Sleuth (play) and Patrick Macnee. Baxter was succeeded by Brian Murray, Donal Donnelly, Jordan Christopher and Curt Dawson. "Sleuth" received the 1971 Tony Award for Best Play, and received nominations for Best Direction of a Play (Clifford Williams) and Best Lighting Design (William Ritman). Anthony Quayle and Keith Baxter received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance. "Sleuth" also received the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Play. In 1972, Shaffer adapted his play for film, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. Another film adaptation was released in 2007 with a screenplay by Harold Pinter.
Sleuth (2007 film) Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" wrote, "It's no mystery that 'Sleuth' is fascinating," observing that Pinter "has written a new country house mystery, which is not really a mystery at all in terms of its plot, and eerily impenetrable in its human relationship" and that "in 'Sleuth' what [Kenneth Branagh] celebrates is perplexing, ominous, insinuating material in the hands of two skilled actors." In contrast, J.R. Jones of "The Chicago Reader" wrote, "Director Kenneth Branagh has mercifully pared the action down to 88 minutes (the first movie dragged on for 138), but the final act, with its obscure homosexual