Christopher Reeve, who famously portrayed Superman in multiple films, once starred in a film that shocked so many reviewers that they called him “Gay Superman,” while Reeve made headlines simply for defending the role.
Reeve starred in the 1982 film Deathtrap, based on Broadway’s longest running comedy-thriller of the same name. The plot-twisting story has often been praised for its writing, offering unpredictable elements that take the viewer on an intriguing and welcoming absurd ride.
The movie is about a playwright named Sidney, played by Michael Caine, who desperately wants to return to more successful days when he was celebrated in the world of theater. An aspiring playwright named Clifford, played by Christopher Reeve, approaches him with a manuscript he wrote, which Sidney soon believes will be a major hit. Unfortunately for Clifford, Sidney concludes that he should kill the unknown playwright so that he can claim he wrote the play himself.
Despite the movie’s high quality, and despite positive reviews from some highly-regarded critics, other critics reacted negatively to the addition of one scene that was not in the original play.
That scene also offers one of the big plot twists of the movie.
Consider the rest of this article to be a spoiler alert.
The unexpected scene is a kiss between Christopher Reeve and Michael Caine. Their kiss effectively reveals that they know each other much better than the audience has been led to believe. They are lovers, and Sidney is actually fooling his wife into believing he is trying to kill Clifford, when they are really trying to kill her.
That scene was revealed by many before the film was released, including by Time magazine in their March 15 edition of that year, where they flat-out revealed that Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve kiss.
Just when you think you can understand, somewhat, why such a scene would be newsworthy in the early 80’s — and maybe not even blame a publication for revealing it — Time used their extremely short write-up on the film to specify that the kiss is a plot twist in the movie. On top of that, they decided to point out that an audience member at the Los Angeles screening of the film yelled out, “Say it ain’t so, Superman!”
Christopher Reeve wasn’t happy because not only did Time magazine and numerous movie critics spoil the surprise, but some of them had quite the issue with the scene itself.
Keep in mind, this was in 1982. Even in today’s world, such scenes are met with negativity. Decades ago, they were met with worse.
At the time, film historian and LGBTQ+ activist Vito Russo authored the book The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies and had a conversation with Reeve about Time magazine spoiling the plot. Russo estimated that it likely cost the film about $10 million dollars. Reeve said that he and Russo would later refer to it as the “$10 million dollar kiss.”
Time wasn’t the only guilty party.
UPI Hollywood Reporter Vernon Scott, who was praised in Hollywood as one of the good guys, gave away the scene in an article headlined, “Macho hero Superman turns up in a gay role.”
Scott explains the movie by writing, “Christopher Reeve, who plays the miracle man from planet Krypton, portrays a homosexual in his new movie Deathtrap. In one love scene he kisses Michael Caine smack on the mouth. Yech!”
He goes on to claim that Reeve is “a bit touchy about his celebrity,” and seems to not even bother to review the film, leaving his above description as the lone note on Deathtrap. It’s important to point out that the article doesn’t claim to be a review of the movie, which means giving it away is even less justified.
Many headlines in the entertainment sections of newspapers across the country spilled the scene, and refer to Reeve’s role in a way that would likely be labeled as homophobic today. Some reviewers — and some fans — were so turned off that the “He isn’t macho enough to be Superman anymore,” line or something similar wasn’t uncommon.
Thankfully, most fans and reviewers weren’t so naive.
The most significant movie critics of the day — Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert — did not give away the scene nor the plot twist at all, even in their extended television review of the film, which they praised. That’s called being true professionals and is just another reminder of why they were the best at what they did.
The following year, Joanne Kaufman, writing for the Detroit Free Press, spoke to Reeve for a print interview and they briefly discussed Deathtrap. Reeve didn’t hold back, saying, “The press didn’t play fair. They told the major surprise.”
He considered the write-ups about the movie to be “an insult to Michael Caine and me.”
His biggest issue were the many reviews that ruined the movie’s plot. He referred to them by saying, “You don’t have the right to spill the plot. It cost us $10 million at the box office.”
Deathtrap was made on a budget of $10 million and grossed $19 million.
In 1982, before Superman III was released, Reeve was asked by Shirley Elder if there will be another Superman film. He answered, “There won’t be a Superman IV — not with me in it. Enough is enough.”
Ironically, there was a Superman IV and he indeed starred in it. So, those who suggested Reeve wasn’t “macho” anymore thanks to his role in Deathtrap hopefully went on to realize that the real kryptonite was their own intolerance.