Deathtrap

 (1977)
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Written by Jay Presson Allen, based on a play by Ira Levin
Star5ring Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, Dyan Cannon
IMDB Entry

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Sleuth, a twisty mystery starring Michael Caine and Lawrence Olivier. Deathtrap is very similar, with further twists and with Caine also in the middle of them.

Sidney Bruhl (Michael Caine) is a successful playwright who is having big trouble coming up with a new play. He confides to his wife Myra (Dyan Cannon) that he had received a manuscript from one of his students, Clifford Anderson (Christopher Reeve), that is a surefire hit.* Sidney comes up with the plan to invite Anderson to their house in the Hamptons and then murder him, claiming the play as his own. Myra is appalled, but soon Clifford is at their house and Sidney puts his plan into motion.

I can talk more about something like this, whose joy is in the twists of the plot. Let's just say that nothing is what it seems. Twist follows twist and the result is very entertaining.

Michael Caine is his usual first-class self. Christopher Reeve** -- just after becoming a star with Superman -- uses this opportunity to stretch his acting abilities in a role that is far different from the Man of Steel.

Like Sleuth, the movie keeps you guessing and nothing is what it seems.

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*A common plot in fiction about writers, but it never happens in real life.

**Completely irrelevant, but a friend of my wife acted in college opposite Reeve and shared a stage kiss.