I first saw this film as a self-assured teenager sitting up with the t.v. on because I couldn't be bothered getting up to turn it off.
I wasn't impressed with the opening scene of a theatre curtain, but I was curious to see what Laurence Olivier was going to do.
The opening scene in the hedge maze just reeks of immense wealth and power on the part of Andrew White (Olivier), and the sexy sports car driven by Milo Tindall (Caine) is complete anathema to the White Estate.
There is the tone set of English snobbery by the bucketful.
More than merely a film, this is an insight into the minds of the English aristocracy using deafening understatement and murderous good manners.
This story could not have been better written by Agatha Christie for its murder mystery value. At the same time, it is a brilliant character study of two classes of the English: The wealthy and the merely nuveau riche; one pitted against the other with all of their respective resources, the balance of power tipping first one way, then the other.
Although this film is practically all dialogue, it is at the same time a thriller. The dialogue plays on the emotions of the viewer for one vital reason. Each sentence is an irrevocable statement of fact delivered with such fluency and eloquence that resistence is not an option. (One cannot argue against inevitability.)
As the mystery deepens, as the two players move their pieces around the chessboard, the viewer see-saws through the power struggle of these two men, acting out their respective revenge on one another, ever so politely, but with murderous intent.
This film doesn't miss a beat. Whilst it is obviously fiction, absolutely nothing could be more plausible than this plot.
Wealthy mystery novelist Andrew Wyke (Laurence Olivier) invites lower-class hairdresser Milo Tindle (Michael Caine) to his elegant English mansion to ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.