Product: SLEUTH - (Russian Import - PAL DVD) (1972)
Rating: 5.0
Games Within Games Within Games...
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.