Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve star in Deathtrap, and we’ve been digging back into the 1982 film as we continue to celebrate Michael Caine.
Michael Caine showed no sign of slowing down as he entered his third decade as a leading man. The 1980s would see him win his first Academy Award (Hannah And Her Sisters), tackle new genres such as horror (The Hand) and shark-based revenge movie (Jaws: The Revenge) whilst continuing to work with interesting new auteurs like Brian De Palma (Dressed To Kill) as well as old friends from classic Hollywood such as John Huston (Escape To Victory).
Film by film, I’ll be taking a look at Caine’s 1980s filmography to see what hidden gems I can unearth alongside the more familiar classics…
Spoilers for Deathtrap ahead (I will discuss the mid-film twist but won’t reveal the ending or most of the third act shenanigans) …
Directed by: Sidney Lumet (12 Angry Men, Serpico, Murder on the Orient Express, Dog Day Afternoon, The Verdict)
Tagline: Join us for an evening of lively fun…and deadly games.
Other Featured Geezers: Christopher Reeve as Clifford Anderson, Dyan Cannon as Myra Bruhl, Irene Worth as Helga ten Dorp, Henry Jones as Porter Milgrim, Joe Silver as Seymour Starger.
What’s it all about, Alfie?: Caine stars as Sidney Bruhl, famed writer of “The Murder Game” the longest running thriller on Broadway, whose subsequent career has been something of a disappointment with flop followed by flop. His lovingly supportive (and, for important plot purposes, weak hearted) wife Myra (Dyan Cannon) tries to help him look on the bright side but to no avail.
However, when Sidney receives a manuscript from a former pupil of one of his writing seminars, he sees a potential hit on his hands (“I’ll tell you how good that is, even a gifted director couldn’t hurt it!”). Could he help to produce it…or perhaps, even better, steal it for himself and bump off the writer?
After inviting said writer, a seemingly good-natured and unassumingly handsome young man called Clifford (Christopher Reeve), to their house things slowly escalate with Bruhl’s wall of antique weaponry soon put to good use.
Twists and turns follow with it eventually being revealed that Myra is actually the intended murder victim. Clifford and Bruhl have been in on it together all along and are secretly lovers. They may be able to kill together, but now comes the real challenge, trying to write together. And creative tensions could soon lead to another murder…
Also thrown into the mix is an ageing Dutch psychic, who bustles around in running gear, called Helga Ten Dorp (Irene Worth) who lives next door (because why not).
Caine-ness: You get a lot of Caine for your money in this one. He’s top billed and we first see him just a couple of minutes into the film, peeking from behind a curtain, and from then on out he’s on screen for the majority of the run-time.
If you like your Caine shouty and pointy then you’re in luck, Here he’s at his shoutiest and pointiest, liberally peppering his dialogue with his signature appellation “bloody” willy-nilly.
He’s great in this, and seems to be relishing playing an intentionally unlikable character.
Sidney Bruhl is a vain and catty egotist who plots to murder his kind and understanding wife. It’s all played by Caine with a comedic touch. He has plenty of great deadpan lines, so you can’t help but be charmed (he’s Michael Caine after all!) but you certainly don’t root for Bruhl. He’s not the affable everyman with perhaps a bit of a roguish side but ultimately a good heart that Caine has often been playing. Instead, Bruhl is a straight up all-round unpleasant blighter. We see a slither of humanity as he tears up when faced with potentially having to shoot Clifford, but on the whole he’s completely self-absorbed and callous.
Although he’s had one big hit, Bruhl is a bit of a hack. His plays’ titles certainly aren’t the most inventive (“Murder Most Fair”, “Gunpoint”), and the play of his that we see at the beginning doesn’t look promising (we hear an audience member declare it the worst they’ve ever seen). But it does have a live dog in it, which is something I suppose. You don’t see many dogs on stage, so that demonstrates some ambition (I always like to found positives in my reviews, even if it’s for a fictional character’s work).
Bruhl seems to enjoy the prestige that comes with his work rather than the art of the work itself; “I have a name and a reputation. Somewhat tattered perhaps. But still good for dinner invitations and summer seminars”, he says when he realises what might happen to his social standing if he comes under suspicion of murder.
Also, when Clifford says that he’s writing a play based on the murder they committed “Because it’s there”, Bruhl responds with “Plays are not there until some arsehole writes them”, which isn’t the kind of inspirational quote you could expect to find on a writer’s Instagram.
Clifford and Bruhl are revealed to be lovers in a mid-film twist and, although they have an excellent bickering rapport and both give great performances as a whole, I can’t say I found them a believable couple. Calling each other “love” a few times doesn’t make up for the complete lack of romantic chemistry. In his biography Caine talks about their kissing scene and how both he and Reeve drank a copious amount of alcohol beforehand to get through it, which is somewhat obvious as this is perhaps one of the least passionate kisses put to film. Sigourney Weaver had more sexual tension with the slobbering Alien in Alien.
There was some controversy about this kiss, it doesn’t appear in the play that the film is based on and was apparently booed by some preview audiences. For a mainstream film of the 1980s, I’m pleasantly surprised that the film treats the fact that they’re gay fairly casually and doesn’t make a big deal about it. Although they’re not believable as a same-sex couple, at least their performances are not offensively exaggerated which easily could have been the case with a film from this time.
They’re more believable as a long married, now sex-less, couple who have lost the initial spark and settled into routine. Clifford does the shopping (“Yoghurt, any flavour but prune.” Bruhl tells him), and then Bruhl packs it away. This is especially evident when we see the domestic sight of them working together at opposite sides of their writing table (although Bruhl is mainly smoking a cigar before he goes to lie on the sofa, smoke a bit more and read the paper).
Caine-nections*: This is the only time Caine worked with director Sidney Lumet. He was previously set to appear in Lumet’s The Hill (1965) but instead pulled out to star in what would become his iconic breakthrough role of Alfie. Things could have been very different if he had stayed in the Lumet film as the character of Alfie really helped to cement Caine’s subsequent star persona and career trajectory. Caine’s pal Connery was in the film instead (whether in the same role offered to Caine or different I’m unsure) which was the start of a fruitful director/acting pairing for them as Sean went on to appear in four other Lumet films.
This has a lot of similarities to Sleuth (1972). Both are twisty comic thrillers based on stage plays that revolve around a pair of central acting performances (although Deathtrap does have more characters).
Bruhl teaches writing seminars and Caine’s character in The Hand (1981), a comic book artist, teaches a comic book course. Both are murderous authors (or at the least have murderous hands). Caine also played a, non-murderous, writer of smutty novels in Pulp (1972).
This is the second time that Caine has played a gay/bisexual character with a long-suffering wife after California Suite (1978). Although his wife does admittedly suffer less in that one as he doesn’t kill her.
*I’m only counting from Caine’s first starring role in Zulu onwards.
Best Non-Caine Actor: Christopher Reeve as Clifford toys with his Superman persona to great effect. This was released two years after Superman II, and one year before Superman III, and is one of only two non-Superman films he had made up to this point after first donning the cape. The other was Somewhere In Time (1980), a gentle time travel romance where he played the lead.
For audiences this would be the first time that they saw Reeve playing a bad guy. The same year as Deathtrap he also played a naughty priest in Monsignor (I’ve not seen it but according to IMDB he seduces a nun, the cad!). It seems like in 1982 he was making an active choice to try to avoid typecasting in the roles he took. And he does make a great sociopath in Deathtrap.
When we first see Clifford, about 20 mins in, we get the affable and bumbling naivety of Clark Kent when he’s playing up at being the innocent and unassuming young writer in his non-threatening grey cardigan (there are a lot of good cardigans in this film). Yet this is soon subverted and his once warm smile becomes much more sinister behind cold dead eyes. He’s equally believable as a callous monster and a likeable everyman which shows the strength of Reeve as an actor, something that sadly was never fully utilised throughout his tragically shortened career.
You also get to see him jump through a bedroom window, covered in mud and brandishing a Styrofoam log, which he never got to do as Superman (he should have though, as it would have vastly improved Superman IV).
Former Mrs Cary Grant, Dyan Cannon, was heaps of fun as the constantly on edge Myra. Cannon’s pipes are put to good use as she’s required to scream at every minor provocation. “Every time I come in the house you bloody scream” Bruhl complains. This could easily stray into annoying territory but Cannon manages to keep it consistently funny and the film actually loses a little of its comic energy after she’s disposed of halfway through, as her nerviness coupled with Bruhl’s sardonic impatience made for an amusing double act.
Bizarrely, she was nominated for Worst Supporting Actress at the 1983 Razzies, once again proving that the Golden Raspberry Awards have no idea what they’re talking about.
Rounding out the cast is Irene Worth as the Dutch psychic Helga ten Dorp. Helga is an odd one, decked out in her running gear and red hat with reflective bits on it, and feels like she’s bumbled in from a completely different film. Worth is an actor that I was previously unfamiliar with, she had more fame as a stage actor, and she injects an odd quirky jolt into her brief scenes, making Helga a particularly memorable side character.
My Bleedin’ Thoughts: Based on a hit 1978 play by Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives author Ira Levin, Deathtrap makes a successful jump from stage to screen. It is stagey, but not distractingly so, and has a great mansion set with walls adorned with various antique weapons (pistols, axes, maces). When we see the exterior of the mansion, we see that is connected to a windmill, and the bedroom is in that section with massive cogs on the ceiling. This is a fun evocative location choice. I wonder if Jonathan Creek’s lifestyle was inspired by this?
As mentioned, there are similarities to Sleuth but I feel like that film has the slight edge as it manages to maintain more tension and mystery throughout. Still, Deathtrap is excellent. I also assume Levin, and Lumet, must have been at least partially inspired by Hitchcock’s Rope (1948) and the play that was based on.
Sidney Lumet had an eclectic career and demonstrated time and again that he could turn his hand to most genres. Apart from his other adapted stage plays (Equus, A View From The Bridge, Long Days Journey Into Night) there aren’t many superficial links between Deathtrap and his other most well known works such as 12 Angry Men, Serpico and Network other than a demonstrable ability to attract great actors. It actually lacks the gritty realism, and is a little goofier, than a lot of his other work. Hopefully he had fun letting off steam and making something a bit lighter.
Although it’s mostly comic, Lumet does craft some tense sequences. In particular, the immediate lead up to Clifford’s staged murder in front of Myra (which we at that point assume is real) where Clifford is manacled in Houdini’s handcuffs and him and Bruhl have an outwardly affable conversation tinged with menace that ends with Bruhl, brutally and suddenly, throttling him from behind with a chain. The suddenness, and aggressiveness, of this took me by surprise as everything before was relatively light-hearted.
Trivia (Courtesy of IMDB):
The set for the original stage version of Deathtrap was used for the set of Bruhl’s flop play seen at the beginning of the film. Lumet commented “Thus, the opening scene is a movie of a play-within-a-play which takes place within the play on which the movie is based. If that’s not completely clear, it’s at least a first!”
The windmill house that the Bruhls live in was subsequently bought by Robert Downey Jr. Maybe he’s a big fan of this film or maybe he just wants to live that sweet Jonathan Creek lifestyle.
One of the investors of the Broadway production of Deathtrap, Claus von Bulow, was found guilty of murdering his wife. A movie about this, starring Jeremy Irons, was made in 1990 called Reversal of Fortune.
The $52 Bruhl was charged for his limousine ride from the train station to East Hampton would cost $179 in 2023. This is good to know for all those fans attempting the immersive Sidney Bruhl tour.
Overall Thoughts: This was great twisty fun, and nice to see Caine and Reeve play against type as the bad guys. Not quite as good as the similar Sleuth but definitely worth seeking out for fans of either actor.
Rating: 4/5 Yoghurts (not prune though)
Where You Can Watch This: This is currently available to rent or purchase through most streaming services, or on DVD and Blu-ray.
Up Next: It’s one of my favourite Caine performances that isn’t alongside a Muppet (well, depending on your personal opinion of Julie Walters), it’s the excellent comic drama Educating Rita.
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