The Last of Sheila **** (1973, Richard Benjamin, Dyan Cannon, James Coburn, Joan Hackett, Ian McShane, Raquel Welch, James Mason) – Classic Movie Review 8099

A fine near all-star cast enlivens producer-director Herbert Ross’s elegant 1973 satirical murder mystery The Last of Sheila, ingeniously written, unexpectedly, by mystery buffs Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins, who set loose a barrage of complex clues to puzzle out.

Okay, it is a seven-star cast. It stars Richard Benjamin, Dyan Cannon, James Coburn, Joan Hackett, Ian McShane, Raquel Welch and James Mason.

The nifty plot has multi-millionaire movie producer Clinton Green (James Coburn) inviting six acquaintances for a Riviera cruise for a week with him on his yacht so that he can discover who killed his wife Sheila Green in a hit-and-run car accident a year earlier. He assigns everyone a secret and each day they are to call into a port for clues to one person’s secret. Then there is a murder…

Also in the cast are Yvonne Romain, Pierre Rosso, Serge Citon, Roberto Rossi, Elaine Geisinger, Elliot Geisinger, Jack Pugeat, Maurice Crosnier and Martial.

The Last of Sheila is clever, witty whodunit fun, entertainingly played and brightly handled by director Ross.

The Last of Sheila is directed by Herbert Ross, runs 123 minutes, is made and released by Warner Bros, is written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins, is shot in Technicolor by Gerry Turpin, is produced by Stanley O’Toole (executive producer) and Herbert Ross (producer) is scored by Billy Goldenberg and is designed by Ken Adam.

Wind and rain disrupted the night shoot of the monastery sequence near Cannes, and Raquel Welch feared getting stuck in the storm. ‘This glamorous picture in the wonderful sunny Cote d’Azur has turned out to be a bit of a splodge,’ Welch complained. ‘This is not my idea of an enjoyable evening, but they’re paying you the money. I just go ahead and do it and don’t complain.’

There was a 45th anniversary screening at Laemmle’s Royal Theatre in Los Angeles on 28 November 2018 with Dyan Cannon in attendance. 

Sir Ken Adam, the Oscar-winning production designer, died at 95 on 10 March 2016.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8099

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