Deathtrap. 1982. USA. Directed by Sidney Lumet. Screenplay by Jay Presson Allen, based on the play by Ira Levin. With Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, Dyan Cannon. DCP. 116 min.
Based on a deviously twisted play by Ira Levin (Rosemary’s Baby), Sidney Lumet’s Deathtrap turns [Sleuth] on its head, with Michael Caine playing not the working-class upstart scorned and toyed with by a manor-born Laurence Olivier, but instead a famously successful Broadway playwright who thinks he can overcome a recent flop, and unblock himself, by screwing (over) Christopher Reeve and doing in his wife Dyan Cannon. “[Deathtrap] plays absolutely fair, more or less, and yet fools us every time, more or less. And perhaps its greatest gift is the sight of three lighthearted comic actors having a good time chewing on the dialogue, the scenery, and each other” (Roger Ebert).