Main Cast: Richard Benjamin, Dyan Cannon, James Coburn, Joan Hackett, James Mason
Release Year: 1973
Country: US
Run Time: 120 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
This suspense drama features an all-star cast, including Richard Benjamin, Dyan Cannon, James Coburn, James Mason, Ian McShane, and Raquel Welch. An interesting production fact about the film: its screenplay was written by actor Anthony Perkins and lyricist/songwriter Stephen Sondheim. Their careers depend on keeping in the good graces of Clinton (James Coburn), a powerful movie producer. That is why a group of actors, director, agents and other movie professionals (who hate each other) accept an invitation to spend a week on the producer's yacht on the anniversary of his wife's untimely death in a hit-and-run car accident. Once on board, Clinton requires them to play a vicious game which involves each person's revealing a damaging secret about themselves or someone else in the party. When one of the secrets to be revealed involves the hit-and-run murder of his wife, the game turns fatal. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
Review
The Last of Sheila is cold-blooded fun for fans of cinematic murder mysteries, especially those who prefer them somewhat on the chilly and cerebral side. Not that Sheila is off-puttingly erudite; although the screenplay is witty (not to mention bitchy), it's not the dialogue that will lose some people, it's the intricacy of the plot. Still, that's half the appeal in films of this type, and unlike some other similar movies, Sheila's plot never lets the viewer down by copping out, throwing in too many red herrings or misleading for no real reason. Everything that happens happens for a specific reason. Some will find the characters unpleasant or wish that they could get under their skin more deeply, but these are minor flaws. Herbert Ross's direction is visually uninspired, too often looking like a 1970's made-for-TV movie, but he's on top of his game when it comes to creating atmosphere and to keeping the balls in the air so that the viewers do not guess too early where they will land. Ross seems at a loss as to what to do with Raquel Welch, whose performance is embarrassingly weak, and Ian McShane, who is only slightly better. Fortunately, James Mason's understated thoughtfulness and, especially, Dyan Cannon's sparkling combination of unabashed selfishness, ebullience and blowsiness more than make up for shortcomings in other cast members. Sheila was largely ignored when originally released but has since developed a loyal following, partly due to the involvement of co-writer Stephen Sondheim, better known for his groundbreaking Broadway musicals. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Raquel Welch - Alice; Serge Citon - Guido; Elaine Geisinger - American Couple; Martial - Locksmith; Ian McShane - Anthony; Jack Pugeat - Silver Salesman; Yvonne Romain - Sheila; Roberto Rossi - Captain; Pierro Rosso - Vittorio; Elliott Geisinger - American Couple; Maurice Crosnier - Concierge
Credit
Tony Roman - Art Director, Joel Schumacher - Costume Designer, William C. Gerrity - First Assistant Director, Michel Cheyko - First Assistant Director, Herbert Ross - Director, Edward Warschilka - Editor, Stanley O'Toole - Executive Producer, Billy Goldenberg - Composer (Music Score), Peter Frampton - Makeup, Harry Frampton - Makeup, Derek V. Browne - Camera Operator, Ken Adam - Production Designer, Gerry Turpin - Cinematographer, Herbert Ross - Producer, John Jarvis - Set Designer, David Dockendorf - Sound/Sound Designer, Anthony Perkins - Screenwriter, Stephen Sondheim - Screenwriter
On a one week pleasure cruise aboard the yacht of movie producer Clinton Green (Coburn), the guests include an actress (Welch), her talent manager/boyfriend (McShane), a talent agent (Cannon), a screenwriter (Benjamin), his wife descended from Hollywood royalty (Hackett), and a film director (Mason). The event is, in fact, a reunion. All were together one year before, on the night a hit-and-run accident resulted in the death of Clinton's wife, gossip columnist Sheila Green.
Once the cruise is under way, Clinton, a well known parlor game enthusiast, informs that the week's entertainment will consist of "The Sheila Green Memorial Gossip Game." The six guests are each assigned an index card containing a secret ("a pretend piece of gossip") that each must hide from the others. The object of the game is to discover everyone else's secret while protecting one's own.
Each night the yacht anchors at a different Mediterraneanport city, where one of the six secrets is disclosed to the entire group. The guests are given a clue, then sent ashore to find the proof of who among them holds the card bearing that night's secret. The game for that night ends when the actual holder of the subject secret discovers the proof. Anyone who has not yet solved the clue is shut out for that round.
Following the revelation of the first card, "You are a SHOPLIFTER," members of the company grow uneasy and suspect that each guest's card does not contain a "pretend piece of gossip," as suggested by Clinton, but in fact an actual, embarrassing secret of another guest.
Clinton does not return from the second evening's installment of the game. The guests return ashore to the scene of the "proof" and discover Clinton's corpse. While waiting for authorities, one of the guests reveals that his card reads, "You are a HIT-AND-RUN KILLER." The remainder of the film involves a macabreMusical Chairs of sorts, with the characters jousting over who lays claim to which dirty little secret and growing increasingly paranoid over the obvious implication that both Sheila and Clinton were killed by somebody in the room.
The game the characters play is actually just a portion of a more elaborate puzzle created by Clinton, such that additional clues are ever-present and any guest could win the game without even leaving the yacht. "If you're smart enough," Clinton taunts. Although the game ends prematurely due to Clinton's death, characters continue to discover these additional clues which point to who really killed Clinton and why.
Inspiration
The movie was inspired by an irregular series of elaborate, real-life scavenger hunts Sondheim and Perkins arranged for their show business friends (including Lee Remick and George Segal in Manhattan in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The climax of one hunt was staged in the lobby of a seedy flophouse, where participants heard a skipping LP record endlessly repeating the first line of the Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer standard One for My Baby (and One More for the Road) ("It's quarter to three...") The winning team eventually recognized the clue—2:45—and immediately headed for room 245 of the hotel, where bottles of Champagne awaited them.
