Mystery within mystery, trap within trap, and who has the final card to play? I loved Sleuth when it came out and tried to get others to go see it, but no one was much interested. I don't think I took a date to it either time I saw it, and it was unusual for me to go to a movie alone. I then rented it and showed it to my children when they were in high school and junior high, but they were not much impressed either. The poor quality of the picture on the TV may have had something to do with it.
So now I am trying it on you, to see if you will like it.
I thought it was good, very clever, but not one I wanted to re-watch.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure I saw it on TV, so re-watching would have been impossible anyway.
ReplyDeleteHmm. That would explain not bringing a date.
ReplyDeleteI liked it and “the last of Sheila,” which used to be hard to find but now shows up on cable often enough. What was a third movie like this? Oh, yeah, “The List of Adrian Messager.”
ReplyDeleteI liked it a lot the first time I saw it. Caught onto the twist only moments before the reveal. Seeing it years later, I think it holds up pretty darned well.
ReplyDeleteI thought the movie was pretty good, for an English puzzle you-know-there's-going-to-be-a-twist story; but it was ruined for me near the end. We see Caine's character apparently shot at nearly contact distance, and then we hear it dismissed with "I shot him...with a blank" and laughter. I knew that blanks were (and are) dangerous, and this was before Jon-Erik Hexum killed himself with a prop gun loaded with blanks. That kind of dismissive ignorance is still all too topical
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of favorite British mystery movies starring Michael Caine, let me put in a word for “Without a Clue.” It’s a Sherlock Holmes parody with him and Ben Kingsley. I love the thing, but likewise I have not always been able to convince others.
ReplyDelete