Sleuth (1972)

Movie quotes:
Inspector Doppler (Alec Cawthorne): Is there nothing you would not consider a game, sir? Duty; work; even marriage?
Andrew Wyke (Lawrence Olivier): Oh please, Inspector! Don’t include marriage. Sex! It's sex! Sex is the game - marriage the penalty.

At a glance:
Lawrence Olivier and Michael Caine perform brilliantly in this sometimes stagey, occasionally over-the-top, and often incitefully clever battle of class, wit, humiliation, and murder

Our review:
Anthony Shaffer wrote the stage play and adapted it for the screen. Lawrence Olivier and Michael Caine bring it to life. It’s a simple structure – for the most part, just two men in a house, having a battle of wits. One man (Caine) is sleeping with the other man’s wife, just to complicate matters. The other man wants some sort of revenge for this. But it goes much further than that. Olivier is brilliant, although the part he plays naturally calls for him to be hammy. Caine is, well, more than brilliant. His character is that of an up-and-coming hairdresser who owns two shops and has made the jump from poor Italian immigrant to someone who is a part of the British upper class, and he effortlessy slides back and forth between cockney and cultured. In fact, suffice it to say that the brilliance of Caine’s acting here will only be appreciated well into the film.  Rating: 3 of 4

Other reviewers said:
"Joseph Mankiewicz directs this deft satire on the detective genre of literature that is both a metaphysical thriller and a psychological cliff-hanger."
- Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat (Spirituality and Practice)

Play It Again Sam (1972)

Allan (Woody Allen): I have met a lot of dames, but you are REALLY something special.
Linda (Diane Keaton): Really?
Allan: [to Bogart] She bought it!

Allan: I'll get broads up here like you wouldn't believe: swingers, freaks, nymphomaniacs, dental hygienists.

Allan: If that plane leaves the ground, and you're not on it with him, you'll regret it - maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life.
Linda: That's beautiful!
Allan: It's from Casablanca; I waited my whole life to say it.

Allan Felix (Woody Allen) is a recently-divorced, self-deprecating nebbish who tries to get his love life back on track with the help of his best friend Dick (Tony Roberts), his wife Linda (Diane Keaton). Allan’s imaginary friend Humphrey Bogart. But when Allan and Linda start to fall in love, complications ensue. 36 years agter it was made, this is still a very funny comedy, with a well-modulated supply of jokes (unlike many comedies that run out of steam in the last 30 minutes), most of which are not dated (especially those regarding relationships, although the silly scene in the biker bar doesn’t work well).  If you’ve subjected yourself to the last ten years of inferior Woody Allen movies and been disappointed each time, do yourself a favor and watch this one again, and see how good he used to be. Rating: 3.5 of 4reviewed 3 Dec 2007

"Woody Allen is one of those rare comedians who understands that humor can be based on pathos as well as sadism. While the high-pressure comics overwhelm us with aggressive humor, Woody is off in the bathroom somewhere being attacked by a hairdryer."
- Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times)