Deathtrap (1982)

	Directed by: Sidney Lumet	COUNTRY USA GENRE Black comedy / Thriller NORWEGIAN TITLE Dødsfellen RUNNING TIME 116 minutes
	Produced by: Burtt Harris
	Written by (based on the play by Ira Levin): Jay Presson Allen

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Sidney Bruhl	Michael Caine
Clifford Anderson	Christopher Reeve
Myra Bruhl	Dyan Cannon	½
Helga Ten Dorp	Irene Worth
Porter Milgrim	Henry Jones
Seymour Starger	Joe Silver	-

Review

Ira Levin's successful 1979 play was brought to the big screen by Sidney Lumet, based on a Jay Presson Allen script that ultimately feels a wee bit outdated. Michael Caine is well cast as the washed-out playwright Sidney Bruhl, who is believed by his wife (Dyan Cannon) to have become dangerously envious when one of his former students (Christopher Reeve) sends him a remarkable manuscript for a new play entitled "Deathtrap". The ensuing machinations have plenty of academic cleverness but lack slickness in their execution. The problem isn't the story's elaborate schemes and plotting, but rather the uneven tone employed by Lumet and his cast. Dyan Cannon's overdone performance as the wife is counterproductive, and the "psychic" neighbour Helga Ten Dorp, played by Irene Worth, is an excruciating caricature and misfire that constantly tears down any suspense and playfulness the film tries to build up. Deathtrap is at its best when Caine and the delightful Christopher Reeve are left alone to play their understated mind-games with each other.