Word: sleuths
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...private affair. The bash at Sardi's was closed to reporters and all but a few pressagents and publicists. The critics did relent enough to let in the winners and their stand-ins, like John Gielgud, who collected the Best Actor's prize for Laurence Olivier (Sleuth). Liv Ullmann not only grabbed the prize as Best Actress (Cries and Whispers) but picked up three awards for her director Ingmar Bergman (Best Director, Screenplay and Picture awards for Cries and Whispers...
...SLEUTH'S MOST STRIKING features, as anyone who's seen the film or the original play will tell you, are the surprising deceptions which reveal themselves every half-hour or so. Andrew Wyke, an English mystery writer (Sir Laurence Olivier), is at his Gothic estate when his wife's lover, a hairdresser named Milo Tindle (Michael Caine), arrives. Wyke proposes a shrewd plot: he will help Tindle "steal" the Wyke jewels, in order to defraud the insurance company. But that, we find, is not quite Wyke's real goal. And, a still later clever-and-bold twist tells us what...
Anthony Schaffer's Tony Award-winning play is currently Broadway's longest run. The film, with screenplay by Schaffer, has played in other cities for almost two months. So many people have seen Sleuth that a lot more people know its secrets. But the best points of the film are not the disclosures of its tricks--which may or may not deceive you--but the perceptively witty caricatures of the writer and of Inspector Doppler, the detective who makes a late night investigation at Wyke's estate...
...Though Sleuth admonishes that crime is not a game, its captivating appeal derives mainly from its middle scenes, where no facts are altogether certain and the players begin to act almost like characters from the great detective stories. Inspector Doppler's dress and speech mark him, not as a simple stereotype, but as a real detective who is cautiously aware of past mystery movies and books. The interplay between Doppler and Wyke features fine acting and psychological suspense that's effective even if you've already figured out the plot...
Director Joseph Mankiewicz has described his direction as that of "the oldest whole in the business," and the Hollywood professionalism he referred to in that way contributes to the film's successful adaptation. Sleuth is a group effort of the scenarist, director, and actors, where Mankiewicz's role was directing the performances and letting the play speak for itself. His direction of the filming, as always, is devoid of innovation but adequate for his task; he exploits slow zooms and cut-ins to create or relieve tension, and makes most shots as simple as possible. Unfortunately, a few simple mistakes...