Andrew Wyke is a famous and successful author of detective novels. Milo Tindle comes to him with a strange request - that Mr Wyke divorce his wife so that Tindle can marry her. Mr Wyke is not particularly perturbed by this - he and his wife have drifted apart and he is having an affair with another woman anyway - but uses the meeting and Mr Tindle's request as a chance to play a game, a game with potentially deadly consequences.Clever, intriguing thriller. Directed by Joseph L Mankiewicz, written by Anthony Shaffer and based on his play, this is a great exhibition of well-written dialogue, excellent, keep-you-guessing, twists-and- turns plot, solid direction and two brilliant actors - Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine - at the top of their game. Very clever, original and powerful.Not perfect - the first half felt a bit clumsy at times and not entirely watertight, plot-wise in spells. The clown outfit was a tad silly and unrealistic. The seeming lack-of-watertightness makes sense in the end, so is not ultimately a problem, but at the time it was a bit jarring.Remade in 2007 with Michael Caine taking Laurence Olivier's role, Jude Law taking Michael Caine's role, written by Harold Pinter and directed by Kenneth Brannagh. On paper the remake had the potential to be as good as the original but ultimately falls very far short. Feels like a play, and just seems pretentious, lacking in suspense and empty. Shows just how good the 1972 version is, as it was based on the same play.

I really enjoyed the cat and mouse intrigue of this movie. I was totally blown away by the mysterious happenings in it. I think the script and acting were superb and had me guessing most of the film. It was a total joy to watch it. What other films are as fun and challenging like Sleuth? I also have questions about the ending which really left me hanging. Did the pistol have real bullets or blanks loaded? Did Milo Tindle really die? I thought that maybe Milo Tindle put blanks in the ammunition box while he did all the other things to set up Andrew Wyke. Also, were the police car lights real and did the police really show up or was that another ploy of Milo Tindle? Please reply if you can help me understand the ending. Thanks, Rich

Based on the 1970 play of the same name by Anthony Shaffer who adapted it for the screen, this was bitterly disappointing. Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine are both excellent in the roles of Andrew Wyke and Milo Tindle respectively and, in his final film, Joseph L. Mankiewicz's direction is very good but the script is severely lacking. There is some marvellous dialogue and it has great ideas but they are not terribly well executed. It is nowhere near as clever as it thinks it is. Some of the twists are good but one of them is so obvious from the word go that it is incredibly distracting.Considering that it stars Olivier (one of my absolute favourite actors) and was written by Shaffer (who also wrote "The Wicker Man", my 14th favourite film of all time), I was really looking forward to it but it did not even remotely live up to my expectations, I'm afraid. It is not very well structured and it is far too long at 2 hours and 18 minutes. The first half an hour is certainly the strongest. After that, it loses most of its momentum. The ending is great though. The supporting cast - Alec Cawthorne as Inspector Doppler, John Matthews as Detective Sgt. Tarrant, Eve Channing as Andrew's wife Marguerite Wyke and Teddy Martin as Police Constable Higgs - are all entirely forgettable. In mean, they might as well not have even been in the film.

I believe the title of Sleuth may be misleading. When I first approached it I wasn't aware of the stage play it was based on and thought the film was going to be a standard "whodunit?" and thus wasn't expecting much from it. I couldn't have been more wrong. Watching it I soon discovered it to be a different film entirely, a giant mind game, a battle of wits and a tale of revenge. I've never seen a film quite like Sleuth before. The exploits between Michael Caine and Laurence Oliver trying to outwit each other with the plot's many twists, surprises and under the direction of Joseph L. Mankiewicz' (a master at handling dialogue) makes for a film that's hard to forget.Watching this film I quickly came to realize that Caine and Olivier may be the only two cast members throughout, which had me thinking if they could carry the film to the very end by themselves it will be nothing short of an acting marvel, so I was disappointed when the movie introduced what appeared to be a third cast member, Alec Cawthrone as Inspector Doppler; I felt the movie was making a mistake by doing so. That was until it turned out that Inspector Doppler was Michael Caine in disguise the whole time, yes, there's no such actor as Alec Cawthrone, he was simply created for the film's credits. I'm not sure how many people will be as perceptible as I was but the movie successfully fooled this viewer. On second viewing I can clearly see Caine through the disguise but I'll always have the memory to cherish of being spellbound the first time round from seeing Caine taking off all that makeup, which itself makes up appreciate the art form. Sleuth actually has a fake cast list in the opening credits in an attempt to fool the audience; this includes three other nonexistent actors, one of which is named after the character Eve Channing from Joseph L. Mankiewicz' earlier film All About Eve. Up until the film's very last scene in which police sirens and knocking on the door can be heard, I was edge of my seat hoping the movie would not introduce another cast member.I've always liked Michael Caine but Sleuth greatly increased my respect for him, while also making me a fan Laurence Olivier; their ability to carry this film is nothing short of phenomenal. Milo Tindle is one of Caine's more effeminate roles, a hairdresser who even takes joy in wearing a piece of women's clothing at one point. Olivier on the other hand is the given the opportunity to have tons of fun with his role of Andrew Wyke, doing impressions and playing dress up with another grown man and with all those gadgets, gizmos and games everywhere, it's always a pleasure to look into the background of Andrew Wyke's manor. Likewise the humor that comes from seeing a man be show how convinced that dressing as a clown is the way to go when doing a stage crime, has me laughing nonstop through the entire charade.