There is nothing better than a mystery that throws curveballs at you at every turn, and you are never sure where you stand. "Deathtrap," based on the hugely popular Broadway play by Ira Levin, keeps you guessing. Having seen it twice before, I forgot some of the intricate details and nuances in dialogue and the surprises in store with characters you think are dead when in fact they are not.
Michael Caine is a famous New York playwright, Sidney Bruhl, who is watching his latest mystery play come apart at the seams. Sidney hears the audience whisper at their disbelief that it was written by him, and then we get the polite applause at the end. Sidney gets drunk and heads home to his rustic house in East Hampton though he sleeps through the ride and winds up in the northernmost tip of East New York, that is Montauk! Sidney lives with his literally heartsick wife (Dyan Cannon), who screams every time she sees Sidney or anyone else entering the home. He is distraught over the bad reviews by actual film/theater critics like the late Stewart Klein, the late Joel Siegel and the still living Jeffrey Lyons. What can he do? Well, there is a manuscript sent to him titled "Deathtrap" by a former student of his from a seminar. It is clever, polished and has exquisite twists and turns. Sidney would literally kill for it.
Sidney invites the student, Clifford (Christopher Reeve - absolutely fabulous), and they have a discussion about the manuscript. Meanwhile, Sidney's wife is wondering if her husband will actually kill the writer and pass off this new play as his own. Oh, but there is also the sneaky neighbor, a psychic, who sees a lot more than Sidney thinks. And, well gee, I will not get into it any further because that would mean spoiling the surprises and the twists that seemingly come out of nowhere.
"Deathtrap" is not exclusively over-the-top or too theatrical and that is largely due to director Sidney Lumet who restrains his actors just a tad. This also makes the art direction of the rustic house with a windmill always watchable - you never quite see the same interior shot over and over again as the angles get tighter in certain shots and wider in others (some of this reminded me of Lumet's canny debut "12 Angry Men"). Michael Caine is devilishly good as the playwright who is hoping for another hit - money means everything to this guy. Christopher Reeve is thrillingly alive and gives a coiled snap of a performance as the student with more up his sleeve than we previously thought - less mannered than in his Clark Kent/Superman roles. Only Dyan Cannon seems far too histrionic, too panic-stricken though she's much calmer in close-up reaction shots.
"Deathtrap" also includes a little too much of that nosy neighbor, and it can be a bit of a migraine to listen to this character endlessly pontificating about her suspicions of "pain" all around this house. Still, I was consistently thrilled and involved with "Deathtrap" and it works up a sweat keeping up with these characters' uttering their whip smart dialogue. It is also helpful to have Michael Caine as the anchor of this movie, exuding callousness, nervousness and an alert intelligence throughout. Of course, he never sees that final twist coming.
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