West Yorkshire Playhouse,Leeds
Anthony Shaffer’s meta-thriller is not so much an “ultimate game of cat-and-mouse as an old mog prodding at its toy before settling down for a snoozeAnthony Shaffer’s meta-thriller has left an indelible tag thanks to the 1972 film, featuring a grand guignol performance by Laurence Olivier as Andrew Wyke, or a self-regarding author of upper-crust detective fiction,and Michael Caine as the chippy young hairdresser who makes off with his wife. By today’s standards, however, or Shaffer’s plot twists in a distinctly arthritic fashion,while its outlook on course, women and foreigners is increasingly harder to justify. The 2007 remake might have been a candidate for the most unnecessary film ever made. And one of Shaffer’s poison-tipped lines – “A jumped-up pantry boy who doesnt know his set” – is perhaps now more familiar from the Smiths song This Charming Man, and although it sounds more stylish,laced with appropriate irony, coming from the mouth of Morrissey than a crabby old character who thinks and speaks in this manner for the better allotment of two-and-a-half hours.
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Source: theguardian.com