The fifth (is it really) in a an occasional series 

Forgotten films that deserve to be remembered.

So, there was I all set in August to put the under-rated emotional masterclass that is Jackie Brown back on the map when the bad boy I’m about to write about to today popped in my head and just wouldn’t leave and although I could wax for hours about “Jackie Brown” and how it just can’t escape “Pulp Fiction”’s shadow the film I will actually write about instead has been so truly forgotten I doubt that anybody reading this will ever have heard of it before.  It is a film that is surprising, entertaining, funny, scary, thrilling and well, at times just mind-blowing.  It all takes place in one house basically and is an acting masterclass by two actors who, in a way, in spite of various films that showcased how good they were, never really get the respect they deserve.  Ladies and Gentlemen I present the case for...

“DEATHTRAP” (1982)

So, Michael Caine plays Sidney Bruhl a former brilliant playwright in something of a slump, with his glory days long gone he has resorted the ignoble profession of teaching, however when Clifford Anderson (played to flawless perfection by Christopher Reeve) a student of one of Sidney's writing seminars, sends Sidney a copy of his first play to review, Sidney sees a way to re-enter the limelight and claim what he sees as his rightful place at the top of the broadway circuit and so Sidney, along with Myra his wife, decide to lure the young playwright to their home, kill him, and market the sure-fire script as Sidney's own. But soon after Clifford arrives, it's becomes very clear that things really aren’t what they seem!

And thus begins a thriller that is surprising, innovative, scary, funny, brilliant (sometimes all at the same time) and yet bizarrely, one of the most forgotten films of all time.  In truth, for those people that have seen it, this was always going to be a difficult sell to an American audience at the start of the nineteen eighties and it makes it all the better that this is when it was made.  I also think that no-one was prepared to accept Christopher Reeve in such a superbly quietly menacing role as this and the chemistry that the two main rival protagonists have is so brilliant that it allows us the viewer to really get absorbed into the action.  The writing is consistently brilliant and the direction, by Sidney Lumet is right up there with “Twelve Angry Men” in that he takes a situation that is lumbered most definitely in play-land and manages to make the claustrophobic limited scenery and turn it into a strangely cinematic experience even though it should be anything but that, largely due to the superb direction and stunning performances, most notably by Caine and Reeve who have rarely been better. 

Probably one of Caine’s Reeves and Lumet’s best films but forgotten to such an extent that it is almost criminal, but if it is criminal I can certainly avenge it on my blog, and if this clip doesn't whet your appetite to watch it then nothing will.  Enjoy!

And for anyone interested don't forget my first book FREE AT LAST: A NOVEL is available on Amazon Kindle.com  .co.uk  .Fre  and even .De.  Enjoy!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrGqLW-ySj4
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