A smart and impressive little thriller from Sidney Lumet, featuring two very strong performances by Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve, as a pair of playwrights involved in a cat and mouse murder plot within the confines of Caine's isolated home.
There are plot twists galore in this Christie-esque mystery and more than a few shocks along the way.

The ending though lets it down somewhat, appearing tacked on and illogical.

One of the best aspects of this completely bonkers film is the equally bonkers behaviour of Caine's wife.

Part of the 1982 Project

An Interesting not well known Sidney Lumet film, starring Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve and Dyan Cannon about a playwright who has hit a bad streak but has come up with an idea on how to change his luck, but of course you know things don't go as planned.
This twisted and turned like a twistey turney thing and was rather fun :-)

A pretty fun movie, I'm a sucker for twists and turns, and this has them in spades. Some are predictable, sure, but some aren't, and there's enough intelligence here to ensure this remains a strong movie even when viewed in a contemporary context. Great performances from Caine and Reeve, too.

Revisited for a movie club marathon. Was happy to see so many of my friends who hadn't seen it before dug it as much as I do.

Wonderful mystery comedy/movie-in-a-box. Caine is dastardly charming and Christopher Reeve proves he's not merely a cape and a jawline. More carnival ride than movie; twisted and brilliant.

A smart and impressive little thriller from Sidney Lumet, featuring two very strong performances by Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve, as a pair of playwrights involved in a cat and mouse murder plot within the confines of Caine's isolated home.
There are plot twists galore in this Christie-esque mystery and more than a few shocks along the way.

The ending though lets it down somewhat, appearing tacked on and illogical.

One of the best aspects of this completely bonkers film is the equally bonkers behaviour of Caine's wife.

Part of the 1982 Project

An Interesting not well known Sidney Lumet film, starring Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve and Dyan Cannon about a playwright who has hit a bad streak but has come up with an idea on how to change his luck, but of course you know things don't go as planned.
This twisted and turned like a twistey turney thing and was rather fun :-)

Lumet doing Polanski or Hitchcock. A really fun thriller, full of unpredictable (at least to me) twists and healthy doze of black humour. Christopher Reeve is surprisingly great. He totally held his own against Michael Caine.

Well written and well directed. Good acting from solid cast. Definitely had a few surprises. I would never be able to sleep in a windmill room with all that creaking.

I remember reading the Mad Magazine parody of this as a kid ("Deathcrap") and wondering why the two male leads kept calling each other "love" and "pet". Well, that answers that.

The eye-catching Rubik's Cube poster made me want to see this at the time, but I'd largely forgotten about it until I spent thirty minutes fumblingly trying to hang a plaque-mounted Cabin In The Woods poster in here and wondered why it suddenly looked familiar.

Nowhere near as funny as it bills itself, but as a lowish-key murder thriller it works pretty well, except for the ill-advised inclusion of an ESP character (long a recurring problem in murder thrillers).

Watch for a brief scene where Christopher Reeve does a remarkably good Ash Williams.

A pretty fun movie, I'm a sucker for twists and turns, and this has them in spades. Some are predictable, sure, but some aren't, and there's enough intelligence here to ensure this remains a strong movie even when viewed in a contemporary context. Great performances from Caine and Reeve, too.

Gearing up to read Lumet's "Making Movies" I thought I'd pop this one on. It's no Sleuth, by a long shot, but it' still Caine and still Lumet, and that's almost enough, regardless of how dated the plotting plays 30 years later.