Line #10 Theatre/Sleuth


1	[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sleuth.jpg]]
2
3	->''"Andrew... remember... be sure and tell them... it was only a bloody game."''
4	-->-- '''Milo Tindle'''
5
6	A Tony Award-winning 1970 mystery/thriller play by Anthony Shaffer, which has twice been [[TheFilmOfThePlay adapted for the screen]].
7
8	Andrew Wyke, a successful mystery author, realizes his wife is having an affair with the middle-class[[note]](his actual occupation varies from version to version)[[/note]] Milo Tindle. Finding in Milo an opportunity to divorce his wife, but wishing to avoid having to pay alimony, Andrew proposes for the younger man to burgle the couple's stately country house; Milo can get rich off his loot, while the insurance company will handsomely reimburse Andrew. Milo complies, but just as he pulls it off, things get really complicated.
9
10	Shaffer himself wrote the adaptation for the 1972 film, which was directed by Creator/JosephLMankiewicz and stars Creator/LaurenceOlivier as Andrew and Creator/MichaelCaine as Milo. The second film version, released in 2007, was directed by Creator/KennethBranagh and scripted by Creator/HaroldPinter; Michael Caine stars again, this time as Andrew, with Creator/JudeLaw appearing as Milo.
11
12	----
13	!!The play features examples of:
14	* AndYouThoughtItWasAGame: Several times the line between game and real life thread becomes blurred.
15	* AristocratsAreEvil: Andrew basks in his upper class status while taking pleasure in using and humiliating everyone in his life. The latter side of his personality takes increasingly sinister turns as the story progresses.
16	* BlatantBurglar: The first disguise Andrew proposes for Milo to wear during the staged burglary is the classic outfit complete with striped jersey and a bag with SWAG written on it.
17	* TheChessmaster: Both Milo and Andrew.
18	* ChromosomeCasting: A male example. Granted, it does have a MinimalistCast.
19	* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler:Milo. He's not so lucky the second time.]]
20	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: Milo has been shot dead and Andrew breaks down realizing he's going to prison.]]
21	* EvilerThanThou: [[spoiler: Andrew is at first clearly the more reprehensible man. However, when Milo retaliates he does so in a manner that will completely ruin Andrew's life rather than just humiliate him. You could say that Andrew is still the worse person since he responds to Milo's game by murdering him, but the fact that Milo was trying to bait him into this all along serves as an argument that he's even worse.]]
22	* EvilPlan[=/=]KansasCityShuffle: [[spoiler:The scheme in the opening paragraph was just a precursor to Andrew's real scheme: to humiliate Milo, by means of shooting him with blanks, because he, a middle-class son of immigrants, dared to mingle with the upper class.]] It's the former because it starts and drives the plot. It's the latter because the one being schemed thought they knew where to look and what was going on but the real scheme is coming from another direction. From there it gets a lot more complicated.
23	* TheFilmOfThePlay: The 1972 film is a faithful adaptation by Anthony Shaffer of his 1970 play; the 2007 remake takes considerable liberties.
24	* GenreSavvy: Both characters try to use their knowledge of detective stories to their advantage.
25	* GoldDigger: Marguerite, according to Andrew.
26	* FaceHeelTurn:[[spoiler: Milo is at first the better man of the two, but after Andrew's trick, his diabolical revenge makes him just as bad, if not worse.]]
27	* HazyFeelTurn: [[spoiler: Andrew is an awful person at the start, but not really evil. Once he's had enough of Milo's plans though he's all too glad to murder him, meaning he's certainly crossed over to that line by the end.]]
28	* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Milo, who initially disapproves of Andrew's gameplaying, starts playing back to prevent Andrew getting the last laugh, and proves disconcertingly adept.
29	* INeverSaidItWasPoison: Discussed during Inspector Doppler's conversation with Andrew.
30	* LightmareFuel: The story jumps from funny to horrifying within a second. Some scenes you might alternate between smiling and being afraid for the characters' lives several times within one moment. You could even find yourself grinning while thinking "I think something horrible is going to happen any minute".
31	* MeaningfulName: [[spoiler:Inspector Doppler.]]
32	* MinimalistCast: It has only five characters. [[spoiler:And only two actors.]]
33	* MoodWhiplash: The initial burglary plot is quite silly, as Milo disguises as a clown and makes a mess of the robbery attempt, but after the first or second plot twist it becomes extremely dark.
34	* MostWritersAreWriters: Andrew, has become wealthy as a successful writer of popular, though now old-fashioned, crime fiction novels, which feature an aristocratic amateur detective, St. John Lord Merridew.
35	* OnlyOnePlausibleSuspect: When Inspector Doppler turns up and announces that [[spoiler:Milo has been murdered]], Andrew is the only plausible suspect; since he and Milo are the only two significant characters up this point, and it obviously wasn't Milo, the rules of drama dictate that nobody could have done it if not Andrew. [[spoiler:Subverted: nobody ''did'' do it; it's all a bit of fakery as part of Milo's revenge.]]
36	* PoliceAreUseless: Early on Milo complains that in Andrew's detective books the Police are always incompetent and leave the work to the amateur sleuth. Later he has to experience the fact firsthand.
37	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Relatively subtle, but in addition to being a snob in general, Andrew throws some anti-Italian slurs at Milo.
38	** In the original play, Andrew tosses out a couple of casual racist remarks.
39	* ReasonYouSuckSpeech: Andrew gives Milo a "Reasons Why I Hate You" speech at the end of the first act.
40	* ReverseWhodunnit: The theme of the second act, as the inspector arrives to unravel the events shown in the first act. [[spoiler:Subverted as no actual murder happened. In fact, the inspector is actually the supposed victim in disguise, putting his own plan in motion to get even.]]
41	* RichSuitorPoorSuitor: Sort of. Andrew sees it this way.
42	* ShutUpHannibal: Andrew lectures Milo about the upper class being smarter and better, and believes his amateur sleuthing is superior to real-life detective work. Milo and Inspector Doppler [[spoiler:basically the same person]] go out of the way to prove Andrew so ''very'' wrong about both.
43	* SmugSnake: Andrew is convinced that his superior upper class "breeding" and his background as a writer of crime fiction make him invincible against the middle class commoner Milo and law enforcement. It doesn't take long for the tables to be turned against him.
44	* ThanatosGambit: [[spoiler:In reprisal for the KansasCityShuffle, Milo manipulates Andrew into killing him for real and getting caught red-handed.]]
45
46	!!The 1972 film adds examples of:
47	* BloodFromTheMouth: Milo in the final scene.
48	* BriefAccentImitation: Laurence Olivier gets to do several.
49	* CastingGag: More of a casting pun, one of the [[spoiler: fake]] names in the credits is Eve Channing, a reference to director Mankiewicz's ''Film/AllAboutEve''.
50	* ConcealingCanvas: Discussed. When looking for the safe, Milo dismisses the painting of Andrew's wife as the hiding place as he has [[GenreSavvy seen it too often on TV]].
51	* CreepyCircusMusic: Playing in the closing scene.
52	* HedgeMaze: Milo bumbles around an ornate one trying to find his host when he first arrives to his meeting with Andrew, whose voice he can hear recording his latest detective novel.
53	* HollywoodBlanks: A particularly egregious example. [[spoiler: Pressed right against the head, the gun '''will''' kill you, blanks or not. Of course, it's possible that Andrew was using specially made blanks where ''nothing'' comes out of the gun, used for simulating shooting oneself in the head. But it would still probably cause serious hearing damage.]]
54	* MobileMaze: Andrew's got one.
55	* OohMeAccentsSlipping: [[spoiler:An In-Character example. Michael Caine struggles a bit with Milo's Inspector Doppler accent.]]
56	* PsychopathicManchild: Andrew. The creep factor is dialed up with long shots of his moving, dancing, watching-you toys.
57	* ShoutOut: Andrew, a popular detective writer, has a sign that reads "221 B Baker Street" in his basement.
58	* SpoilerOpening: [[spoiler:Subverted; despite what the credits may tell you, Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine are the only actors who appear in the film.]]
59	* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The trailer features shots from the film's third act, which gives away the twist that Milo was not killed at the end of the first act.
60	* VillainousBreakdown: In the closing scene, Milo's final act before [[spoiler:succumbing to his gunshot wound]] is to jam the button that operates Andrew's creepy toys, who suddenly spring to life and start laughing, but now ''at'' Andrew and not ''with'' him. Coupled with the police lights illuminating his wall, the detectives hammering on his front door [[spoiler:having heard a gunshot inside, and Milo's dead body right in the middle of the floor]], it is made ''very'' clear that Andrew has no way out, and he breaks down sobbing.
61
62	!!The 2007 film adds examples of:
63	* AntiHero: Milo is revealed to be a sociopath on Andrew's level.
64	* CastingGag: Creator/MichaelCaine, who played Milo to Creator/LaurenceOlivier's Andrew in the 1972 film, starred as Andrew to Jude Law's Milo in the 2007 version. Jude Law had played Michael Caine's part in the remake of ''Film/{{Alfie}}''.

Context Theatre / Sleuth