Deathtrap

Sidney Lumet provides another of his film adaptations of Broadway successes -- in this case Ira Levin's 1978 clever Broadway murder mystery that starred John Wood in a triumphant turn as down-on-his-luck playwright Sidney Bruhl. Wood's brittle airiness is replaced in the film version by Michael ...more

Sidney Lumet's cinematic adaptation of Ira Levin's Deathtrap is reminiscent of Sleuth. A great number of plot twists happen to very few characters in more or less a single location. Those that dislike the film will dismiss it as uncinematic, stagy, and talky. Those that admire Deathtrap will describe it as literate, claustrophobic, and tense. Both groups are correct. The film lives and dies on the strength of its performances and the quality of the gasps triggered in the audience from the ...more