Sleuth is a 1972 mystery thriller directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine.
Plot[]
| Spoiler Warning: The following contains important plot details of the entire film. |
Based on the play of the same name, with a screenplay by its playwright Anthony Shaffer, Oliver stars as Andrew Wyke, whose wife has an affair with Milo Tindle (Caine). Wyke proposes to Tindle that they stage a fake jewelry heist so that Wyke can get the insurance money and Tindle can use the jewels to afford to keep Wyke's wife in money. However it appears that Wyke shoots and kills Tindle. In a series of plot twists it is revealed that Wyke shot Tindle with a blank bullet. Tindle gets his revenge, first by disguising himself as a plodding police inspector and subjecting Wyke into thinking that the murder was for real; then he reveals himself and further humiliates Wyke into thinking that Tindle has left clues that implicated Wyke in the killing of a woman he has been having an affair with just before the police are to arrive. Tindle reveals that he actually killed no one and told the police about the jewelry plot. He then does the one thing Wyke cannot ever forgive-he sneers at Wyke's greatest fictional creation, Sir John Lord St Meridew. As Tindle is about to leave with Mrs. Wyke's fur coat, Wyke shoots him for real this time, just as the police come to the front door. As Tindle is dying, he tells Wyke to remember to tell the police it was all just a game, and presses a control box which sets all of Wyke inventions to laugh at him. The film ends in a cliffhanger, indicating that while Wyke will be arrested, it is unknown if he is going to be acquitted or not.
Spoilers end here.
Cast[]
- Laurence Olivier as Andrew Wyke
- Michael Caine as Milo Tindle