Sleuth

Andrew Wyke, a crime novelist, invites Milo Tindle, his wife's lover, to his country house. The offer is strange: stage a fake jewel robbery, let Milo sell the stones and Andrew collect the insurance. Once the game starts, who is deceiving whom keeps changing places, and it moves well past a game. Joseph L. Mankiewicz directed; it is his last film. Laurence Olivier plays Andrew and Michael Caine plays Milo. Anthony Shaffer wrote the screenplay from his own play. There are only two actors in it. To protect the surprise, invented names playing parts that do not exist were placed in the credits, among them Alec Cawthorne as Inspector Doppler. Both Olivier and Caine were nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, which meant every actor in the film was nominated. Olivier won Best Actor from the New York Film Critics, and Shaffer took an Edgar Award for the screenplay. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 90 percent. Who it is for: viewers who like two-hander duels, scripts built on traps and films that smell of the stage. Who it is not for: anyone who sees the turns coming. It rests entirely on surprise and leaves little for a second viewing.