Sleuth [VHS]

Sleuth [VHS]
by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Category: VHS Video
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VHS Tape Cover Information

Actor: Alec Cawthorne, Eve Channing, John Matthews, Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cinematographer: Oswald Morris
Editor: Richard Marden
Producer: David Middlemas
Producer: Edgar J. Scherick
Producer: Morton Gottlieb
Writer: Anthony Shaffer
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language); Italian (Original Language)
Format: PAL
Running Time: 138 minutes
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)

VHS Movie Reviews of Sleuth [VHS]

Movie Review: Master Thespians
Summary: 2 Stars

There's always been a great deal of love for this 1972 Joseph L. Mankiewicz film, both because it is a throwback to the great stage thrillers of the past (of which it is almost a pastiche) and because Laurence Olivier has such a high time of things as Andrew Wyke, the mystery-writer who matches wits with his wife's lover and rolls his consonants around with great brio. While there's a certain undeniable pleasure in hearing how Olivier repeatedly rolls the words "St. John, Lord Merridew" around his lips and tongue, his performance is too rococo to be enjoyable for very long; he begins after a while to sound like Jon Lovitz's Saturday Night Live parody of him as "Master Thespian." Michael Caine does much better in his role as the wife's lover, which allows him some excellent variation and subtlety. The movie is very stagey, and relies on some ridiculous implausibilities (such as that Caine's character would ever agree to Olivier's initial scheme to steal the wife's jewels to defraud the insurance company), and all the pleasure the film allows is its famous big twist, which does surprise almost everyone who sees it for the first time, but which isn't enough on which to hang an entire movie. The play explicitly (and unpleasantly) links male sexual potency with the ability to play tricks on others--which would seem to position Anthony Shaffer, the writer of the screenplay as well as of the original stage thriller on which this is based, as a paragon of manhood (which is the constant obsession of the Olivier character). But after the film's big surprises are spent, you realize the whole thing is pretty limp and unimpressive.

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Summary of Sleuth [VHS]

Wicked, nasty, delicious fun. Laurence Olivier is a wealthy, veddy English mystery writer. He invites Michael Caine to his elaborate country house, in order to settle some rather unpleasant business between them: Caine is having an affair with Olivier's wife, and she is about to divorce the older man. Olivier, smooth as brandy, suggests that there might be a way the two men can help each other, but what appears to be an intriguing proposition escalates into a deadly cat-and-mouse game. Sleuth boasts a twisty script by Anthony Shaffer, calculated to drive an audience to distraction; and director Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve) shows a keen eye for the telling detail. But the real fun is watching Olivier and Caine go at each other hammer and tongs, a virtuoso wrestling match between two splendid actors (both were Oscar-nominated, but lost to Marlon Brando in The Godfather). Alec Cawthorne is also quite good as the inquisitive inspector on the case. --Robert Horton

Mystery & Suspense VHS Video

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