Trivia for
Sleuth (1972) More at IMDb Pro »

• 'Joanne Woodward''s likeness was used for the painting of Marguerite Wyke.
  
  
• Last film of Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
  
  
• Michael Caine was the third choice for the part of Milo Tindle after Albert Finney (who was deemed too plump) and 'Alan Bates' (who turned down the role).
  
  

• The Edgar Allan Poe award on Andrew Wyke's mantel is actually the one given to Anthony Shaffer for his play "Sleuth". Joseph L. Mankiewicz also won an Edgar for the movie 5 Fingers (1952).
  
  
• John Addison was nominated for an Oscar for his music score. However, he was not originally among the five nominees when the nominations were announced. He was added to the list after the score for The Godfather (1972) was deemed ineligible.
  
  
• Michael Caine was so very much beside himself to be working with Laurence Olivier, that he didn't even know how to address him. Eventually, he broke down and just asked. Olivier replied, "Well I am the Lord Olivier and you are Mr Michael Caine. Of course that's only for the first time you address me. After that I am Larry and you are Mike."
  
  
• The original stage production of "Sleuth" opened on Broadway on 12 November 1970. It originally starred Anthony Quayle as Andrew and Keith Baxter as Milo and ran for 1222 performances.
  
  
• The line "you're just a jumped-up pantry boy who doesn't know his place" is repeated almost verbatim in the song "This Charming Man" by The Smiths, 1982. Lyricist and singer Morrissey has always been fascinated by English pop culture and class issues, and several working-class English actors of the 1960s (including Terence Stamp, Rita Tushingham and Diana Dors) appear in the role of "cover star" on The Smiths' albums.
  
  
• The laughter coming from the "dummy" Jolly Jack Tar is that of Laurence Olivier.
  
  
• 'Alan Bates' was offered the role of Milo but turned it down after walking out of the play, believing the role to be "unbecoming of an actor of his stature".
  
  

• SPOILER: "Eve Channing" is a combination of "Eve Harrington" and "Margot Channing", the two main characters in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve (1950). "Higgs" is the name of the dead body in Tom Stoppard's play "The Real Inspector Hound", a parody of Agatha Christie-type mysteries. "Alec Cawthorne" is also the name of a film writer for the BBC. The name Alec Cawthorne is virtually an anagram for "Or Michael Caine". To achieve the spelling, flip the 'W' in Cawthorne upside down to get the 'M' in Michael, and separate the horizontal and vertical lines in the letter 'T' to get the two 'I's needed... one in mIchael and one in caIne. The rest of the letters fall naturally into place.
  
  
• SPOILER: One of only two films for which the entire cast was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar (the other was Give 'em Hell, Harry! (1975)).
  
  
• SPOILER: The film only had two stars - the rest of the cast were made-up names.
  
  
• SPOILER: The reason 'Alan Bates' thought the role was "beneath" him was that he walked out of the stage show at intermission after believing that his character had been killed when Andrew "shot" him at the end of the first act.
  
  

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