Joseph L. Mankiewicz had a long and storied career as a filmmaker, including taking over the troubled production of the notorious Fox version of "Cleopatra" in the 1960s. He was a successful screenwriter and producer first, before becoming a director in the 1940s, and was racking up Academy Award nominations by the '50s. This allowed him a rare amount of independence as a filmmaker, and several of his most famous films were made outside the studio system. His career had significant ups and downs, but he went out on a high with my favorite of his films, the 1972 whodunnit, "Sleuth."
Adapting the play by Anthony Shaffer, who also wrote the screenplay, "Sleuth" is about two men trying to destroy each other. They're played by Lawrence Olivier near the end of his career, and Michael Caine just after "Get Carter." After one man is revealed to have had an affair with the other man's wife, they play elaborate mind games, taking turns surprising and terrifying each other and the audience. The trickery and deceptions are old fashioned, but they hold up, and the big second act reveal is still one of my favorite moments in cinema. And "Sleuth" accomplishes this with barely anything - most of the time it's just the two main actors having heated conversations in an English country manor house, the setting for so many British murder mysteries.
Everything about "Sleuth" is dealing in deceits and misdirections, even the title and the opening credits. We're set up to expect a standard crime drama with a detective, killer, and victim, and we get all of these things eventually, but not in the usual way. One of the main characters is a writer who loves playing games, and the other is a very good actor. They're set against each other, and murder seems inevitable. But is it? Both are desperate and neither can be trusted, but how seriously should we be taking them? Olivier and Caine were both nominated for Academy Awards for their performances, and I'm convinced that they only lost because "The Godfather" came out the same year. The two actors are perfectly matched, despite having totally different energies. Olivier is as animated and voracious as he's ever been on screen, but it's Caine who pulls off the wildest twist in the film almost solely through his performance.
To appreciate how successfully Shaffer and Mankiewicz adapted "Sleuth" to the screen, one only has to look at the absolute bungle that Harold Pinter and Kenneth Branagh made with the same material in the 2007 remake. Where Mankiewicz embraced the familiar genre tropes and played with the common mystery conventions, Branagh tried to modernise and trim down the story with poor results. It sometimes felt like he was in dialogue with the original film rather than with the audience, and "Sleuth" is really all about the audience - playing with their expectations and keeping them engaged in the escalating tensions. The more familiar you are with murder mysteries, the better I think "Sleuth" works.
"Sleuth" is often misjudged as a film because of how minimal it looks at first glance. With only one location, and some very '70s aesthetics in play, it feels very stagey. However, this is a film full of little details and surprises, with a wonderful self-awareness. Yes, the camera is too obvious and the tone can't seem to decide whether it's a thriller or a farce, but it all adds up in the end. Mankiewicz knows when to cut, and how best to serve the actors as they do battle with each other. And there haven't been many cinematic battles as breathtaking as watching Olivier and Caine really going at it for two hours.
Despite the caliber of the talent involved and the relative simplicity of the production, there was still drama behind the scenes. Mankiewicz ended up in a bitter fight for final cut with the studio executives, which he ultimately won. He and Olivier were both working while dealing with health issues, and Mankiewicz sustained another major injury during production after an accident with the camera equipment. And despite "Sleuth" being a success, and Mankiewicz wanting to continue working, he never completed another film. The body of work he left behind, however, ensured he'd be remembered as one of the greats.
What I've Seen - Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Dragonwyck (1946)
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)
A Letter to Three Wives (1949)
No Way Out (1950)
All About Eve (1950)
5 Fingers (1952)
Julius Caesar (1953)
The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
Guys and Dolls (1955)
Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)
Cleopatra (1963)
Carol for Another Christmas (1964)
Sleuth (1972)
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