Anthony Shaffer's veddy, veddy clever stage play is really not a mystery story at all, but rather a character study of a lordly WASP bigot (Laurence Olivier, acting in a Man of a Thousand Voices style) who just happens to compose genteel whodunits on the side. Shaffer spoofs the detective genre with considerable malice, and yet his own pretzeled plotting would be completely undone if he failed to outfox the audience. Inside the English country estate, dark and musty like the interior of a humidor, a wandering eye will probably find more fascination in the clutter of knickknacks — antique dolls, bizarre board games, jigsaw puzzles, etc. — than in the deceitful plot disclosures. With Michael Caine; directed by Joseph Mankiewicz. (1972) — Duncan Shepherd
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