Around the Island

Cinema 114 presents plot twists and laughs

COURTESY PHOTO | Christopher Reeve, Michael Caine and Dyan Cannon in ‘Deathtrap.’
COURTESY PHOTO | Christopher Reeve, Michael Caine and Dyan Cannon in ‘Deathtrap.’

Cinema 114’s next movie, “Deathtrap,” to be shown on Wednesday, March 25, is adapted from a hit Broadway play.

The movie is a favorite of my 99-year-old mother. This comic mystery, directed by Sidney Lumet, is the story of Hamptons playwright Sidney Bruhl, played by Michael Caine, who wrote a play that just bombed on Broadway.

He has received a script written by one of his former students and it is marvelous. Sydney and his wife Myra (Dyan Cannon) begin to speculate about how they can put Sydney’s name on this great script and make it his own. They finally decide that the only way to get away with it is to murder the student, Clifford Anderson, played by Christopher Reeve.

When Clifford arrives at their Southampton home, a converted windmill, we soon find that the plot to kill Clifford is just a ruse and that Sydney and Clifford actually plan to bump off unsuspecting and very rich Myra. Myra has a bad heart and they plan to scare her to death so the doctor can say she died of natural causes.

In the meantime a psychic, Helga Ten Dorp, played by Irene Worth, has moved in next door for the summer and has some mighty strange prognostications. The plot twists are many and hilarious. This farce even has the obligatory “dark and stormy night.” You will not want to miss the laughs and screams in this film.

Join us at the Senior Activity Center on Wednesday, March 25 at 2:30 p.m. We will supply the free drinks, snacks and the comfy chairs. You just have to be there.

Running time: 116 minutes