The Prestige

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Director/writer Christopher Nolan has given us complex films (Memento, Inception, Interstellar). Here he uses the story of competing magicians in The Prestige (2006) to explore what defines one’s identity. He also uses the performers as a metaphorical vehicle to explore the magic of filmmaking, which is also an illusory art, and how far some may go to succeed in the creative process to achieve recognition, or “prestige.”

The story takes place in 19^th century England and begins with Cutter (Michael Caine) doing a voice-over that describes the three parts of a magic trick. The “pledge” introduces something ordinary. In Nolan’s case, where nothing is ordinary, he presents some intriguing events that will be explored later but for now sets us up for what is happening in the present. The “pledge” is followed by the “turn,” which is a special action, like making something disappear. Cutter says the audience wants to know how the magician did that exceptional move, but “You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled.” Cutter is talking about the willing suspension of disbelief, which is necessary to buy into stories, and which the filmmaker depends upon. The third part of the trick is the “prestige,” which, through a surprising act uses the “magic” to return things to the way they were before the start of the trick.

Nolan actually subverts these parts. His opening gives us intriguing shots he will expand upon later to lead us up to the present, which is one of three timelines in the film. The first image is of something common, a top hat, but there is a field filled with them, making it unusual. As Cutter speaks he is telling the parts of a trick to a little girl, Jess (Samantha Mahurin), which we later discover is the child of magician Alfred Borden (Christian Bale), and this scene will reappear at the end of the movie. There are shots of the other magician, Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) performing his transporter trick on stage amid electrical discharges from a machine. There is a worker there who is blind – a clue. He drops through a trapdoor into a tank of water which the astounded Borden witnesses.

Nolan then transports us to a courtroom where Borden is on trial for the murder of Angier. The depiction of current events is the first timeline. Cutter, Angier’s magic trick engineer, is testifying, saying Borden placed the tank under the trapdoor to drown his competitor. Cutter is not willing to reveal the details of the “transported man” trick Angier was performing at the time of his death since it is very sought after and knowledge of the trick would render the act worthless. He reveals to the judge in private that a “wizard” invented the electrical machine which was not an illusion, but did what it appeared to do. This statement is a half-truth, as we discover, and fits in with the theme of illusion versus reality in the story. He tells the judge that magicians dress up “plain” and “sometimes brutal truths.” Like most artists, they present truth clothed in fiction. He says that the water tank joined the two men in an awful way, which we later learn.

Owens (Roger Rees), a lawyer, visits Borden in jail. He says he represents Lord Caldlow who wants to buy Borden’s version of the “transported man,” and has already purchased all of Angier’s belongings. Borden refuses, and Owens uses Jess’s fate as leverage, saying Caldlow will intervene to save her from becoming an orphan in a workhouse. He also gives Borden Angier’s diary which relates his attempt to find out about Borden’s transporting trick. Later, Fallon, Borden’s engineer, nods his confirmation that the state will put Jess in an orphan work program after Borden is hanged. Borden tells Fallon to get in touch with the lawyer, Owens, that he has reconsidered selling him his transported man trick. He hasn’t lost his skill despite the finger loss as he fools a nasty guard by securing the man in a leg chain.

The contents of the diary are the second timeline in the film. The diary tells of Angier trying to decode Borden’s notebook (we later learn how he acquired it), which needs a five-letter encrypted word reveal Borden’s illusions. Angier travels to Colorado to meet the now-renowned Tesla (David Bowie) who Angier believes helped Borden do his famous trick. (Angier is limping, and we learn of the injury further on. He also wears a hat like those in the first shot. More of Nolan’s teasers). Angier is already a known magician under the name The Great Danton. The question of what is one’s true identity enters here, as we see later that disguises are used in various ways to trick others, and of course the audience, which is part of showmanship.

As Angier reads Borden’s notebook (which is a story within a story), the movie presents the third timeline. It relates how Angier and Borden in the past worked for magician Milton (Ricky Jay), along with Cutter. Angier and Borden pretended to be members of the audience and tied the wrists and feet of Julia (Piper Parabo) in a water-escape trick (we have an echo here of Angier drowning in the water tank in the first montage). Angier kisses Julia’s leg while he puts rope around it, and Cutter divulges their relationship when he says Angier could be seen kissing his “wife.” Borden complains that Milton’s act is boring, and he thinks there should be more risky tricks like the bullet-catching bit. Cutter says that an audience member could substitute a button instead of the blank and kill someone. He also warns Borden about the type of knot that Borden uses on Julia’s wrists, which may look better but is difficult to slip off. (There is a foreshadowing here).

Cutter tests the men’s magical insight by sending them to see a Chinese magician make a large fishbowl with water and a fish appear from behind a scarf. Borden says the magician held it between his legs under his robes. He walks in a halting manner in real life to hide his deception. Again, what appears on the surface is not a true picture. Borden says the real trick is his daily performance, pretending to be handicapped. It is the Chinese magician’s devotion to his craft that Borden admires. Nolan could be saying the same about any artist committed to his craft.

Angier can barely hold the fishbowl without water, and marvels as to how the Chinese magician lives his act, pretending to be a cripple. Angier has his own secret, which we get a hint of when he says he uses a fake name so his family will not know he is trying to be an entertainer. The implication is that he comes from a prestigious family who would not cherish him trying to earn a magician’s prestige. The film stresses deception in art and in life, and how they merge.

Borden reads in Angier’s diary about how Borden requires self-sacrifice in magic and comments about how Borden doesn’t understand that extreme level of sacrifice that he has undergone. We see Angier looking at a cameo of Julia when we hear these words. (Of course, Borden can’t see this fact by reading. It takes Nolan to manifest the narrative visually). The story eventually shows us why Angier speaks of personal loss.

There is a scene where Milton takes the ordinary, a bird in a cage, and slams down on it while it is covered with a drape. The cage disappears (the “turn”). He then supposedly brings back the bird from under a handkerchief (the “prestige”). A boy in the audience cries, perceiving that the original bird was killed and another took its place. His insight is confirmed by Borden disposing of the dead bird in the collapsed cage hidden in the table, while other birds in the back room await their fate. We have here a foreshadowing of Angier’s ultimate trick (which was implied by the opening scene of the film showing the numerous hats). Borden later tells the boy that “the secret impresses no one. The trick you use it for is everything.” The suggestion is the way one uses the mystery is what’s important. Again, the same can be said of filmmaking.

Borden and the boy’s aunt, Sarah (Rebecca Hill), begin a relationship (which eventually mirrors to some degree that of Angier and Julia, as the story revolves around itself). When he walks her home, she says she can’t invite him in just then. He seems to leave, but then is inside her place asking her about what she wants in her tea. Is he that good a magician, doing his transporting man trick, or is there something else going on?

At the next performance of the water tank escape, Julia gives Borden a nod and he proceeds with tying the rope around her wrists. However, she can’t slip the bonds and she drowns. The implication is that one can go too far in one’s passion and the result is collateral damage to others. The personal loss Angier noted in his diary is obvious now, and he becomes devastated and full of wrath because of Julia’s death. Borden infuriates Angier even more by saying he doesn’t know which type of knot he used.

With the death of Julia, Milton’s career is over, Borden and Angier go off to establish their own careers. Sarah meets the bearded and bespectacled Fallon. Sarah informs Borden that she is going to have a baby. He says he loves her, but she says, “not today.” She explains that “maybe today you’re more in love with magic.” Sarah seems okay with sharing Borden with his other passion, at least for now.  

Angier continues to read Borden’s notebook. He relates performing in front of a disapproving crowd. Although Borden has great tricks, he is not a showman and does not wrap the magic in an intriguing way. He gains the audience’s attention by starting the bullet-catching trick. Angier shows up in disguise and volunteers to be the shooter. He adds his own round of ammunition to the pistol and demands to know what knot did Borden tie around Julia’s hands. Again, Borden says he doesn’t know. Angier fires the pistol and maims Borden, blowing off the ends of two fingers. Borden’s words reiterate that he agonizes over what knot he tied. Angier is outraged that Borden could not know, since the man was an accomplished magician. The suggestion is that Borden may be working on an unconscious level at times, not sure what is real and what is an illusion, since his magic is so real to him because he lives it, like the Chinese magician.

Angier’s diary recounts how he hooked up with Cutter who couldn’t find work after Julia’s death. They also hired an attractive assistant, Olivia (Scarlett Johansson), whose beauty Cutter said is an effective distraction, which adds to the audience not really wanting to know what is truly happening.

Angier doesn’t want to kill birds when doing the disappearing cage trick. Cutter lectures him, saying he is not a “wizard,” and he must get his “hands dirty,” if he wants to be successful. We again have the theme of how far an artist must go to perfect his work. However, Cutter invented a contraption that collapses the cage while sparing the bird. They get a gig working for Merrit (William Morgan Shepphard). Angier attempts to do the disappearing bird trick. But a disguised Borden seeks revenge and acts as a volunteer from the audience. By mimicking Angier’s attack on himself, he sabotages the trick, killing the dove and breaking the female volunteer’s fingers. Angier’s hands have now been dirtied. Merrit terminated their run, and Angier must come up with a show-stopping performance to redeem his reputation.

By reading Borden’s diary, Angier believes that his antagonist acquired a machine from Tesla to perform his incredible trick, and he asks Alley (Andy Serkis), Tesla’s assistant, a second time to meet Tesla. Alley shows how Tesla can turn on lights without wires. Angier sees how science is magical without tricks. He goes to an alternating current demonstration where Alley argues against Edison’s attempts to “Smear” Tesla’s works (the rivalry was real). The electrical discharges jumping from conductor to conductor frighten the audience, as if they are seeing the power of a god. Angier follows Borden who also attended the demonstration. Angier’s diary says he was envious of seeing Borden with his wife and child, but he also knew that Borden tormented his family with his obsession over his magic. In a way, Borden has a split personality according to Angier. We discover that he is not far from the truth.

By this time, Olivia and Angier have become involved romantically. In Angier’s diary we learn that, in disguise, he witnesses Borden premier his “Transported Man” trick. He goes in one door of a closet at one end of the stage and comes out another door at the other end of the stage in the time it takes to bounce a rubber ball on the raised platform. Cutter says he is using a double, but Olivia noted a gloved hand on the man occupying each closet, revealing the lost fingers. Angier says he will get even with Borden by stealing his trick.

Cutter says the only way they can duplicate Borden’s act is to find a double for Angier, which they do. He is Gerald Root (also played by Jackman). He is a drunken, out-of-work actor. He says to Angier, “Did you think you were unique, Mr. Angier? I’ve been Caesar. I’ve played Faust. How hard could it possibly be to play the Great Danton?” Root as an actor assumes other identities, false fronts, to present the illusion that he is someone else. A performance in its own way is a sham to temporarily convince the audience that what they are seeing is real. Nolan is stressing the illusion versus reality aspect of the performing arts.

Angier’s team dresses up the trick and call it “The New Transported Man.” Instead of a closet they have just two door frames. But there are trapdoors at the thresholds. Angier must be the first man as he has the ability to dramatically introduce the act. Behind the open door he falls through the trapdoor onto padding below. Root emerges at the other end. He overacts his part, and even kisses Olivia. Angier is not able to experience the adulation of the crowd, and enjoy the “prestige,” since he is below the stage. They must keep Root under wraps because if he surfaces and is recognized as working for Angier, the illusion is destroyed. Angier’s life is copying that of Borden, and the two stories begin to blur together as the story unfolds.

Angier is obsessed with learning how Borden does his trick without a double so he can be the one on the stage accepting the audience’s adoration. He sends Olivia to work for Borden as a spy, but she is to tell him the truth, that Angier sent her to discover Borden’s secret of the Transported Man. Angier assumes Borden will want her as a counterspy to access Angier’s secrets. Even though Angier has become very successful, Borden’s keen eye can tell that his double is overweight and drunk. Olivia tells Borden that she is sick of Angier’s obsession with Borden, which turns out not to be too far from the truth.

Angier reads in Borden’s diary that Borden found Root and convinced him that he had the power in the act. Root then acts to subvert the performance unless he gets more money and control. Borden sabotages the act eventually by removing the padding under the trapdoor and Angier injures his leg when he falls through during one performance (remember his limp at the beginning of the film?). Instead of Root appearing through the door, it is Borden, and he tied up Root and has him descend from the ceiling with a sign that says he is Borden’s opening act. Borden has spruced up his performance by adding some of Tesla’s electronics and has Olivia for effect.

Cutter wonders if Olivia is now working for Borden since he discovered Root. It becomes very difficult to know what is a lie and what is the truth. Angier confronts Olivia with his suspicions. She says Borden uses a double since she has seen wigs, glasses and makeup about. Angier dismisses her impression, saying it’s misdirection, because Borden lives his act, the way the Chinese magician did. But sometimes the overly suspicious can no longer accept what is obviously true. Olivia gives him Borden’s notebook, and that is how Angier was able to read it (it took a while for the audience to discover this fact). Angier shows his obsession, and his downfall, as he says he only cares about Borden’s secret, not the death of his wife anymore. Both magicians let their preoccupation with their craft interfere with their attention to others. Olivia is torn, but Angier’s manipulation of her most likely is the reason she reveals that she has fallen in love with Borden.

Angier kidnaps Fallon as leverage to get Borden to explain his Transporting Man trick. He buries the man in a wooden box and when Borden shows up, Angier says Fallon wouldn’t talk, in fact, he says, “He doesn’t talk at all.” We never hear Fallon speak – another clue. Borden writes “Tesla” as the answer to how he performs his trick, and then saves Fallon by digging him up. There are a number of references to being in boxes, or cages, losing freedom and wanting to escape.

Angier wants to see what machine Borden bought and he wants a duplicate. In his diary he writes that he finally met Tesla, who dramatically enters by walking through electrical streams, looking like a modern Prometheus (the mythological reference is used by Nolan in Oppenheimer). He confirms his view of how one can achieve anything if one has the “nerve,” the courage to apply oneself. Money is also a factor, and Angier says it is not a problem. We again get an idea about his background. But, Tesla also means there is a nonmonetary “cost” resulting from obsession. Tesla admits that he is a “slave” to his own obsessions, and “one day they’ll choose to destroy” him. Angier says Tesla knows urging caution about an obsession is pointless, basically saying that an obsession triumphs over all warnings. Perhaps Nolan is implying that the drive to fulfill one’s artistic vision sometimes will not be deterred by whatever negative outcomes surface in the pursuit of that quest.

Angier reads in the notebook as we get a scene which reveals that Olivia says to Borden that she had loved Angier but despised him for using her to steal his competitor’s secret. Borden wrote that Olivia’s loyalty was proven by not only letting him know where Root was, but also because Borden wanted her to give Angier the notebook. He was manipulating Angier by having him read it. “Tesla” was the keyword to the notebook, but not to his trick, he writes as he directly addresses Angier in the notebook. Borden thinks he’s sent Angier on a wild goose chase with Tesla, but it becomes an ironic twist in the plot.

An angry Angier confronts Tesla, saying he made the magician think that he constructed a machine for Borden so he could take Angier’s money to fight Edison. Tesla says the machine needs further experimentation. He tries using a cat as the subject of a test, but the cat is not transported. As Angier exits Tesla’s laboratory he follows the sound of a cat. He finds two cats, the original and a duplicate, as well as many reproductions of his hat (which was the first shot of the film). Tesla’s machine does not transport, it makes copies, so the uniqueness of the individual becomes dissipated.

Sarah is becoming more disenchanted with her marriage and is drinking alcohol more. Borden assures her that he loves her and Jess their child more than anything. Borden promised Jess he would take her to the zoo, yet he tells Fallon to do it and try and reassure Sarah that he loves her. We don’t see if Jess is disappointed his father doesn’t keep his promise. Borden sees Olivia who kisses him and he says he doesn’t want her to call him Freddie. Why? When she says she doesn’t trust Fallon, Borden says that Fallon protects all his interests. These are all clues as to Fallon’s true identity.

Edison’s henchmen have burned Tesla’s property, but he delivered the machine to Angier saying in a note that those interested in magic will accept it because they like to be “mystified.” Could that not also be said for us in the audience as we watch Nolan’s cinematic magic? Tesla also delivers a warning that although he has provided the goods for which Angier paid him, he tells him to destroy the machine since it will only be a source of grief. We have again the warning of going too far for one’s artistic passion. And, we see the overreaching danger of science (obviously a theme Nolan is interested in later in Oppenheimer). Borden receives this information by reading Angier’s diary. Angier’s writing addresses Borden directly (just as Borden did so in his notebook). Angier’s words say that he knows Borden awaits the death sentence for killing Angier. But, if the man is dead, how can he have written this closing? Borden tells Owens, the lawyer, that the diary is a fake, but Owens says it is in Angier’s handwriting. The theme of illusion versus reality continually surfaces, and it appears that here the diary is genuine. That would mean that Angier is not dead. Or, is he?

Sarah is unable to live in Borden’s world of lies, secrets, and tricks. She wants honesty, and he can’t do that because he puts his profession above all else. They go back and forth as to whether that day he loves her, and he admits that this day he does not. She can no longer continue in this state of imprisonment, which is like a life in a cage or a box, or a tank of water. Her escape is suicide as she hangs herself (a foreshadowing). Now both magicians have lost their wives, which shows them to have surrendered what they hold most dear because of their craft. Later, Borden tells Olivia he never loved Sarah, but only loves her. Is he a lying jerk, or is there something else going on? She says he is a cold man to be so dismissive of Sarah. She leaves, saying he and Angier deserve each other. In a way, they are psychological twins to her.

Angier reconnects with Cutter and says he wants to do the transported man to show Borden that he can do the trick without Root. Angier doesn’t want Cutter backstage and has hired blind stagehands (remember there was a blind worker at the very beginning of the film, which of course is now chronologically at the end of the tale). He wants total secrecy as to how his trick works. Angier turns on the machine for a patron, Ackerman (Edward Hibbert) Angier disappears and almost instantaneously appears at the back of the auditorium. Has Tesla perfected his invention? Borden shows up at Angier’s performance and although he saw that Angier disappeared through a trapdoor, he berates Fallon for not being able to figure out how Angier can show up fifty yards away almost instantaneously.

Borden sneaks under the stage and witnesses Angier falling through the trapdoor into a water tank that then locks. Borden tries to break the glass with an axe, but can’t save the drowning Angier. He has died as his wife did. Cutter shows up and Borden is found guilty of the murder of Angier, as has already been shown. Cutter meets with Owens and says although Lord Caldlow has purchased all the equipment, Cutter wants Tesla’s machine.

That same Lord Caldlow shows up with Jess at the prison since Borden struck a deal with Owens that he would deliver the prestige part of his tricks if he could see his daughter once more. Caldlow is Angier, and he says he “always have been.” We now know that Angier comes from an aristocratic family and that is why money was no object when it came to buying Tesla’s machine. Borden concedes that Angier no longer fears getting his “hands dirty.” Just like Borden, he is all in when it comes to his craft. Borden hands Angier the “prestige” parts of his tricks so that Jess will not be under Angier’s control. Angier is stealing what’s left of Borden’s family for himself. Angier says that Borden was the better magician, but Angier’s trick is better, so he rips up the papers. Borden shows Jess his rubber ball, the one he used in his transported man trick, and here symbolizes that he has a bit of magic left to get his daughter back. He screams that the man he was supposed to have killed is walking out the door, so he is innocent.

Cutter discovers Caldlow’s address and sees that Angier is still alive. Cutter wants the machine destroyed and Angier says it will never be used again, and will be placed with the rest of the show’s equipment. Meanwhile, Borden meets with Fallon, says he is sorry about Sarah, and throws him the rubber ball, telling him to live life for the both of them.

As Borden goes to the gallows he asks the guard, “Are you watching closely?” Is there one more trick to be played? Just before he is hanged (like Sarah, so poetic justice?), Borden says “Abracadabra!” There is a cut to the rubber ball bouncing toward Angier and a shot rings out as he is shot. The man with the pistol is Borden. Or is it? Just before his death Angier realizes that Fallon is Borden’s twin brother. His shooter reveals that they were both Borden and Fallon, sharing one life. They alternated who disappeared and reappeared in the transported man trick. The other brother sacrificed his fingers to make the illusion seem real. It was one who loved Sarah, and one who loved Olivia, so depending on who was with which woman, the truth was actually told.

Angier tells Borden the truth. Tesla did not perfect his machine. Angier used it to create a double of himself, shot the first duplicate, and drowned the other versions of himself so that there would only be one Great Danton remaining. His storage facilities have several water tanks with drowned versions of himself. As he said often in the film, “no one cares about the man in the box” and the film has repeatedly shown imprisonment and various, even lethal ways, of escape. There is always that risk for the sake of the magic. Angier paid the ultimate price, his own death, to come back in the prestige, to create wonder. Now that the show is over, the remaining duplicate Angier takes a figurative his last bow. He drops a lantern, and the resulting fire destroys his secrets.

Jess walks away with her “father.” Is it Fallon, or was it Fallon who was hanged, and Borden reunites with his daughter? Nolan keeps his secret, as all good magicians do, but he brings the man back, to earn the prestige.

The next film is Europa, Europa.

Sleuth

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

 

Sleuth (1972) is an homage to twisty mysteries, almost to the point of parody in its excess. But there is more going on here than just another genre film. Thematically, the story deals with male egotism, class conflict, and xenophobia. There are more witty lines per scene than in most movies. The actors are chameleons in presenting several personas with the help of make-up and various voices. 

 The credits are shown over miniature stages (Sleuth was first an award-winning play written by Anthony Shaffer, who also penned the screenplay), dioramas of scenes from the main character’s books, which suggest the theatrics that will occur. Besides the stars, there are four “actors” listed, which turn out to be red herrings. Milo Tindle (Michael Caine) drives up to a huge mansion situated on a large property called Cloak Manor, which suggests hiding something, but also is the clothing worn by aristocrats. It also reveals the exorbitant wealth of its occupant, successful mystery writer Andrew Wyke (Laurence Olivier. Both he and Caine were nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for their performances). Milo drives a red convertible sports car, which shows possible financial success, but a flashy, undignified affluence, which is looked down upon by Andrew. 

 

Milo hears someone speaking outside and he follows the voice into a hedge maze which is impossible to maneuver. The camera shoots downward as we watch Milo trying to navigate the path like a confused mouse. The effect is to show Andrew’s early dominance over Milo. Andrew is listening to his recorded dictation of a book which contains precise diction and various voices, with Andrew adding physical gestures as he listens. The effect is to illustrate his pomposity and propensity for exaggerated showmanship. Andrew’s royal amateur sleuth, Sir John Lord Merridew, is depicted as having more abilities to reason out criminal circumstances than the lower-class professional detectives. This condescension is at the heart of Andrew’s egotistical character, which we later find harbors feelings of inadequacy as a man. Perhaps the suggestion is that people vicariously are heroes in fiction since they can’t be exalted in real life. Milo calls to Andrew, reminding him that he was asked to come there. Andrew turns part of a hedge which allows Milo to join him. He constructed a puzzle that only he could solve, which shows that he cheats to make sure he wins and in the process he can humiliate his rivals. 

 

Andrew asks Milo if he agrees “that the detective story is the normal recreation of noble minds.” Milo responds with, “I’m afraid I don’t know very much about noble minds.” This exchange stresses the difference between the social levels where these two exist. Andrew mentions that people at high levels of government used to enjoy thrillers and the sleuths were titled individuals. He says that all people seem to like his books even in a “classless” society. Andrew shows that he thinks people crave the nobility they can’t have, and he also hints at a nostalgia for a time that wasn’t threatened by a dissolving of the social hierarchy.

 

More snobbery occurs when Milo asks if Andrew’s stories appear on TV and the writer says he wouldn’t allow it since television is the place for detective fact, not fiction. He implies television is for the literal-minded and is not worthy of imaginative works. Inside the house Andrew has many mechanical toys which reveal Andrew’s desire to control things since he winds them up so they can perform for his amusement. One of the objects is a large replica of a crusty old sailor that laughs when a remote button is pushed. Andrew calls him Jolly Jack Tar. His domineering attitude is demonstrated when Andrew says he tells jokes and Jack must laugh. His manipulation of characters in his stories implies that he also sees people as objects he can bend to his will. He also has puzzles and games which he uses to flaunt his superior mental abilities, but which also reveal his arrested development since he enjoys childlike diversion. This fascination also points to his isolation, which contains no humans from which he can derive happiness.

 

The purpose of Andrew’s invitation is somewhat revealed when he says that he understands that Milo wants to marry Andrew’s wife, Marguerite. The discussion starts very politely. Milo says he does want to wed Andrew’s spouse, with “his permission.” Andrew says he seems a decent fellow but asks questions about his background. Milo’s mother was a farmer’s daughter and his father is Italian and emigrated to England. Andrew acts like he is a “liberal” and has no qualms about Milo’s background. He discovers that Milo’s family name is Tindolini, which he changed so he could “become English,” a phrase that Andrew repeats as if questioning if that process is possible. There is the implication that an Englishman derives from historic roots, not transplanted saplings. Milo’s father was a watch repairman and was not successful. Milo seems disappointed in his father, saying he always told him he couldn’t do well in that old world trade. Milo now owns Casa Tindolini, a couple of hair salons, so the Italian name now can be used because the “birds” like “the continental touch.” Milo quickly changes the word to “ladies” since “birds” is slang which stresses his lower-class origins. Andrew follows with, “English too wholesome for them, eh?” He acts like he is joking but he is judging the encroaching lack of morality on the part of English women corrupted by foreign influences. Andrew asks if Milo lives below, above or behind his shop, another condescending remark. Milo says he lives in a Georgian house, and Andrew shows contempt for the swift social rise of the immigrant by saying, “From Genoa to Georgian in a single generation, eh? Not bad.” 

 

Andrew shows his jealousy by remarking that Marguerite currently stays at Milo’s house twice a week and also frequents the cottage Milo rents near Cloak Manor. He knows a great deal about what has been going on, and he most likely wants Milo to know that he can’t be easily fooled. Andrew then shouts he can say his wife talks like a six-year-old and “makes love like an extinct shellfish,” since it’s his privileged prerogative to act however it suits him. Milo is ready to leave after the verbal assault on the woman he “loves.” Andrew continues spouting nasty things about Marguerite but reels Milo back in when he asks, “Can you afford to take her off my hands?” Andrew is now accusing Milo of not being a sufficient breadwinner, which Milo feels he must defend. Andrew says that Milo must live like the nobility to please Marguerite, which entails at least a large house and car, and he should have a “mistress.” Milo knows about Andrew’s woman on the side, whose name is Tea, because Marguerite also knows about her. The two are competing over what they know about each other. Milo says he and Marguerite could use the knowledge of the mistress as leverage to prevent Andrew from contesting the divorce.

 After showing that they know about each other’s romantic secrets, the two drop any pretension of formality, take off their jackets, and play pool, a game of competition, which this whole movie turns out to be about. The audience becomes the third participant, trying to separate fact from fiction. Andrew later says that he used to have “treasure hunts, charades, games of infinite variety” that have been replaced by his participants with the mindless watching of television which he implies is a loss of evolved culture. 

 

Andrew declares that he has been able to be a sexual tutor for Tea, as he is “pretty much of an Olympic sexual athlete” and could “copulate for England” if there were that sort of competition. That kind of boasting usually means that there is overcompensation for insecurity, and implies that those in the upper-class may be posers. Milo tries to knock him down a sexual notch by implying at his age Andrew can only do “sprints” and not “the long-distance stuff.” As they play pool, Andrew says he wants to make sure that his wife will not return demanding more compensation if she tired of Milo’s inability to support her expensive ways. He says she might not be satisfied with only a bit of hair styling (noting Milo’s lower-class income) before she bolts. He then says that his wife will not settle for “dago red” wine. He says he means no offense, but he does, denigrating Milo’s foreign heritage. Milo admits that he has told Marguerite that they spend too much, but she ignores the problem, so Andrew has Milo’s attention. Andrew then says that the money aspect is why he has invited Milo and here is where he says, “the plot thickens.” He says it with an exaggerated Italian accent, another slight aimed at Milo. And, yes, here is where the story mixes in more ingredients.

 

Andrew, after handily beating Milo at pool, talks about how he has been “emasculated” and “castrated” by taxation. These words gain added significance later and here act as a foreshadowing. He put a large amount of money into jewelry instead of cash in a bank which would have reported his assets to the government. And, the gems are insured. He wants Milo to steal the jewelry. He says they are in a safe in his study where they now stand and asks where Milo thinks it is. Andrew is playing another game through which he wants to show his superiority. But Milo foils that gambit. He realizes that Andrew loves games of competition, and the only game in the room is a dart board. He picks up a dart and scores a bullseye, opening the safe. Andrew, having been defeated, makes a snide comment about Milo’s lower-class status by saying, “There are certain skills best acquired in public bars, I suppose.” 

 

When Milo uses the word “nick” before switching to “steal,” Andrew winces at the vernacular language, showing how anything associated with someone below his social rank pains him. Andrew has worked out all the details that will allow Milo to sell the stolen goods abroad without detection. Milo hasn’t read any of Andrew’s books and doesn’t know the name of his protagonist, which infuriates Andrew, who describes how his creation, and thus, himself, knows more than any policeman. Milo does know the type of story where cops appear stupid, but he scores a point when he notes that is fiction, not fact. He also asks Andrew why he doesn’t stage a break-in, sell the jewels himself, and give Milo the cash. Andrew says he doesn’t have the youth and agility to make the theft appear authentic. We have a sort of chess game, where each player makes moves and countermoves. Olivier shows his ability with language as he uses an American gangster accent and shortly afterwards a Charlie Chan impersonation (a now unacceptable Asian stereotype) to sell his plan. 

 

Andrew insists Milo must be disguised despite the remote setting in case there is someone passing by. And, he argues, there should not be a way of leaving evidence of his footprints or clothes that would lead the authorities back to Milo. (There doesn’t seem to be much concern about Milo already leaving fingerprints inside the house, which is odd). Down in the basement of the house is Andrew’s chest of costumes, and Andrew continues to grandstand about his stories. He mentions a recurring character, a policeman named Inspector Plodder, an obviously negative name, which will resurface later. At first Milo is impatient as Andrew assumes different characters with various costumes, but then he joins in, putting on a dress and suggesting he commit the crime in drag. He improvises dialogue with Andrew who is dressed, appropriately, like a snuff-sniffing aristocrat from England’s history. The number of characters these two assume along with the various sized dolls help the audience forget that it’s just the two of them carrying the action. Milo is thrilled to find a clown outfit, but when Andrew calls him “the complete clown,” we know that he is trying to humiliate Milo. (The director, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, uses camera angles to eliminate the claustrophobia that might arise from shooting within a house. Here, he has the camera point through a barred window and Andrew and Milo look like figures in one of Andrew’s dioramas, suggesting that the two of them are characters in a murder mystery). 

 

Andrew gives him tools to cut the glass in the window and open the safe to make it look like a real burglary. While Milo uses a ladder to climb into the upstairs window Andrew takes Milo’s clothes and mysteriously locks them in a wardrobe. Milo falls down the ladder once, and as he enters the house Andrew observes “Somehow I thought you’d be better than that at climbing ladders.” He is referring to Milo’s attempt to raise himself out of his working-class position by going after Andrew’s wife. Andrew says that Milo must mess up the place a bit looking for the safe. But, he heads straight for his wife’s bedroom which has a turnstile in which one must deposit money to enter, which paints Marguerite as a sort of prostitute who dispenses sex if paid. Andrew wants Marguerite’s clothes ripped apart, and this scene seems more like Andrew venting his rage at his unfaithful wife than faking a break-in. Milo looks on with an insightful face and then wants to go to Andrew’s bedroom as he feels it’s his turn at playing the ransacking game. But Andrew says since they are supposed to be looking for women’s jewelry, he should be looking for a safe. They go to the study and Andrew rigs a charge that blows off the front of the safe, and Milo pockets the goods. He reminisces how his poor father struggled so his son could become an “Anglo-Saxon.” Milo almost snarls as he says the words in contempt since he obviously believes he was short-changed for the sacrifice.

 Andrew throws a curve here, saying the next part of the plot has the homeowner awakened by the detonation. He then “surprises the burglar” which is followed by the two getting into a fight. Andrew can then tell the cops it wasn’t Milo who was the intruder. As part of simulating a burglary, Milo enjoys throwing in the air Andrew’s latest manuscript and messing up a puzzle he was working on. Then the fight must take place, and Andrew surprises Milo with punches to the face and stomach, which angers Milo. But Andrew says Milo must now hurt Andrew, and Milo is thrilled to inflict an injury. It’s sort of a proletariat's delight for him. Milo would like to use a fireplace poker, but he seems too eager for Andrew’s liking. He suggests instead that he be tied up, but Milo rightly asks how would he get him in that position? Andrew says he can hold a gun on him. He pulls out his pistol and shoots a vase Milo holds and then a photo of Marguerite, pretending he aimed for something else. But Milo knows he hit his target. 

 Andrew then aims at Milo saying it’s always open season on seducers and wife-stealers. Andrew then uses that derogatory Italian accent again, saying he's “a-gonna killa” Milo. Andrew now says the real game he’s playing is “you’re going to die, and no one will suspect murder.” He says it’s all been staged to make it look as if Milo broke in to steal Marguerite’s jewels and Milo killed him defending his home. He says even Marguerite will think Milo was just a gold digger. Andrew tells Milo he’ll give him a chance to make a run for it, but Andrew hid his clothes while taking the key to his car (which the camera shows has his initials “M.T.” on the door, and, of course, that is important later). 

 Milo is frightened and desperate now as Andrew mentally tortures him about how his body will be found as he playfully enacts how he and the local police will discuss the crime scene. Andrew temporarily looks for a golf club to beat Milo and returns, preventing Milo from making a phone call for help. Andrew tells Milo to go up the stairs to make it look like he was heading for the ladder. Andrew likens it to an execution carried out by the ruling class, saying Milo “mounts the steps to the scaffold.” Milo is sobbing now, pleading for his life. He asks why would he want to kill him? Andrew says he hates him, and his xenophobia is evident here as he says he despises Milo being a “blue-eyed wop, and not one of me,” and someone “who doesn’t know his place.” Milo rallies by saying that the fact that his wife doesn’t love him anymore and that there will be other lovers after him is what Andrew can’t tolerate. Milo is basically saying that Andrew can’t stand being usurped by those he considers to be his inferiors. Andrew’s contemptuous, haughty, bigoted summation is, “Finally, at your moment of dying, you are yourself - a sniveling, dago clown.” Andrew fires the gun, and Milo topples down the stairs, followed by Andrew taking Milo’s pulse.

 That is the conclusion of the first act, or the initial game. The next game now begins. The house has the many toys turned on simultaneously, and the cacophony is jarring, possibly reflecting a deranged mind. Andrew joins in on this noisy celebration by dancing, as if he is relishing his victory over Milo. Outside, footsteps sound in counterpoint to the festivities inside. The man outside rings the house doorbell, spoiling Andrew’s aristocratic lunch consisting of caviar. The man is Inspector Doppler (which the movie’s titles says is played by Alec Cawthorne). The character’s name should remind one of the word “doppelganger” which means a “double,” or an alter ego. Hint, hint. Andrew sees him as similar to his dull-minded Inspector Plodder, only this guy turns out to be much smarter. He is tall and large with a mustache, large nose, receding hairline, and wears bargain-basement clothes consisting of an overcoat, sweater-vest and scarf, and he speaks with a deep voice. Doppler fits Andrew’s condescending stereotype of an unintelligent cop when he tries the caviar and doesn’t like it, supposedly showing ignorance by saying it tastes like fish eggs. Doppler notes the large collection of “toys,” but Andrew corrects him by calling them by the snobby term “automata.” 

 

Doppler says he is investigating the disappearance of Milo, who a local bartender said was headed to Andrew’s house two night’s prior. Andrew implies those in bars are not reliable witnesses because of being steeped in an alcoholic atmosphere. Andrew tries throwing the word “vinous” over Doppler’s head, but Doppler catches the reference to wine. Doppler looks at the wall and there is a hole in it that could have been caused by a bullet. He tells Andrew that a person passing by said he heard gunshots coming from the manor. Doppler plays with one of Andrew’s “automata,” which is a clown doing gymnastics. This activity leads us to think of Milo dressed as a clown. Another clue. Doppler says they couldn’t contact Milo but at his cottage they found Andrew’s note asking Milo to visit him, confirming the bartender's information. (IMDb notes that the picture of Marguerite that Andrew shot has been replaced by a photograph of renowned mystery writer Agatha Christie). 

 

Andrew says that he and Milo played a burglary game, but Doppler is not approving of the supposed playfulness of the activity. Andrew says that Milo was there for ninety minutes and left, but Doppler points out that nobody has seen the man since. Andrew belittles Doppler’s investigative technique by comparing it to the stock detective character in mystery books. But Doppler nobly confirms that he is just “doing his job,” which supposedly aristocrats don’t really appreciate. Doppler learned of Milo’s association with Marguerite, and Doppler points out that Andrew had the “means,” “motive” and “opportunity” to do away with Milo. 

 

As he leads Doppler to the cellar, Andrew admits that he wouldn’t accept having his wife taken from him by the likes of a lower-class phony Englishman such as Milo. And Andrew admits that playing his sort of games is his whole life. Doppler repeats what was noted earlier that Andrew’s preoccupation with game-playing “sounds a bit sad to me, sir. Like a child not growing up.” Andrew defends his activities by boasting that his games are so complex “that Jung and Einstein would have been proud to have been asked to participate in them.” Andrew’s grandiosity is in full bloom here, comparing himself to great historical minds, maybe even saying he ranks above them since they would be grateful to join him if he deemed to ask them. Andrew makes the argument that “sex is the game. Marriage is the penalty,” so he wasn’t upset about ending his marriage. But not, it seems, as he said earlier, to a less noble Englishman. 

 

Andrew changes an old saying when he pronounces, “The shortest way to a man’s heart is through humiliation.” The game he played with Milo was a test of the strength of his character. Andrew now retells what happened concerning the story about stealing the jewels to keep Marguerite at the level of luxury she was used to. He says that he eventually convinced Milo that he would kill him as an invading burglar. Milo crumbled, showing he failed the aristocratic test. Andrew shot him with a blank, which we can assume was substituted when Andrew went to obtain his golf club. Andrew said Milo then fainted. Doppler is horrified to think Andrew held a gun to the man’s head as part of “a game.” Andrew falls back behind his aristocratic barricades, claiming that his game showed that one can’t assume an elevated status, that “the quality that breeding brings cannot be acquired.” He implies upper-class entitlement is an inherited right based on superior genetics. 

 

Doppler is not willing to accept Andrew’s making light of the situation because Milo is still missing, and suggests a possible assault charge against Andrew at the least. Doppler points out the two bullet holes, which Andrew says were just the set-up to convince Milo he was serious. Doppler checks out where Milo kneeled on the stairs when the shot was fired and he finds some dried blood there and on the carpet, which Andrew can’t explain. Doppler says he saw no clown costume in the trunk that Andrew said Milo wore, and he points out that there is a fresh mound of dirt in the garden, which could be where a body is buried. After inspecting the grounds, as they go back into the house, there is a camera shot of the red sports car with “M.T.” on the door hidden behind some bushes. The audience could be wondering if that is where Andrew hid Milo’s car. But wouldn’t he be foolish to leave evidence sitting about?

 Doppler finds Milo’s clothes with his initials on them in the bottom of the wardrobe in Andrew’s room, which is where Andrew tossed them. But he says Milo changed back into his clothes before leaving so he is at a loss as to how they could still be in his bedroom. Doppler says that Andrew may have started out playing a nasty prank on Milo but the third shot turned out to be real. Even if there is no body in the garden it just means he started to bury Milo there and then changed to another place. Doppler is ready to arrest Andrew, who resists. Doppler manhandles him on a downstairs couch. As he holds Andrew and threatens him with at least seven years in prison, he says that he has read several detective stories and the police are not as dumb as portrayed in those books. He then says that he has come to conclude that “the detective story is the normal recreation of noble minds.” Which is exactly the phrase that Andrew said to Milo. Doppler now removes make-up as he explains the meaning of “doppler” which is also almost an anagram for “plodder,” and shows himself to be Milo in disguise. He has used Andrew’s game-playing to reverse the staging of a frame-up to get his version of humiliation revenge on Andrew.

 

Andrew is at first outraged by the deception but then has to concede the charade was well done. Milo laughingly takes a victory lap as he throws his make-up and clothes all over and prefers using Andrew’s bathroom to clean up, in a way usurping the owner’s position of superiority. Andrew pathetically tries to save his uppity face by saying he caught on at the end and was also putting on a performance. Milo says Andrew, despite his saying he can lose gracefully, is incapable of admitting defeat. Andrew rolls back his desire for humiliation and says he tested Milo and found him to be as good a game player as he is. Milo admits that he thought he was really going to die when Andrew pointed the gun at him. Andrew counters by saying that means Milo lived more intensely than he had ever done before. Andrew argues that they came from different places but found themselves on an equal playing field. But Milo isn’t going to pretend that their backgrounds don’t still matter. He says in his world, “there was no time for bright fancies and happy inventions, no stopping for tea. The only game we played was to survive, or go to the wall. If you didn’t win, you didn’t finish. Loser, lose all.” Milo is stressing that Andrew has always had the luxury of playing games that had no real consequences, and were just for amusement. In Milo’s world of poverty-stricken existence, growing up meant the stakes were frighteningly real. 

 

Andrew seems to think that they are even now for exacting revenge on each other. But that is not how Milo sees it. In tense words, Milo says that Andrew frightened him almost to death. He actually thought the button on his jacket, his finger, and the stair railing were the last things he was to see, and the sound of the gun going off was like hearing the sound of his own death. Milo says his performance as Doppler doesn’t settle the score. 

 

Milo angrily yells that his father and grandfather were losers. He doesn’t want a draw with Andrew. He proclaims that now it’s time for the Tindles to start winning and for others to be the losers. We now start the third game of the film, as Milo says he has actually killed someone, and now “it’s a real game and a real murder.” Milo is making Andrew realize the actual consequences that occur in Milo’s world when people take actions. There is no safety net. He says while planting the evidence in and around the house while Andrew was away, Andrew’s mistress Tea showed up. He seduced her and they had sex. He then strangled her and placed her in the temporary grave outside. Milo then relocated her and he says that the police will find her body. He says he alerted the cops and they should arrive in thirty minutes. Milo told the cops that Andrew was obsessed with games about murder and his greatest desire was to “commit an actual, real life murder, hide the body, then leave clues linking” him with the crime, believing that “the poor, simple-minded police would never recognize ‘em for what they were.” Milo adds that he told the police that Tea knew that Andrew thought she was having affairs with other men and threatened to kill her. This plan is a variation on the two versions by each man previously to set up the other person to appear guilty. It also is in sync with the disdainful way Andrew depicted policemen in his novels. 

 Andrew thinks that Milo is bluffing but then he calls a woman named Joyce who verifies that Tea was strangled and the police have already been investigating. Milo now wants to see Andrew as frightened as he was and test him on his proclaimed genius at games-playing. He hid four pieces of evidence, including the murder weapon, in the room which the “plodding” cops will find if Andrew doesn’t. Milo is challenging Andrew to be able to outwit the police as he boasts or risk humiliation. Milo reveals he has familiarity with the objects which shows he was in close contact with Tea (which is spelled the same as “tea,” something Andrew would serve as an upstanding British citizen). Milo then gives cryptic clues which show his intelligence, something Andrew underestimated, as Milo reverses their positions of power. Milo enjoys watching the exasperated Andrew run around looking for the planted evidence. Milo taunts him by repeating the same condescending lines that Andrew used on him as Doppler, and calls Andrew’s sleuth “Merridick,” a derogatory version of “Merridew.” Milo uses evidence and clues associated with Andrew’s position in the ruling class, such as a diamond necklace and a song a rich boy’s nanny would sing, to be his undoing. Milo points out the one time Andrew shows a slight sign of regret about what happened to his mistress. Andrew is so selfish he enjoys having an adrenaline rush playing the game which blots out any feelings of grief. Tea’s shoe is hidden in a coal bin, and Andrew gets blackened looking for the item, appearing like a commoner working in the mines. Milo points out that Andrew is a bigot who only portrayed people of various ethnic backgrounds in derogatory stereotypical ways in his writings. 

 

He discovers the necklace which isn’t incriminating since Tea could have left it there, but Andrew throws the solitary shoe into the furnace. Milo starts chuckling louder and louder, and then moves his arms around mechanically until Andrew realizes he must search his mechanical sailor Jolly Jack Tar, one of his playthings that Milo now uses against Andrew. When the remote button is pressed the doll winks at him, as if signaling a clue, and Andrew finds that Jolly Jack is wearing one of Tea’s eyelashes, which he then burns. Andrew resorts to an Italian slur toward Milo, who becomes angry and then, in retribution, gives him the final clue in Italian, which Andrew, after some struggling, translates to, “All that glitters is not gold.” Andrew is stumped, so Milo plays a little of “Anything Goes” on the piano, which mentions a “glimpse of stocking.” But the almost defeated Andrew practically begs for more help now, showing how Milo is forcing him to grovel. 

 

Milo taunts Andrew as he continues to search by saying he hears the approach of the police, but says he’ll go outside and try to hold them off. Andrew “glimpses” a stocking, the murder weapon, wrapped around the pendulum of his grandfather clock (another of his pricey objects). It also reminds us of Milo’s father’s occupation and implies the working-class is getting its revenge. Andrew flushes the stocking down the toilet, and he cleans himself up for the entrance of the cops, who don’t really exist, another bit of fakery on Milo’s part. 

 

Milo now tells the truth. Tea called while he was staging the trick to play on Andrew. Milo told her of the nasty prank that Andrew played on him and she knew how he enjoyed “inflicting on other people” games of “humiliation.”  Tea was glad to help him get some revenge so she donated her things and Joyce, her flatmate, joined in. Tea also told Milo that she and Andrew hadn’t been together in over a year and that Andrew was “practically impotent.” (Given this bit of information, the gun, the poker, the golf club, the cue stack, the dart, the prophylactically sheathed clock pendulum, and Milo’s distortion of the amateur detective’s name, “Merridick,” all can be seen as phallic references commenting ironically on Andrew’s inability to perform sexually). Andrew looks like he has been tortured, having been dragged off of his self-appointed perch of superiority. 

 

Milo angrily says that he doesn’t play “games of humiliation for sport,” suggesting he has suffered enough degradation in life, so when he plays it’s a more exacting enterprise. He sums up by reversing Andrew’s statement and says his writing is “the normal recreation of snobbish, outdated, life-hating, ignoble minds.” He then goes to get Marguerite’s fur coat, since Andrew’s wife will not be returning. But, one can exact only so much pain before the injured party lashes out. Andrew now verbally writes the story he will tell the police about a burglar (here we go again), stealing his wife’s fur coat. He loads his revolver while saying he shot the intruder, killing him. 

 

Andrew says to Milo he can’t allow him telling anyone about what has happened, especially since it would show he was bested by a “wop” upstart who knows of Andrew’s impotence. Milo says that he actually did go to the cops after Andrew played his first game, but the policeman didn’t seem too interested in a story from a lower-class man stealing an elite man’s wife. But Milo points out that if he were found dead there, it couldn’t appear as the shooting of an unknown criminal. However, there have been so many falsehoods told that Andrew doesn’t believe that Milo went to the police. When one can’t tell the difference between truth and fiction, one tends to believe what one wants to believe. Andrew says Milo dared to take his wife, question his virility, and mock his writing, all of which warrants severe punishment from his lofty social perch. Andrew then shoots Milo.

 But Milo was telling the truth and the police acted upon Milo’s report. They pull up and the police car’s light is flashing. Milo’s dying words are, “Remember, be sure to tell them, it was only a bloody game.” In Andrew’s world the ruling class always outplays the lower class, and losing for him is not an option. But, in this case, Milo has brought Andrew down because of the man’s inability to realize his false superiority. Milo grabs the remote and Jolly Jack Tar laughs as if ridiculing Andrew, and his other mechanical figures seem to jeer at Andrew’s bigoted ignorance. The last shot transforms into one of Andrew’s dioramas, where instead of catching the murderer, Andrew turns into the caught killer. 

The next film is The Grifters.