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.

Breathless

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

 

Breathless (1960), directed by Jean-Luc Godard from a story by François Truffaut, epitomizes the film movement known as The French New Wave (previously noted on this blog in Truffaut’s Jules and Jim). These movies stress the art of making a film, so the style is anti-realistic by shooting life like a documentary with hand-held cameras that follow action instead of cuts to set up scenes, and then subverting the format. There are “jump cuts” in this movie which seem chaotic but which coincide with the main character’s rebellious, anarchic personality, and which in turn show the filmmaker’s desire to break with tradition as to story, topics, and style.

 

The center of attention here is Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo), a.k.a. Laszlo Kovacs. He is a criminal who happily defies the laws of society which for him is like waving the flag of individual freedom. We first see him at the port in Marseille, France, holding a magazine containing sexual content, showing disdain for appropriateness. His hat is as crooked as is his character. He coolly dangles a cigarette from his mouth and rubs his lips with his thumb (which he often does in the film), which reminds us of Humphrey Bogart, who often played characters that swam alone away from the mainstream of compliance. Later in the film Michel looks at movie posters of Bogart and Michel says, “Bogey” addressing the actor as an actor himself and a character feeling a kinship with the man). 

 

He has a woman accomplice who gives him the “coast is clear” sign, and Michel steals a car. She wants to go with him, but he has little concern for her beyond using her for his own purposes, and speeds off. He sings to himself and talks out loud about getting money and taking Patricia Franchini (Jean Seberg) to Italy. He breaks the “fourth wall” and speaks directly to the audience (the movie revealing its dismissal of being realistic and instead is self-referential, calling attention to it being a work of art). He seems to wish to break away from what does not make him happy, in this case the countryside of France, and wants to be in the city. He doesn’t care what others think about his preferences as he shows his contempt for the opinions of others. He sees female hitchhikers on the road but drives on, calling them “dogs.” So, he is superficial in the selfishly sexist way he views women. He adds more disdain for careful females when he says, “Women drivers are cowardice personified.” But here it is because he wants to be daring in the way he lives and doesn’t believe in playing it safe. He is upset about any slowing down of the traffic, saying the car is made to run, not stop. The desire to move swiftly is a metaphor for how Michel wants to experience thrills during the short time that life offers. Even when not in a car, he often jumps and runs around.

 

He finds a gun in the glove compartment of the stolen car and pretends to shoot. But, there are actual sounds of the weapon going off an instant later as the camera points to passing trees. The pretend shooting and the sounds are a premonition of what is to occur. The next scene picks up on the possibility of impending trouble as Michel sees policemen on motorcycles on the side of the road. Instead of being cautious he speeds up to escape, and the police follow him. He pulls off the road behind some bushes. Here we have the first of numerous “jump cuts” that collapse action. We get the quick images of Michel holding the found gun, the sound of the gun discharging (which we heard earlier), a shot cop tumbling to the ground, and then Michel running away. Interspersed with action scenes, such as this one, there are scenes where Michel is inactive which illustrates his “moral sloth, his fatigue” as Dudley Andrew says in his essay, “Breathless -Then and Now.” Augmented by the changes in the musical score, we get a “bipolar aesthetic” during the course of the story.

 

There are more quick cuts of Michel arriving in a cab in Paris, trying to use a public telephone, and of him reading a newspaper while walking (looking for news about the policeman he shot). If shown realistically, time would be consumed doing routine action, but the effect is to speed up events, again stressing the stylized approach to filmmaking. In his essay, Andrew says the film “brings anarchy into the heart of Paris.” That suggests that Paris is a place of traditional style and attitudes and Godard’s approach is to upend that staid way of looking at things. 

 

Michel arrives at Patricia’s apartment, but she is out. He complains that he can’t find cash there because, he says, women never have money, which shows how he uses females for his own benefit. After not finding Patricia he goes to the place of another female acquaintance. Any port in a storm, I guess. He wants her to loan him money, she calls him “rotten,” and he agrees with her. He knows he is not a “good guy” and he doesn’t care, as he does not subscribe to standard morality. He illustrates this fact by saying she can keep the small amount of money she has, but then steals it anyway, making him a liar and a thief. Michel looks at himself in mirrors, suggesting his preoccupation with himself. In this scene Michel holds a toy monkey. Godard was influenced by director Nicholas Ray, and a toy monkey is a key symbol in Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause, the title of that film fitting in well with Michel’s character. The two rebels in these films represent the desire for freedom but with that urge for liberation they become tethered to the Angel of Death. 

 

Michel catches up with Patricia and the first thing he says is, “Come with me to Rome.” There is no time for foreplay for him because he just wants to keep moving. She is selling copies of the New York Herald Tribune in the street, an appropriate place for the man on the run. He says he doesn’t want to be in Paris because he has “enemies” there, another reason for this outsider to not stay in one place too long. The newspaper doesn’t have a horoscope, and he wants to know the future, which also stresses forward movement. They were only together five days earlier, yet he says the two women with whom he slept since they separated did not “jive” with him the way she did. He obviously gets around in and out of bed. But, it is she that left him, so he doesn’t always have the upper hand when it comes to women. 

 Michel passes by a sign that reads “live dangerously until the end,” which could be his slogan. Those words are appropriately followed by a car hitting a man. The jump cuts in the film are like photographed images strung together without providing the inessential time between them. So, Michel sees the car and then there is the man on the ground. The effect is visceral, as if Godard is punching his audience with quick visuals. Michel makes the sign of the cross as he stands over the dead pedestrian, as if bestowing an outlaw's benediction on a man who did not wither away in old age. 

 

Michel reads in a newspaper that the man who killed the policeman was identified and there is a picture of himself on the page. This development raises the stakes in the plot as Michel is at increased risk of getting caught for his crime, although he acts detached despite the peril he is in. He goes to a travel agency to see a man named Tolmatchoff (Richard Balducci) who has an envelope from someone who owes Michel money, but there is no cash in it. Tolmatchoff says he is “rusting away” in his job. Interestingly, Michel says, “Better rusted than busted,” which shows that Michel would choose a stagnant life of one’s own choosing outside rather than the even more confining existence inside a prison. As Michel leaves, he just misses encountering two men who ask for him. Police Inspector Vital (Daniel Boulanger) knows Tolmatchoff, who he has used to inform on another crook. He knows that Michel has his mail forwarded to the travel agency. He also says Michel used to be an airline steward, which fits his mobile personality. Tolmatchoff says he hasn’t seen Michel, but the receptionist tells the cops that a man was just there talking to Tolmatchoff. The policemen go in pursuit as Vital informs the clueless Tolmatchoff that he can be an “accessory to murder.” Michel is spreading his collateral damage to his unsuspecting acquaintances. 

 To get some extra money, Michel has no qualms about knocking a guy out in a men’s restroom and robbing him so he can take Patricia to dinner. He tells her a story about someone who stole money and took a woman to the Riviera. He told her this man was a thief, but the woman stuck by him and even helped with his robberies. It’s as if Michel is testing the waters to see if Patricia will want to be with him if he admits to his criminal activities. But, Patricia instead says she is late for a meeting with an American journalist, so she is also dating someone else. He is upset and even though he gives her a ride, he tries to convince her to stay with him, even if they don’t have sex. She ignores his praising her looks and tells him to just drop her off. He then is like a rebuffed teenager, telling her he never wants to see her again, and to “Get Lost!” 

 

There is then the first scene without Michel. Patricia meets with the journalist for lunch, and asks, “Am I unhappy because I am free, or free because I’m unhappy?” In any case, she is stating that she is sad. She may be implying that liberation can come from not caring about being happy since the burden to lead a happy life is lifted. And yet, one longs for being bound to something that can bring joy. Godard says in an essay entitled, “I’m Not Out of Breath,” that the film “Accentuates this confusion.” They leave, and Michel stalks them and sees the two kissing in the man’s car.  He is most likely upset because he feels he has been romantically out-conquested.

 

Earlier, Michel saw the couple’s reflection as they left the restaurant. The next day, Patricia looks at herself in a mirror that is in a store window. She finds that Michel has taken the key to where she is staying and she finds him in her bed with a stuffed teddy bear. There is an echo here of the toy monkey, and the possibility that people are caught between childhood and adulthood. He makes odd faces at her and she looks at a mirror and also makes different facial expressions. Again, there is that preoccupation with oneself. But there is also the possibility that the film is commenting on acting and the way movies can reflect the inner aspects of people. 

 

She tells him that the journalist is getting pieces for her to write, so she had to go with him, but insists that she didn’t sleep with the man. He says he loves her, but still puts the emphasis on the sexual part of their relationship. She says she wishes they could be like Romeo and Juliet, and Michel is exasperated by the female desire to turn love affairs into idealistic tales, where one lover can’t live without the other. But, the insertion here of the names of the characters in the tragedy by Shakespeare may be a bit of foreshadowing. And so might Michel’s fake threat of strangling Patricia unless she gives him a smile (echoes of Othello?). The appropriate follow-up to that is when he asks her if she thinks about death, and he admits he thinks about it all the time. In his essay, Godard says that people “every second stage their own executions in one way or another.” So, in that sense his movie is about “death.” Since one’s mortality is inevitable, it is just a matter of how an individual plays out the steps to that end that matter. 

 

Patricia asks him to say something nice and he can’t do that at first, since being sweet is not in his makeup. The best he can do is tell her he wants to sleep with her because she is beautiful. She says that is not true, and then he says it’s because she is ugly, and says both are the same. Again, we have that confusion, that “bipolar” feeling of irreconcilable opposites. She calls him a liar, and he is that, since he lies about his fake passport with his alias, Laszlo Kovacs, on it by saying the document belongs to his brother. He then says it’s better to tell the truth when playing poker because others think you are bluffing, and then you win. It is a cynical comment on how people assume others are dishonest and the forthright person can use that frankness for selfish reasons. Then they switch from skeptical adults to childlike innocents again, playing a staring game. She looks at him through a rolled-up poster, and the effect is to simulate seeing Belmondo through a camera lens, as the movie continues to reference filmmaking. 

 

The two kiss, and then Patricia says she might be pregnant and Michel would be the father. His response is a cold, selfish criticism that she should have been more careful, as he takes no responsibility for his actions. He is only interested in getting some money from Antonio, who owes him. She says she told him about her possible pregnancy to see how he would react. He obviously didn’t pass the test. He phones Tolmatchoff who tells him the police questioned him about Michel. As Michel and Patricia talk, a police siren is heard in the background, an omen that the authorities are closing in on him. He previously picked up her skirt and she smacked him. He now grabs her behind, and receives another smack. He doesn’t change despite punishment for his transgressions. 

 

This story is a modern romance, as they have sex first and then get to know each other afterwards. He finds out she is twenty years old, and she learns he sold cars in New York (which shows his attachment to things that defy being stationary). He asks about how many men she has slept with and she says not that many, holding up seven fingers. He flashes multiple digits and also says it’s not a large sum. The movie suggests that men and women have different perspectives on the extent of their sexual experiences. Michel spouts more sexist opinions about women, rating them on a scale of one to ten, and how available they make themselves for sex. But he does seem to give more weight to a woman being “charming” compared to her appearance. He loves to see Patricia in profile, as he expresses an almost artistic view of how he sees her. She says she wants him to love her, but is afraid of that love because she is independent. Perhaps this American aspect of her, the desire for individual freedom, is one of the reasons he is attracted to her. She says she wants to know what is behind his face, but would she want to know the criminal part of his personality? He pulls the sheets on the bed over his head, possibly a metaphor about how he is hiding his lawbreaking actions.

 

There is again that “confusion” in life that Godard spoke of when Michel says Patricia is “sweet, gentle,” but when she says he doesn’t know her, he states opposite characteristics, calling her, “mean, stupid, heartless, pathetic, cowardly, despicable.” He is being playful, but it also shows that when she doesn’t respond to his seductive kindness he then swings to the other side of the attribute pendulum. He is like a child having a tantrum when he doesn’t get the candy he wants. She hopes to write a novel, using everything she experiences as grist for her imaginative mill, so she doesn’t care about his criticisms. They are in many ways opposites, as she asks if he knows William Faulkner, and he wants to know if he is someone she slept with. (Men seem to want to have sex with many women but don’t want those women to sleep with other men, wishing to claim intimate ownership over their females). She is associated with traditional artistic forms, but the soundtrack favors jazz when Michel is the focus, and he prefers pop culture, like films. Michel says that, “I always get interested in girls who aren’t right for me,” which is a reference to The Maltese Falcon, and weds this film to the film noir tradition, as Michel is the outsider anti-hero). So, opposites attract sometimes, and maybe he wants her to desire him despite his lack of cultural refinement, and she is attracted to his raw sexuality and untethered lifestyle. 

 

She reads from Faulkner who says that between grief and nothing, he would choose grief. Not great options there. She asks which would Michel choose, and after evading the question, says he would pick nothing, because “grief’s a compromise. I want all or nothing.” His response is consistent with his drive to let no rules or boundaries confine his desire for self-gratification. If it leads to “nothing,” death, then so be it. Existential philosophy plays a role in the movie, as the main characters seem to be dealing with Jean-Paul Sartre’s book Being and Nothingness. Existentialism states there are no preexisting absolutes, and thus there is the possibility that “hell is other people,” as noted in Sartre’s play No Exit. Others try to define you, box you in as to how to be. So, the reality is that “existence precedes essence,” which means one acts in the world and then makes sense out of the actions afterwards. The film has those quick sequences and then there are these long scenes that reflect on life.  

 

This slowed down scene ends with a jump cut that speeds things up and there is an indication that the couple had sex. After the almost claustrophobic bedroom scene we get a contrasting aerial view of Paris. Michel lies again about going to get his car, but he actually steals one. More infractions on his part. As they drive, she continues with her introspective wonderings, saying she is “scared of aging.” His take is “being afraid is the worst sin.” For him, fear of anything diminishes how many thrills one can squeeze out of living. 

 While stopped as Patricia goes to her office, Michel sees a man (Godard himself) looking at him while holding a newspaper that has Michel’s picture on it and a story calling him a cop killer. He and Patricia drive away and the man approaches two policemen and points to the departing car as the music gets louder, suggesting trouble is increasing for Michel. Michel then drops Patricia off at a press conference at the airport. The writer, Parvulesco (the filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville) fields questions there. Godard presents us with himself as a character to stress his art over realism, and another real filmmaker, Melville, portraying a different kind of artist who comments, as art does, on life.  Parvulesco says that American women dominate the men but that is not yet the case with French women. Perhaps this comment relates to the American Patricia not being submissive and Michel finding her an intriguing challenge. When Patricia finally gets to ask Parvulesco what is his greatest ambition, he says he would like to be immortal and then die. More of that “confusion,” that Godard talks about. Here the contradictory statement implies the desire for complete freedom, even from death, followed by the wish for the ability to then choose nothingness to escape that “grief” which is part of existence that Michel despises. 

 

Michel drives to a junkyard (a possible metaphor for the deterioration of the social structure). He is trying to get money for the Ford Thunderbird he stole from Claudius Mansard (played by Claude Mansard, the almost identical name showing the Godard is not trying to present his film as a version of reality). He buys the car from Michel, but says he can’t pay him until later, and then shows him his picture in the newspaper. He has leverage because of Michel’s infamy, and may even believe Michel will get caught before he has to pay him. Michel’s response about his being in the newspaper is, “So what?” It goes back to him not wanting to live his life in fear. Michel finds out that he is to meet Antonio, the man who owes him money, later in the day. Michel tries to continue his thievery by going through Claudius’s desk, but the man is careful and says he keeps his money on him. Michel has the audacity, despite his unscrupulous behavior, to ask for a loan, which, of course, is refused. Claudius removed the distributor cap from the car so Michel could not drive it away. But the unrestrained Michel hits Claudius, and steals money for his “cab” fare. 

 

 In the cab, Michel wants to get to his meeting with Antonio, and as usual, he doesn’t care about anybody else as he tells the cab driver, “Never mind the pedestrians. Just move it!” He bullies the cab driver with backseat driving, not wanting anything to interfere with his needs. He says, “Don’t use the brakes. Cars are made to go, not stop!” We again see his disdain for anything holding him back from what he wants. Monetary responsibility is an annoyance that hinders him, and he stiffs the cabbie as he pretends he will be right back to pay him. He says to Patricia he hates cab drivers because they are afraid to scratch up the car. He is showing how he does not tolerate fear even if recklessness results in damage.  He is, however, late and Antonio left. Patricia is with him, and he continues to lie to her, fraudulently covering up his darker self, saying there was an accident, and the Thunderbird was damaged. He again shows his antisocial behavior by momentarily jumping out of the car and lifting the skirt of a female pedestrian, as he did earlier with Patricia. In answer to his question as to why she works at the newspaper, she says wittily to make enough money not to have to rely on men. She shows how she is not willing to submit to his will, which makes him want her more.

 

They separate as Patricia goes to the newspaper office where Inspector Vital found her by way of the snitch you pointed her out on the street with Michel. He shows her a newspaper with a large picture of Michel on it identifying him as the man who killed a policeman. It is strange that this journalist is clueless as to what has been in the news. Perhaps it suggests that Patricia wants to believe that Romeo and Juliette love affair can exist despite the facts. Her first response is denial, but she then is honest about having only known Michel for a short time and she doesn’t know where he is staying. She admits that he is looking for someone with an Italian name who owes him money. Vital wants her to contact him if she hears from Michel again. The hiding Michel sees the cops waiting for Patricia to come out of the building and watches as one follows her. He then tails the cop, hiding behind the newspaper that ironically has his picture on it. There is a large gathering of people as President Charles De Gaulle and President Dwight Eisenhower attend an event at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The formality of the orderly established leadership clashes with the threat to lawful order that Michel’s actions pose. 

 

Patricia, a character in a movie, goes into a movie theater to evade the policeman following her. This scene of a film within a film shows Godard reminding us that we are watching his cinematic work. She meets Michel outside, and says she wants to see a western movie. She wishes to escape into an idealized story of good guys versus bad ones, which is not what Michel’s life offers outside of the theater. Inside the movie theater they kiss and there she can pretend that she lives in a romanticized world. As they drive, Patricia finds out that Michel was married once, which he dismisses as the woman being crazy. She is trying to understand his motivations and whether she should stick with this outlaw. So far she goes along as they switch stolen cars. He seems to have a fatalistic philosophy about people, saying informers inform, burglars burgle, murderers murder, and lovers make love. It’s as if he’s saying that people follow their innate nature and can’t change who they are. He might be rationalizing by thinking he had no choice but to be a criminal. 

 

There are flashing news rolls on buildings saying how the police are closing in on Michel, which increases the suspense around Michel’s story. Michel finally locates Antonio Berrutti (Henri-Jacques Huet) at an outside eatery, and Patricia gets more exposure to the illegal life as Antonio photographs a woman he sent to kiss a man so he can blackmail him. They are to hide out at a model’s place, and there she is being photographed, another reference to recording images on film. The model leaves with the photographer, and Michel, still feeling insecure and wanting to claim his territory, asks if Patricia has called it off with her journalist friend. She says she has, but said hello to him at the dining out spot just to make Michel jealous. She does know how to push his buttons. Patricia says before they go to sleep that it is “sad to fall asleep. It separates people. Even when you’re sleeping together, you’re all alone.” She is preoccupied with her unhappiness, and here stresses how emotionally estranged people can be even in intimate situations.

 

The next day Patricia goes out and calls Inspector Vital and tells him where Michel is. She goes back to the model’s house and tells Michel what she did. Her explanation is that she wanted to test herself to see if she was in love with him, and since she did something that will hurt him then she must not truly love him. Apparently, she could not just trust her own feelings and needed to rely on her behavior to see how much she cared about him. She is a femme fatale in the film nori sense since she betrays her love interest, which, despite his rule-breaking ways, Michel would not do, since he has a code that does not allow for informing on other outlaws. They start to have overlapping dialogue with no communication between the two which shows that they are distancing themselves from each other. He shows how they have not solidified their connection when he says, “When we talked, I talked about me, you tackled about you, when we should have talked about each other.” She urges him to leave, most likely so he will not have a hold on her. Michel says he is tired and may now prefer going to prison. It’s as if she has taken away his reason for wanting to run away.

 

The action abruptly shifts to Michel going outside to meet Antonio who urges him to get in his car. But Michel addresses the camera as if telling the audience that he is “fed up,” and “tired.” It’s sort of his way of staying because he doesn’t want to leave Patricia. He will not take Antonio’s gun, probably because he knows that shooting a cop before led him to his current situation. The police arrive and Antonio throws his gun to Michel before driving off. Michel picks up the pistol and one of the cops shoots him in the back as Michel tries to get away, which is what he always tries to do. Patricia runs after him, but he collapses in the street. He makes some contradictory faces at her, one a smile, maybe a mouthing that says he loves her, and then he draws his hand over his face as if Belmondo is drawing a curtain over the performance. He tells her she makes him want to “puke.” We again have that “confusion” of contrasting expressions that make up life. 

 

Michel then dies, and that sign he walked under earlier could be the words that could go on his tombstone: “Live dangerously until the end.” Patricia seems to take on his spirit as she brushes her thumb over her lips, Bogey-style. So, the film ends with a cinematic reference to filmmakers, a sort of gesture of love, a kiss, to those who make movies.

The next film is Sleuth.