Deathtrap (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Deathtrap | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Directed by | Sidney Lumet |
| Produced by | Burtt Harris Jay Presson Allen (executive producer) |
| Written by | Ira Levin (play) Jay Presson Allen (screenplay) |
| Starring | Michael Caine Christopher Reeve Dyan Cannon |
| Music by | Johnny Mandel |
| Cinematography | Andrzej Bartkowiak |
| Editing by | Jack Fitzstephens |
| Distributed by | Warner Brothers |
| Release date(s) | March 19, 1982 |
| Running time | 116 minutes |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Deathtrap is a 1982 thriller film. It is 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.
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[edit] Plot summary
Sidney Bruhl (Caine) is a playwright who's most famous for his mystery thriller The Murder Game. Following the debut of the latest of a series of flops, he returns to his home in East Hampton and to his wife Myra (Cannon). He tells her that he's received a play called "Deathtrap" from a former student from a playwriting seminar. The play is ready for production and Sidney jokingly suggests that he murder the student and steal the play, a joke that becomes more serious when he learns, after calling the student, that no one else has read the play and no one else has a copy. Sidney invites the student up to Long Island.
The student, Clifford Anderson (Reeve), arrives soon thereafter. 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. Instead, Sidney attacks Clifford, strangling him with a chain. He forces Myra to help him drag Clifford into the yard to bury him.
Following the burial, the Bruhls get a visit from psychic Helga ten Dorp (Worth), who's staying with the Bruhls' neighbors. Helga wanders around the living room and study, sensing pain and death in various spots and associated with various prop weapons and handcuffs Sidney has displayed on the wall. She warns Sidney about a man in boots who attacks him.
As she prepares for bed, Myra initially continues to be horrified, but slowly comes to see something of glamour in Sidney's act. Suddenly, Clifford 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 comes up next to Clifford. They kiss, revealing that they have become lovers and planned Myra's murder together.
Over the next several days Myra's funeral is held and Clifford is moved in as Sidney's "secretary." Clifford works on a play which he says is about a welfare office but Sidney is suffering from writer's block. Sidney's lawyer Porter (Jones) comes over to settle some of Myra's affairs and notices Clifford is acting oddly about his manuscript pages. Sidney sends Clifford off on a pretext errand and breaks into his desk to read the manuscript. He is horrified to discover that Clifford is writing the story of their murdering Myra as a play called "Deathtrap." Clifford returns and tries to convince Sidney to work with him on it. Sidney initially balks at the notion. He wants to be remembered, he says, as the man who wrote The Murder Game, not as "the faggot who knocked off his wife." Eventually, he agrees.
A few days later, Helga stops by again, ostensibly to borrow some candles in case the power goes out in a storm that's blowing up. She meets Clifford and, when Sidney returns from a dinner party a few minutes later, warns Sidney that Clifford is the man in boots she saw attacking him. Sidney assures her that he'll be sending Clifford away.
Sidney asks Clifford to help him act out some bits of business from the play. He has Clifford hold an axe in various poses and attack him. Finally, Sidney grabs a gun off the prop weapon wall and trains it on Clifford. He tells Clifford that while he loves him, he can't let him write the play. Since if Clifford leaves Sidney can't stop him from writing the play somewhere else, he feels he has no choice but to kill Clifford. The attacks and the axe handling were to set up a self-defense claim for Sidney. Sidney bids Clifford good-bye and pulls the trigger.
The gun doesn't go off, though, because Clifford has taken the bullets to load a different gun. Clifford grabs some wrist and leg manacles off the prop wall and makes Sidney chain himself to a chair. Clifford tells him that he's going to pack and just before leaving will unlock one of Sidney's cuffs. Clifford will write the play and if anyone asks he will deny that it's inspired by Sidney's story. As Clifford goes to pack, Sidney slips out of the cuffs (they're trick cuffs formerly owned by Harry Houdini) and grabs a crossbow off the weapon wall. He stalks Clifford and shoots him with a crossbow bolt. The gun goes flying just as the power fails. Sidney searches for it but Helga, who's entered in the darkness, finds it. Sidney, Helga and Clifford struggle as lightning flashes...
...and the film cuts to a playhouse where two men and a woman struggle on stage. One of the men "stabs" the other and then "dies," leaving the woman alone and triumphant, to an audience's thunderous applause. Helga has found the "Deathtrap" manuscript and appropriated it; based on the reaction of the opening night audience she has a huge hit on her hands.
[edit] Reception
Though the film was widely hailed, Cannon was nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for "Worst Supporting Actress" for her performance.
The kissing scene 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 the plot) cost the film $10 million in ticket sales.
[edit] 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.
[edit] External link
- Deathtrap at the Internet Movie Database
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