Deathtrap (1982)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Sidney Lumet

Writers:

Ira Levin (play)
Jay Presson Allen (screenplay)

Release Date:

19 March 1982 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Join us for an evening of lively fun...and deadly games. [UK Theatrical]

Plot:

A Broadway playwright puts murder in his plan to take credit for a student's script.

Plot Keywords:

Playwright | Psychic | Writing | Murder | Hamptons

Awards:

6 nominations

Cast

Michael Caine	...	Sidney Bruhl
Christopher Reeve	...	Clifford Anderson
Dyan Cannon	...	Myra Bruhl
Irene Worth	...	Helga ten Dorp
Henry Jones	...	Porter Milgrim
Joe Silver	...	Seymour Starger
Tony DiBenedetto	...	Burt - the Bartender
Al LeBreton	...	Handsome Actor
Francis B. Creamer Jr.	...	The Minister (as Rev. Francis B Creamer Jr.)
Stewart Klein	...	Himself
Jeffrey Lyons	...	Himself
Joel Siegel	...	Himself
Jenny Lumet	...	Stage Newsboy
Jayne Heller	...	Stage Actress
George Peck	...	Stage Actor
Perry Rosen	...	Stage Actor

Directed by
Sidney Lumet

Writing credits
Ira Levin		(play)
Jay Presson Allen		(screenplay)

Produced by
Alfred De Liagre Jr.	....	associate producer
Burtt Harris	....	producer
Jay Presson Allen	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Johnny Mandel

Cinematography by
Andrzej Bartkowiak		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Jack Fitzstephens		(as John J. Fitzstephens)

Production Design by
Tony Walton

Art Direction by
Edward Pisoni

Set Decoration by
George DeTitta Sr.

Costume Design by
Tony Walton

Makeup Department
Colleen Callaghan	....	hair stylist (as Coleen Callaghan)
Joseph Cranzano	....	makeup artist (as Joe Cranzano)
Tony Lloyd	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Joseph M. Caracciolo	....	unit manager
Jennifer Ogden	....	unit production manager (as Jennifer M. Ogden)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Burtt Harris	....	first assistant director
Mark McGann	....	second assistant director
Duncan Scott	....	dga trainee

Art Department
Joseph M. Caracciolo Jr.	....	props (as Joseph Caracciolo Jr.)
George DeTitta Jr.	....	set dresser
Edward Garzero	....	scenic artist
John Oates Jr.	....	prop master (as John Oates)
Carlos Quiles	....	construction foreman (as Carlos Quiles Sr.)
Joe Williams Sr.	....	construction grip
Richard Shelton	....	painter (uncredited)

Sound Department
Lee Dichter	....	sound re-recording mixer
Al Nahmias	....	sound editor
James Sabat	....	sound mixer
Louis Sabat	....	boom operator
Rick Shaine	....	sound editor
Jess Soraci	....	sound editor
Mel Zelniker	....	adr recordist (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Bran Ferren	....	special visual effects

Stunts
Von Deming	....	stunts (uncredited)
Andy Epper	....	stunts (uncredited)
Gary Epper	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jeannie Epper	....	stunts (uncredited)
Donna Garrett	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Garrett Brown	....	Steadicam operator
Louis Goldman	....	stillman
Michael Green	....	second assistant cameraman
Dave McClean	....	rig electrician
Richard Reis	....	assistant cameraman
William H. Steiner	....	camera operator (as William Steiner)
Louis S. Toth Jr.	....	dolly grip (as Louis Toth)
Dusty Wallace	....	gaffer
Robert Ward	....	key grip (as Bobby Ward)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Marilyn Bishop	....	wardrobe
Dona Granata	....	assistant: Mr. Walton
Ron Knopf	....	wardrobe
James Roberts	....	wardrobe (as Jim Roberts)

Editorial Department
Andrew Mondshein	....	assistant editor (as Andrew S. Federman)

Music Department
Angela Morley	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Transportation Department
Michael Fennell	....	transportation captain (as Michael J. Fennell)

Other crew
Alfred De Liagre Jr.	....	stage producer (as Alfred de Liagre Jr.)
Lilith Jacobs	....	assistant: Mr. Lumet
Gabrielle Kelly	....	assistant: Mrs. Allen
Ellen Levene	....	unit publicist
Martha Pinson	....	script supervisor
Randee Lois Smith	....	production office coordinator
Roger L. Stevens	....	stage producer

Production Companies

• Warner Bros. Pictures

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1982) (USA) (theatrical) (as Warner Bros. Pictures A TimeWarner Company)
• Warner Home Video (1989) (USA) (VHS)
• Columbia-EMI-Warner (1982) (UK) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1986) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)
• Warner Home Video (1984) (Belgium) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (1998) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Michael Sporn Animation  titles
• Panavision  lenses and Panaflex camera

Also Known As:

Ira Levin's Deathtrap (UK) (complete title) (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

116 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Canada:PG (Ontario) | UK:PG | Australia:M | Canada:18A | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 (1982) | Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Bruhl is said to have written the longest-running mystery/thriller in Broadway history. In real life, that record was broken by the play "Deathtrap" itself.

Quotes:

[first lines]
[the actor on stage delivers an unintelligible line]
First Audience Member: It's the worst play I've ever seen.
Second Audience Member: I can't believe Sidney Bruhl wrote it.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in In the Can (1990)

How To Build A Better Deathtrap

Unlike Tinseltown's version of HELLO, DOLLY!, Jay Presson Allen's screen adaptation of Ira Levin's hit Broadway thriller couldn't wait for it's stage incarnation to shutter before putting it up on the silver screen, so producers wisely decided to make the most of it's lengthy White Way run! The film's opening and closing scenes are shot inside New York's intimate Music Box Theater where DEATHTRAP played for nearly five years. Even the film's final fadeout on the theatre marquee is a version of the stageplay's famous logo. (Although marketeers decided to go with a more fun Rubik's Cube icon for the movie.)

Now on a low-priced DVD release, DEATHTRAP seems just as fresh and inventinve as ever. The cast is just right (better than their stage counterparts) and location scouts should be applauded for finding a suitably spooky house for our "one room, two act thriller" to take place in. Opened up in surprisingly simple and innovative ways, director Sidney Lumet wisely tags any "new" material onto the beginning and end of the film and leaves Levin's wickedly twisty center alone.

The film's last scene is a major Hollywood departure from the boards, and slightly undermines one of Levin's plot points from earlier in the film [Helga (about a dagger): "Will be used by another woman BECAUSE of play."]. Like Robert Altman's THE PLAYER, however, our new finale helps the film fold in on itself once again and blurs the lines between stage, screen, and (could it be?) real life!