Deathtrap (1982)

Christopher Reece was hot in this

Love this movie

One of my favorites. They should remake it with(out) Timothee Chalamet.

Love this film! It's so much sexier, more stylish (another great collaboration between Lumet and production/costume designer Tony Walton) and just works so much better than the stage version. And Dyan Cannon and Irene Worth are both utterly hilarious. Both should have gotten Oscar noms.

R4 Yes! Dyan Cannon got nominated for a Razzie

Dyan Cannon is a national treasure. She could have been a huge gay icon with a few tweaks to her filmography and persona.

She loves a little surgical assistance. This was 10 years ago.

I saw this on stage in NYC... John Cullum was the older playwright, Marion Seldes was his wife.

I was a teenager, knew nothing about the plot... could not believe I watched a "murder" on stage, followed by another "murder" and then a character scared to death.

What a trip! The show's excellent... should be performed more often regionally and at summer companies.

I don't think I've seen the movie... surprising.

R6 she is a gay icon?

Married to Cary Grant. Was in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, The Last of Shelia, Revenge of the Pink Panther, Heaven Can Wait, Deathtrap, and Ally McBeal.

R8 Who was the boytoy?

Funny how Hollywood works -- Caine's 90th birthday party makes big news, the awful fate of Reeve, and there was once a time that Cannon would have above-the-title billing.

Saw this twice (Opening night and one week later) on stage with Elliot Gould. The Flyoverstani newspaper reviewer said his characterization was stupid and amateurish (and it was) and when I saw it a week later, he had correctly changed the character away from what the reviewer said.

I could not imagine Elliott Gould in this

R13 - He was OK in it. Big name to get people to go see it.

R10, I have no idea... I saw the show in the 20th century! And not the late 20th... I wonder where that Playbill is stored?

Just curious if it was someone hot

It appears I'm alone in thinking the movie was dull.

R17 why did you think it was dull?

[quote] Let's discuss …

What is there to discuss about this formulaic movie of a formulaic play?

I bought the DVD just for one scene. The wife encounters Michael Caine's character by surprise, screams, he drops his drink and is so fucking startled it's hilarious. I saw it in the cinema when it was released and always tried to watch it just for that little scene.

lol that's a good scene

Caine was nominated for an Oscar for "Sleuth" 10 years before "Deathtrap," but I thought that one was exhaustingly tricky (and way too long), while "Deathtrap" at least had eye candy Reeves and campy Dyan.

Saw this in the theater (by myself) as an 11 year old without knowing what I was in for.

I wanted to see it because I had a crush on Superman and loved mysteries. Imagine my surprise and utter delight at the kiss between the two men. I was mesmerized.

Ryan Cannon's screaming is up there with Kate Capshaw's in Temple of Doom.

Such a good movie. And they both put in great performances. And I was in love with Krista her even after that movie.

[quote] campy Dyan.

We could never take her seriously.

We never believed that liaison with Grant was serious.

I remember seeing this in the theater, and I've enjoyed it on subsequent re-visits. Fun to give stage great Irene Worth a decent role -- she didn't have many of those onscreen.

R8 - I also saw DEATHTRAP on Broadway with John Cullum (and a second time with Robert Reed (!)). The Clifford character was played both times by Steve Bassett (pictured at link with Reed). What struck me when seeing the film was how differently Dyan Cannon played the part of the wife in the film than Marion Seldes did on stage - like polar opposites. For me Michael Caine ruins the film. The way he screams his way though his first scene with Cannon (which is the first scene of the play) is awful - plowing his way through all the humor.

God Lawd, Chris Reeves made mama's mussy so wet back then. Mmmmmmmmm.

[quote] Caine ruins the film

He's a heavy-handed Cockney chav.

Would you have preferred Terence Stamp?

The play has genuinely startling moments. I've never been in the theater where people were screaming from jolts like it was a Friday the 13th movie.

Robert Reed must have loved doing "Deathtrap." I'd liked to have seen him in the role - a real change from the Mike Brady I knew watching TV on Friday evenings.

Henry Jones was a character actor. He appeared in a million films but you never knew who he was

The best part is when Caine’s character asks if Reeves character had ever been diagnosed a sociopath!

[quote] Would you have preferred Terence Stamp?

I've never seen this movie but I would have preferred Terence because Mr Micklewhite makes my skin crawl.

R16 Steve Bassett?

With Marian Seldes and Farley Granger.

[quote]The show's excellent... should be performed more often regionally and at summer companies.

I think at least for a long time it was performed constantly. Community theater, also. Maybe it isn't any more.

I'd never heard of Steve Bassett, but he was certainly, fittingly handsome.

Turned into a silver fox.

The blog @ R37 says that Marian Seldes didn't take a curtain call, but she most certainly did at the two performances I saw.

Saw it in London in 2010 with Simon Russell Beale and Jonathan Groff. Remember nothing about it except for Groff's spitting, which was my first time seeing it.

Chris Reeve was so good looking

[quote] Groff's spitting

Grotesque and unsanitary.

He obviously has a condition.

I've always loved this since I first saw it in 1982. The plot twists were all completely unexpected to 12-year old me and it inspired me to try my hand at writing. I know the same sex kiss was a big deal at the time but strangely I don't remember it having any effect on me or my parents saying anything about it. I have the Warner Archive bluray but I wish it included the scenes they added for the TV broadcast. Nothing major but I remember one right after Dyan Cannon's funeral where he's walking along a river talking with the psychic character and encouraging her to return to the Netherlands.

It wasn't because of Deathtrap but I became a huge Ira Levin fan over the years. I picked up The Stepford Wives during a family vacation and devoured it. A couple years later I finally read Rosemary's Baby which I'd seen floating around various relatives' bookshelves for years. A Kiss Before Dying and The Boys From Brazil are fun thrillers but Sliver and Son of Rosemary are best forgotten. The only Levin I still haven't read is This Perfect Day. I need to track down Dr. Cook's Garden and No Time For Sergeants, TV movies based on two of his other plays.

Why wouldn't someone take a curtain call? R41 I don't feel like reading the blog.

[quote]Henry Jones was a character actor. He appeared in a million films but you never knew who he was

Oh, I knew, r33...I knew.

R41 Never mind, I read it. Is that considered normal for a lead in a hit play? Not to take a curtain call, because you're only in Act One? That seems unprofessional. And after all she was getting paid to be there. (If it happened.)

Dr. Cook's Garden

R49

?

Sorry, r50, it's regarding, r45's:

[quote]I need to track down Dr. Cook's Garden and No Time For Sergeants, TV movies based on two of his other plays.

Victor Garber also played the boytoy in the 1970's

Oh, Okay. Haha.

No Time For Sergeants (the Broadway show) was done on TV but later as a theatrical film, so that is probably available on DVD. Levin adapted it from a book by another author.

I think Ira Levin also wrote Rosemary's Baby and A Kiss Before Dying, which is a book I read and is also a movie with Robert Wagner, Joanne Woodward, and Jeffrey Hunter (and remade with Matt Dillon). And The Stepford Wives.

R53 Levin wrote Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives

Thank you, r49!

Veronica's Room

Veronica's Room was nutty. Apart from 'bringing the dead girl on naked' thing, which I think they ended up cutting.

I've seen the play "Dr. Cook's Garden" - interesting work, don't know if it still packs a wallop as it may have done when it premiered.

How cool that Victor Garber was in the original cast of Deathtrap! For a young actor, he had some real "firsts"...Deathtrap and Sweeney Todd. He was also in the original cast of Noises Off. Just those 3 show, drama, musical, and comedy - impressive.

And yes, there's so much more to his resume of work. Plus, he's an out gay man, married since 2015. His husband was stunning - I don't know if he still is, but man, back in the day he could stop traffic.

R58 He left Sweeney Todd very quickly.

Garber stole an S&M twink from Sondheim?

There was an off-Broadway revival of Veronica's Room in the 80s that was very well done and stuck with me almost as much as Deathtrap.

Loved the film, bored by the stage play.

[quote] Steve Bassett

Seth Snyder himself. I remember seeing him in the movie Spring Break and marveling that it was the same guy. I think his only line in that masterpiece was, "Fuck, yeah!"

He was born in 1952 (says Wikipedia) and was already 31 by the time Spring Break was released. Doesn't seem like he would be star material on film but I can see how on stage he would look like the perfect type for the part.

There isnt a single other person in that movie I have ever heard of....except the disgraced Jeff Garlin.

I would have loved if they remade this 20 years ago, maybe with Kenneth Branagh and Brandon Routh playing the lovers; Cate Blanchett as the wife; Dean Stockwell as the lawyer; and Judi Dench as the neighbor/Irene Worth character

The Elliott Gould revival in the 90s co-starred Mariette Hartley. They should have tried to get James Garner instead of Gould.

saw movie in 2025.

and the "homophobia" is pre-AIDS

R68 homophobia? I think both men were psychopaths who would do anything to get ahead.

I enjoyed it. It reminded me of Caine's earlier (and much better) film Sleuth.