''The Deadly Trap'' (french: La Maison sous les arbres) is a 1971 suspense
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...
film directed by René Clément and set in France. It was screened at the
1971 Cannes Film Festival
The 24th Cannes Film Festival was held from 12 to 27 May 1971. The Palme d'Or went to ''The Go-Between'' by Joseph Losey.
The festival opened with ''Gimme Shelter'', a documentary about English rock band The Rolling Stones directed by David Mays ...
, but was not entered into the main competition.
Plot
Jill and her husband Philip are an American couple living in Paris together with their two small children. Philip is currently an office worker, but he used to be involved with some shady organization which now wants him to do one more job for them. Meanwhile, Jill and Philip are having marital problems, which are exacerbated by Jill's mental instability—she has memory lapses and paranoid suspicions of Philip being unfaithful. The couple also has a neighbor, Cynthia, who shows an unusual interest in their affairs. One day, when Jill is out for a walk with the children, they go missing. The couple contacts the police but Inspector Chameille, who leads the investigation, is unsure whether the children were actually kidnapped or harmed by their erratic mother.
Cast
*
Faye Dunaway
Dorothy Faye Dunaway (born January 14, 1941) is an American actress. She is the recipient of many accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and a BAFTA Award. In 2011, the government of France mad ...
as Jill
*
Frank Langella
Frank A. Langella Jr. (; born January 1, 1938) is an American stage and film actor. He has won four Tony Awards: two for Best Leading Actor in a Play for his performance as Richard Nixon in Peter Morgan's '' Frost/Nixon'' and as André in Flor ...
as Philippe
*
Barbara Parkins
Barbara Parkins (born May 22, 1942) is a Canadian-American former actress, singer, dancer and photographer.
Early life
Parkins was born in Vancouver, British Columbia.Karen Blanguernon as Miss Hansen
* Raymond Gérôme as Commissaire Chameille
* Michele Lourie as Cathy (as Michèle Lourie)
* Patrick Vincent as Patrick
*
Gérard Buhr
Gérard Buhr (8 May 19288 January 1988) was a French film and television actor.
Selected filmography
* ' (1950)
* ''Quai de Grenelle'' (1950) - Petit rôle (uncredited)
* '' Beware of Blondes'' (1950) - Un journaliste (uncredited)
* ''Monte Car ...
Maurice Ronet
Maurice Ronet (13 April 1927 – 14 March 1983) was a French film actor, director, and writer.
Early life
Maurice Ronet was born Maurice Julien Marie Robinet in Nice, Alpes Maritimes. He was the only child of professional stage actors Émile Rob ...
Jill Larson
Jill Larson (born October 7, 1947) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Opal Cortlandt on the ABC daytime soap opera, ''All My Children'' (1989-2011), and as titular character in the 2014 supernatural horror film '' The Tak ...
*
Robert Lussac
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
*
Franco Ressel
Franco Ressel (8 February 1925 – 30 April 1985) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 120 films between 1961 and 1985. He was born in Naples, Italy and died in Rome, Italy.
Selected filmography
* ''La cento chilometri'' (19 ...
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...
in ''The New York Times'' called it an "arbitrarily muddled" suspense melodrama where "nothing works", and that it "means to demonstrate...the limits of human patience." ''Time Out'' praised "Clément's nice Hitchcockian-flavoured style and deft use of menacingly 'ordinary' locations" but said that "the ending has an impact similar to the punchline of a shaggy dog story."