I'll tell you why so serious

Absolutely Fantastic

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I envy the viewers who thought this was a brilliant film because I just don't see it. The performances of Olivier and Caine were good of course, but the story itself defies credibility. I had the same reaction when I saw the 2007 remake with the Michael Caine role reversed, with Caine portraying Andrew against Jude Law's Milo Tindle. In some cases, this story is even more outlandish, the clown costume Milo was expected to wear a case in point. Why go through all the machinations to simulate a jewel robbery when it could have been over and done with, without all the nonsense?But the one thing I think eludes most viewers is that whole business about the third shot being a blank. In both pictures, Milo reacts as if he'd really been shot dead. But why? And even if one argues that he collapsed from the fright of potentially being murdered, how does one come to grips with the fact that at some point he would wake up? At that point, would Milo have meekly left the Wyke estate without further confrontation with the scheming novelist? The whole scenario as presented doesn't ring true for this viewer.I've given this picture a one point higher rating than the remake primarily because of Olivier and Caine, and the oddball set up with all the toys throughout the Wyke mansion. For a while this one didn't look like it was headed for the same type of finale as the later picture, but Olivier's character managed to turn things around to it's inevitable conclusion. Though the outcome remained the same for Milo Tindle in both movies, I'd have to say that in the remake, Milo's death scene made a bigger splash.

What could have been a fairly amicable meeting between two men of the world, degenerates into an exercice in social, economic and sexual rivalry. As all kinds of envy and resentment bubble to the surface, the game of wits between both men grows ever more cunning - and ever more dangerous... In my humble opinion, "Sleuth" ranks amidst the best thrillers of the 1970's. The plot, once unravelled, is as artificial as a plot can get, but who cares ? This is a prime thriller, clever and twisty and colourful. At the same time it is also a pretty witty satire about Mankind's nastiest drives, with quite a number of deadly sins on display.Olivier and Caine are excellent, both individually and collectively. This is one duel you won't forget easily...

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 watched this movie over a year ago, and it will forever be my favorite movie. Laurence Olivier and MIchael Caine deliver the best performances of their careers!The plot is intriguing, gripping, complicatedly complex and disturbing. The mental torture both characters go through, the twists that happen within the story are utterly mind bending! With every twist as good as the previous.Whilst Caine is pretending to be Inspector Doppler, we see how amazing both actors are, how Caine can play MIlo Tindle, a hairdresser in over his head, and then transform into a character seeking revenge, and how Andrew Wyke, a greedy, jealous old man who lives in fantasy and prides himself in his own success, goes from cunningly frightening, to completely helpless and distraught.For the whole film to be held by only two actors, should have won all 4 of it's Oscar nominations, but competing against The Godfather (1972), was proved impossible. A film 52 years old, is still better than any movie that has been released in the past 10 years, a film so simple, yet complex, could never be re-created in 2014, it is chilling, gripping, disturbing and unbelievable brilliant!No one should die without watching Sleuth.