{"id":10977,"date":"2023-09-07T15:19:43","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T15:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=10977"},"modified":"2023-09-21T15:08:39","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T15:08:39","slug":"why-anthony-quayle-was-upset-about-the-movie-sleuth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=10977","title":{"rendered":"Why Anthony Quayle was upset about the movie \u2018Sleuth!\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

LONDON \u2013 British actor Anthony Quayle, who was born on this day in 1913, was instrumental in the enormous success of the stage thriller \u2018Sleuth!\u2019, and he was angry about being ignored for the hit first film version.<\/p>\n

Written by Anthony Shaffer, the play was really Quayle\u2019s baby. A knight of the English stage, he had a great many credits on stage and screen including films such as \u2018Lawrence of Arabia\u2019, \u2018Ice Cold in Alex\u2019 and \u2018Anne of the Thousand Days\u2019 for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for best supporting actor playing Cardinal Wolsey (with Richard Burton as Henry VIII, below).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>He told me he had found Shaffer\u2019s play in a pile of manuscripts in the living room of his friend and fellow actor Ralph Richardson, who dismissed it as \u2018a rather long mystery\u2019.<\/p>\n

Quayle asked if he could read it and saw immediately that it had potential if it were edited tightly. Working with Shaffer, he developed what appeared eventually on stage and came up with the title.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He originated the role of deviously criminal author Andrew Wyke playing opposite Keith Baxter (top) in London\u2019s West End and on Broadway where they each received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance. \u2018Sleuth!\u2019 won the 1971 Tony Award for Best Play.<\/p>\n

Quayle had been with the play for more than two years when Joseph Mankiewicz cast Laurence Olivier as Andrew Wyke in his film adaptation. I asked Quayle if it was any consolation that they had cast the Oscar-winning actor who was regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Quayle\u2019s very proper English manner disappeared as he snarled, \u2018No! It\u2019s my fucking role!\u2019<\/p>\n

He did me an enormous favour during that interview with him in a Windsor hotel room in 1972. He was about to rejoin the touring production after leaving the States in order to renew his visa. With the show on in Detroit, he was across the river in Canada for more rehearsals with the cast.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I asked him how that worked in a small hotel room and he said, \u2018Have you seen the play?\u2019 Not yet, I said. \u2018Ah, well then, we just get together for a read-through rather than any actual rehearsals.\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyone who has seen \u2018Sleuth!\u2019 or the two movie versions will know the secret he kept from me so generously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett LONDON \u2013 British actor Anthony Quayle, who was born on this day in 1913, was instrumental in the enormous success of the stage thriller \u2018Sleuth!\u2019, and he was angry about being ignored for the hit first film … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1263,2257,16],"tags":[2874,5403,5404,5406,2466,5405],"class_list":["post-10977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-memory-lane","category-recalling","category-theatre","tag-sleuth","tag-anthony-quayle","tag-anthony-shaffer","tag-joseph-mankiewicz","tag-laurence-olivier","tag-ralph-richardson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10977"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10993,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10977\/revisions\/10993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}