DEATHTRAP (1982)

Director: Sidney Lumet

Writers: Jay Presson Allen, Ira Levin (original stage play)

Producer: Burtt Harris

Cast: Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, Dyan Cannon, Irene Worth, Henry Jones, Joe Silver, Tony DiBenedetto, Rev. Francis B. Creamer, Jr., Jayne Heller, George Peck, Al LeBreton, Perry Rosen, (and as themselves) Jeffrey Lyons, Stewart Klein, Joel Siegel 

Renowned mystery playwright Sidney Bruhl (Michael Caine) has just witnessed the disastrous Broadway debut performance of his fourth flop in a row and is wondering if his career is over. Sydney receives a first draft of a new play called Deathtrap from Clifford Anderson (Christopher Reeve), one of his writing seminar pupils asking for advice. Sidney sees the makings of a hit in the novice’s script, and his wife Myra (Dyan Cannon) suggests that Sidney collaborate with the new writer as a way to get over his slump. However, Sidney also sees a chance to regain his former glory by getting rid of Anderson and claiming Deathtrap as his own. 

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With this director and cast adapting an Ira Levin play, Deathtrap was dead certain to be fiendishly fun entertainment. The plot is twisty, the dialogue is witty, and the metastory makes the characters and the audience consider how plotting a play or a crime are interchangeable talents with the same problems to solve.

Most of the action takes place in the Bruhl couple’s picturesque East Hampton home with just a handful of characters. I assume that this is a pretty faithful adaptation of Ira Levin’s original stage play, as one can see that the small cast spending most of the time inside the Bruhl home would suit a stage presentation. This makes us focus entirely on the writing and performances that are the most important elements in any worthwhile drama. Both of these elements make Deathtrap into a terrifically entertaining comedy-thriller. 

Michael Caine is certainly sympathetic in his plight as Sidney Bruhl. He seems to have the ideal life of a famous playwright working in the privacy of his unique country home of a converted windmill. He has a proud display of the many weapons and props used in his hit plays. His lovely and wealthy wife Myra is devoted to him. Yet Sidney sees his prestige and livelihood slipping away from him because of his recent string of failed plays. Our very first sight of Sidney Bruhl is a chilling close up that displays the intensity of the shame and rage he feels watching his latest work dying on stage during opening night. We are immediately convinced that Sidney Bruhl will react drastically. 

Sidney’s initial reaction involves getting really plastered at a Broadway bar. Later he humorously vents his fear and frustration to his supportive wife who fails to reassure him. When Myra gives Sidney the package he has just received containing the terrific first play by one of his former students, it is not long before we see another patented, reptilian Michael Caine glare. This time there is cold-blooded, opportunistic fervor in Sidney’s gaze that even his adoring wife can’t miss. 

Once Sidney agrees that maybe Myra is right to suggest meeting with young Clifford Anderson to discuss a playwriting collaboration, the plot is in full gear. We are sharing Myra’s suspicions about what her husband has in mind; suspicions we are all too eager to believe and that she can’t quite bring herself to accept. 

Dyan Canon is a lot of fun as Myra. She is trying her best to get Sidney to avoid committing murder without directly accusing him of that intention. Sydney’s bread-and-butter for years has been dwelling on such things in his mystery plots. She can’t tell if her husband is just indulging in a what-if flight of whimsy or if he is really ready to regain success as a playwright by killing and claiming his victim’s work as his own. 

Fresh from his success as the title hero of Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980), Christopher Reeve is great as the eager and aspiring writer Clifford Anderson. This character is a real change of pace for Reeve, to say the least. He completes the trio of characters that provide most of the conflict in the story. 

Much of the credit for the quality of Deathtrap belongs to Ira Levin who wrote the original hit stage play that this film adapts. The novelist that managed to wring fear, suspense, and irony out of big city apartment life in Rosemary’s Baby and suburban tranquility in The Stepford Wives (both also adapted into fine films) seems to be having even more fun with the idyllic small town life in Deathtrap. At the core of all three of these stories is the pursuit of an ideal lifestyle. Status and success are the goals that lure Levin's characters to commit evil acts. 

I know that director Sidney Lumet is one of those “important” directors, yet I must confess that I have not seen much of his work. However, I love his adaptation of the Agatha Christie mystery classic Murder on the Orient Express (1974). Deathtrap seems to be one of Lumet’s less revered films, but it is the most entertaining genre film one could hope for. It has laughs, suspense, surprises, and great performances. As Sidney Bruhl says, “Even a gifted director couldn’t hurt it.” Lumet and everyone else involved really knock ‘em dead with Deathtrap.