Clifford Anderson (Christopher Reeve), a student of Sidney Bruhl's (Michael Caine)
writing seminars, sends him a copy of his first attempt at playwrighting for Sidney's advice. The play, "Deathtrap," is a five character, two act thriller so perfect that Sidney says, "A gifted director couldn't even hurt it." Using his talent for plot, and out of his desperate desire to once again be the toast of Broadway, Sidney, along with wife Myra (Dyan Cannon), dream up an almost unthinkable scheme: they'll lure the aspiring playwright to the Bruhl home, kill him, and market the script as Sidney's own. But shortly after Clifford arrives, it's clear that things are not what they seem. Even Helga Ten Dorp (Irene Worth), a psychic living next door, and Porter Milgram (Henry Jones), Sidney's astute attorney, can only speculate where the line between truth and deception lies. The Bruhls invite Anderson over, strangle him, and bury the body. But when they retire to bed afterwards, Anderson comes crashing through the window. He chases Myra through the house, scaring her weak heart into cardiac arrest. It turns out that Bruhl and Anderson are really gay lovers and have plotted this elaborate scheme to kill her. Anderson then moves into the house as Bruhl’s secretary. But Bruhl becomes suspicious when Anderson starts writing a play called "Deathtrap", which bears a suspicious resemblance to their scheme to murder Myra.
Based on a hit 1979 Broadway play by Ira Levin, who conceived "Deathtrap" as a satire on the whodunnit genre, the plot is filled with many twists and turns. It becomes increasingly more far-fetched, something that ups the entertainment value the more over-the-top it gets. The scene where Reeve and Caine kiss for the first time is a shock for the audience, for the dramatic surprise and for the fact we are seeing two men kissing--it was one of the first scenes of casual and open homosexuality on screen at the time, although it is cut in many US TV screenings today. Jay Presson Allen wrote the screenplay from Ira Levin's stage play, and Sidney Lumet directed.
