movie. First is the character of Andrew Wyke, a famous writer of a series of detective-fiction wherein the main character, Lord Merridew, always outwits the rather bumbling police force to solve the crime. Second is Wyke's hobbies, which run the gamut from an ancient chess-like board game, a jigsaw puzzle that is only a white rectangle, and various assorted collectibles such as a full-sized animated sailor dummy. Wyke's gameplaying attitude is extended to the plan of the fake robbery. The third compelling aspect of the movie is the witty, sparring dialogue between Wyke and Tindle. Although at first, the two characters try to maintain a slightly forced friendly rivaly, but as the robbery unfolds, it becomes clear that Wyke in fact resents Milo and his wife's affair, and is actually setting up Milo to be killed as a burglar. In a series of plot twists I won't reveal, Wyke humiliates Tindle and sends him away. However, Tindle gets the last laugh, literally, in the end. A long-time favorite movie of mine, it earned best actor nominations for both Olivier and Caine, and a nomination for director Mankiewicz. The DVD has a 23 minute "interview" by playwright Anthony Shaffer, chapters and a trailer. |
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