Deathtrap is a 1982 thriller film based on Ira Levin's play of the same name.
The cast includes Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, Dyan Cannon, Irene Worth and Henry Jones. Real-life movie and theatre critics Stewart Klein, Jeffrey Lyons and Joel Siegel have cameo appearances as themselves.
The film's poster includes a rendering of a Rubik's Cube puzzle, which was then at the peak of its popularity.
Plot summary
Sidney Bruhl is a playwright most famous for his mystery thriller "The Murder Game." Following the debut of the latest of a series of flops, he returns home to East Hampton and to his wife Myra, a remote residence decorated with an assortment of prop weapons from Sidney's various plays.
He tells her that he's received a play called "Deathtrap" from a former student from a playwriting seminar. The play is so perfect that Sidney jokingly suggests he murder the student and steal the play for himself. Myra begins to wonder if he's still joking when Sidney calls the student and learns that no one else has read the play or has a copy. Sidney promptly invites him to Long Island to discuss it.
The student, Clifford Anderson, arrives by train. Myra, who has a heart condition, becomes more and more agitated as the evening progresses, trying desperately to convince Sidney to work with Clifford on "Deathtrap" and share the revenue. Out of the blue, Sidney attacks Clifford, strangling him with a chain.
As soon as Myra stops screaming and calms down, Sidney drags off Clifford to the yard to bury him. Myra can't believe what he's done and intends to leave him.
They receive an unexpected visit from psychic Helga Ten Dorp, a minor celebrity who is staying with the Bruhls' neighbors. Helga wanders around the living room, sensing pain and death in various spots and associated with the weapons displayed on the wall. She warns Sidney about a man in boots who will attack him.
As she prepares for bed, Myra doesn't know what to make of Helga but she is slowly coming to terms with Sidney's diabolical deed. All is calm when Clifford suddenly bursts through the bedroom window and beats Sidney with a log.
Myra flees and Clifford chases after her until her heart gives out; she collapses and dies. Sidney calmly descends the stairs, uninjured, and sidles unperturbed to Clifford's side. They exchange a few words about what to do with Myra's body before their true feelings emerge. The men kiss.
Their plan is a success. Sidney will inherit Myra's wealth. And after her funeral, Clifford moves in to become Sidney's new "secretary." Working together at a double desk, Sidney suffers from writer's block but Clifford busily types page after page, claiming to be working on a play of his own set at a welfare office.
Sidney's lawyer, Porter, drops by to settle some of Myra's affairs and points out that he spotted Clifford hiding what he has written in the desk. A curious Sidney waits until the coast is clear and breaks into the desk drawer.
He is horrified to discover that Clifford is using the true story of Myra's murder as the basis for a fictional play called "Deathtrap." He can't believe Clifford would run the risk of exposing Myra's heart attack as a pre-meditated crime.
Clifford casually offers to share the work and the credit. Sidney demurs; he wants to be remembered as the man who wrote "The Murder Game," not as "the faggot who knocked off his wife." But he reluctantly capitulates when Clifford insists he'll go away and write the play without him, Sidney now recognizing that Clifford is a man with sociopathic tendencies and no conscience or guilt.
A few days later, Helga stops by again, ostensibly to borrow some candles in case the power goes out in a predicted thunderstorm. She meets Clifford for the first time. As soon as Sidney returns from a dinner party, Helga warns him that Clifford is the man in the boots.
Sidney says he wants to act out some possible bits of business for their new play. He needs to demonstrate how to resist a frontal assault, then how a man might wield an axe. Sidney finally produces a gun he's secreted for this moment, trains it on Clifford and tearfully explains that he cannot allow completion of "Deathtrap" and must stop him with a bullet. He bids Clifford goodbye and pulls the trigger.
The gun doesn't go off because a suspicious Clifford has taken the bullets to load a different gun that he now possesses. Back in control, Clifford grabs wrist and leg manacles from the prop wall and makes Sidney chain himself to a chair. Clifford promises to unlock one of Sidney's cuffs to allow time for his own escape. Clifford intends to complete "Deathtrap" one way or another.
He leaves the room to pack his belongings, whereupon Sidney slips out of the trick cuffs (once the property of Harry Houdini) and grabs a crossbow off the weapon wall. He proceeds to fell Clifford with a single shot.
There's a genuine body to dispose of now, but the storm hits with full force, knocking out the house's electricity. Sidney tries to light a candle while a fleeting figure scurries through the living room in a flash of lightning. It is Helga, aware of the mortal danger at the house.
Sidney finds a knife while Helga grabs a gun. Clifford regains consciousness and trips Helga. The gun goes flying and a struggle for it ensues that ...
... abruptly cuts to the very same struggle being portrayed on a stage by actors before a full house, where "Clifford" stabs "Sidney" and both die, leaving "Helga" victorious. The opening night audience erupts in thunderous applause, and at the back of the house stands Helga Ten Dorp, now the happy author of a hit Broadway play called "Deathtrap."
Cast
Reception
Though the film did receive positive reviews, Cannon was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for "Worst Supporting Actress" for her performance.
Mad Magazine parodied the film as Deathcrap.
The kissing scene between Sidney and Clifford is not in the original play. In his book The Celluloid Closet, gay film historian Vito Russo reports Reeve as saying that the kiss was booed by preview audiences in Denver, Colorado and estimating that a Time magazine report on the incident (which spoiled a key plot element) cost the film $10 million in ticket sales.
DVD release
Deathtrap was released on Region 1 DVD on July 27, 1999. It was re-released on November 8, 2003 as half of a two-pack with the Henry Winkler/Michael Keaton buddy film Night Shift.
See also
External links
|
Films directed by Sidney Lumet |
|
| 1950s |
|
|
| 1960s |
|
|
| 1970s |
|
|
| 1980s |
|
|
| 1990s |
|
|
| 2000s |
|
|
