The Last of Sheila (1973)

This is one of those parlour game thrillers in which the characters run around playing macabre games involving murder, but it isn't one of the greats like Sleuth or Deathtrap, but rather more on the level of the very entertaining but imperfect Knives Out and reminscient of April Fool's Day with its dated look and not entirely satisfactory mystery involving, similar to April Fool's Day, a gathering on a yacht of a group of film industry associates whose host has organised an itinerary of games and puzzles designed to flush out a killer.

★★★☆☆

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Knives Out (2019)

Not as effective a homage to the Agatha Christie murder mystery as it is a homage to the parlour game thriller stage plays of the likes of Ira Levin and Anthony Shaffer, director Rian Johnson nods to Sleuth with his mystery novellist's mansion setting crammed full of unusual murder mystery objects (including a prominent Jolly Jack Tar figure) and Deathtrap is brought to mind watching this movie's twisting, changing thriller-, not mystery-, plot and, really, this mostly fun, mostly well-plotted movie is in fact at it worst in its messy third act and attempts at a detective dénouement - Agatha Christie was never so longwinded. 

★★★☆☆

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Deathtrap (1982)

This is another Michael Caine film that has been adapted from a suspense mystery play (this one by Ira Levin) and like his two Sleuth films, this one too involves a sinister cat-and-mouse parlour game (check) played out in a theatrically claustrophobic set (check) between a pair of feuding male protagonists (check), one of whom is a successful mystery writer (check), and like Sleuth it is great twisty-turny fun.

★★★★☆

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Sleuth (2007)

An awful remake of the 1972 movie based on the Anthony Shaffer play, in which everything about the now classic original film has been changed for the worse, including the role played by Michael Caine (now the older of the two protagonists), the set (modern and ridiculous), and many elements of the original story, presumably to mark this as different to the original masterpiece and give the false impression there was a need to remake it.

★☆☆☆☆

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Sleuth (1972)

Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier star in this film adaptation of Anthony Shaffer's delightfully sinister mystery stage play set in a remote Wiltshire mansion, about two men - a famous mystery writer and a hairdresser - facing off in a battle of wits that grows ever more deadly.

★★★★★

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