Sleuth (1972)

Awards

Academy Awards: Oscar won & 508 nominated
Won 5 awards & 7 nominations
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Users' rating: 7.8

128 votes

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About the movie

Year

1972

Runtime

2 h 18 min

Genres

Mystery, Thriller

Countries

United States, United Kingdom

Director

Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Writers

Anthony Shaffer, Anthony Shaffer

Plotline

A man who loves games and theater invites his wife's lover to meet him, setting up a battle of wits with potentially deadly results.

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Starring

Laurence Olivier

Michael Caine

Alec Cawthorne

John Matthews

Eve Channing

Main cast

Laurence Olivier Andrew Wyke

Michael Caine Milo Tindle

Alec Cawthorne Inspector Doppler

John Matthews Detective Sergeant Tarrant

Eve Channing Marguerite Wyke

Teddy Martin Police Constable Higgs

External critics' reviews

Caine, who has never been much for the stage, is a superb screen actor, so good his master classes on acting for the camera are on DVD. Here, dry and clipped, biting and savage, he goes for the kill. more

A pretty good movie. It just isn't a very good "Sleuth," exactly. more

It's like "Deathtrap" crossed with "Cribs" as staged by Stanley Kubrick. more

Despite top-flight acting from Michael Caine and Jude Law, it loses its grip in the third act and let's the air out of what might have been a memorably gripping film. more

Sleuth is well acted, and directed by Branagh with chilly, distant ingenuity. It has a certain edge and daring, or more to the point it pretends to. more

I think the movie works best if you know the original and have a taste for goofy revisionism. more

Language this lethal has all but disappeared from the movies, and it's an unmitigated pleasure to observe Caine and Law attack it with such ferocity. Sleuth is nasty fun. more

Caine and Law may not be playing human beings, but Pinter's sense of humor is at least more interesting than Shaffer's. Caine in particular appears to enjoy honing his cold-eyed stare. more

Just when things should be getting exciting and complex, they become repetitive and predictable. Subtext becomes hint becomes statement becomes declaration. For once, Pinter is a little too easy to understand. more

While the entire premise of Sleuth is a gimmick, having Michael Caine and Jude Law remake the 1972 adaptation of Anthony Shaffer's Tony Award-winning play heightens the gimmick quotient. more

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