Deathtrap 
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Written by Jay Preston Allen from a stage play by Ira Levin
1982/US
IMDb
First viewing/YouTube (free)
Clifford Anderson: Are you trying to say that you don’t think that you can trust me?
Sidney Bruhl: How clearly you put it!
This Sleuth (1972) wannabe is too clever for its own good.
Nothing in the plot is as it seems and I don’t want to give much detail. Playwright Sidney Bruhl (Michael Caine) has been living on his one big hit and his wife Myra’s (Dyan Cannon) income. All his recent productions have been flops and critically savaged. Myra is ditsy but has absolute faith in Sidney.
After his latest dismal opening night, Sidney reveals that former student Clifford Anderson (Christopher Reeve) has sent him a script is sure to be a big hit. In fact it is perfect. The name of the play is “Deathtrap”. Myra gets very excited about the idea that Sidney could either co-write or produce this. So Sidney invites Clifford to visit. This he does.
The other major character in the drama is psychic neighbor Helga ten Dorp (Irene Worth) who keeps dropping in to get vibrations of death and doom.
What made Sleuth so great was the oneupmanship between Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. They played tricks on each other. In this, Caine plays the Olivier part and Reeve plays the Caine part. That is not a match between equals. And the tricks are played on the audience. They get increasingly unbelievable culminating in a huge eye-roll of an ending. It’s entertaining but was not really for me.
