Alec B
The struggle for masculine and class dominance as it was meant to be told.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
10/13/23
Full Review
Shioka O
Their acting is so great, energetic and enjoyable. Somehow overwhelming to see it at home. I would love to see it played on stage.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
09/25/22
Full Review
william d
Superb script with two of the greatest movie actors of all time.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Which is how I felt about several other movies I reviewed, because I felt they were the types that required seeing them on stage with live actors for them to work. On the stage, you see the whole setting and all the characters in a scene simultaneously, and you can see actions and hear intonations that cannot be transmitted on any recording. On video, there are various cuts and scene changes, you see one person talking while not the other's simultaneous reaction to the dialog, etc.
So how is the movie itself? The story is about an elder, wealthy, eccentric British man who is the author of a very successful detective character series and a mansion full of antiques and toys, and he invites a man of Italian descent who has risen from poverty to become a moderately successful hairdresser. But this isn't a social visit; the hairdresser is the author's wife's lover, and the author says at the beginning that he knows about it. Not that the author could be morally outraged; he himself has a Finnish porn star lover of his own. So what is the author's intention? The hairdresser is supposed to fake a robbery of breaking into the mansion and stealing jewels from a safe, the idea being that the hairdresser could fence the jewels for money, while the author collects the insurance. The hairdresser follows the other's instructions, but is clearly annoyed by the author's way of doing things, such as being forced to wear a clown suit.
In the process, though, the author suddenly pulls a pistol on the hairdresser to reveal his true plan-to kill the hairdresser because he caught him breaking into and robbing his mansion. Not merely for the affair, but for the fact that the author despises a jumped-up poor person of Italian extraction. The hairdresser weeps with terror, and we hear the gunshot.
Several days later, a policeman arrives about the disappearance of the hairdresser. He points to several bits of evidence that suggest that the author had killed him and tried to hide the body. The author gets unnerved, and finally the policeman takes off a rubber mask-he was the hairdresser is disguise. The author is initially amused, but the hairdresser wasn't-he endured the trauma of thinking he would actually be killed (the author used a blank, the hairdresser had fainted, and after awakening had wandered away). The hairdresser then humiliates the author by mocking his fictional detective, and saying that his Finnish lover told him that the author was sexually impotent. He then makes the author look for clues that could incriminate him again before the real police arrive-except they don't. The hairdresser has truly provoked the author-what will be the reaction?
The big problem with the whole story is that everything is pretty predictable. We knew the "policeman" was really the hairdresser a mile away, for example. Also, the ending was unconvincing. Surely the hairdresser wasn't going to destroy himself just to get back at the author?
There are better tension dramas to watch.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/22/23
Full Review
William L
"A golden cord! You strangled her with a golden cord, and like everybody does, you hid it behind the bellpull! ... No damn it, you didn't."
Two men from different worlds face each other down in a game of wits, deceit, and detective skills - one the upper crust author of mystery novels, the other the crafty and intelligent businessman making his way up in the world. It's a neat dynamic, especially when you consider the intergenerational contrast of the two leads, with Olivier representing the refined old guard that first made the leap from the supposedly more respectable world of theatre to the silver screen, and Caine as the more rough-hewn but capable star for a younger generation. A classic setting (the secret-laden house of a country gentleman; love the dart board safe) and plenty of plot twists make this an entertaining viewing experience even decades down the line, but it is really the actors that make it a success, particularly Olivier's seemingly total immersion in the quirks of his bored, clever, and eccentric blue blood host, totally unpredictable and equally as likely to extend a courteous glass of brandy as he is to launch into a lecture on class conflict. If there is a fault, it's really the ending, which leaves you a bit unsatisfied given how comprehensively preparations had been made previously and how deep of an understanding the men seemed to have of each others' character.
I don't think that you could get away with putting together a fake cast list in this day and age, with fans poring over every scrap of detail provided for anything featuring an A-list cast, and the market saturated to the point where actor selection plays such a huge role in differentiating new films. What a fun idea though, glad to see that it was once a viable option. (3.5/5)
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
09/27/21
Full Review
Matthew D
If you liked limited cast thrillers like Hard Candy and The Disappearance of Alice Creed, you should also check out Slueth. It's a bit like those movies, but with one key difference-- it's actually good.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
08/12/21
Full Review
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