I've been a cinema freak for as long as I can remember, which must be more than 25 years by now, but do you know what aspect I still like most about the movie-industry? It's the complete randomness of it all and the occasional spontaneous surprise! I can illustrate this best via an example: "The Last of Sheila" is one of the most convoluted, imaginative and intelligently scripted mystery-thrillers of the entire 70s decade. So one would assume that a film like this is either based on the works of an acclaimed novelist or at least penned down by a team of professional and experienced Hollywood writers, right? The opposite is true, in fact. "The Last of Sheila" was written by two puzzle-fanatics, active in the film industry although in entirely different fields, that never wrote any other stories before or after this one-hit-wonder! This may not sound too extraordinary to most people, but personally I'm very intrigued by this type of random coincidences. Anthony Perkins (Mr. Norman Bates of "Psycho") and Stephen Sondheim (a composer and songwriter) apparently share a nerdish passion for real-life scavenger hunts/puzzle games and combined their ingenious knowledge to think up this whodunit mystery that has more twists and turns than a mountain road in the French Alps! And – moreover – the red herrings all make full sense and the details of the denouement (although incredibly far-fetched) are all waterproof in the end, which is quite an impressive accomplishment for two men whose day-to-day job isn't writing scripts! Congratulations Mr. Perkins and Mr. Sondheim; your achievements give an additional dimension of brilliance to an already terrific film! "The Last of Sheila" will appeal mostly to fans of the better Agatha Christie adaptations, like "And then there were none" and "Murder on the Orient Express". What starts as a festive reunion among elite Hollywood colleagues quickly escalates into a hostile and confronting search for the culprit of an unsolved crime. The rich, eccentric and slightly obnoxious Clinton Green (stellar role for James Coburn) lost his wife Sheila in a hit-and-run accident. Exactly one year later, he invites six people who were present at the party on the night of Sheila's death for a vacation on the luxury yacht that carries the same name as his deceased wife. He thought up a seemingly innocent game for which he hands out little cards to all of his guests. The cards playfully accuse their owners of having committed a certain crime, and the purpose of the game is the participants to the crime on their cards. Some of the guests are righteously suspicious and discover that the crimes aren't just randomly chosen, but actual crimes that the guests desperately attempt to keep secret. Clinton's main goal of the trip is obviously to unmask his wife's killer, but a lot of unforeseen incidents will take place before the revelation of his/her identity. The rules of the games and the subsequent discussions between the characters are quite high-level and often difficult to follow, but most of all truly fascinating to behold. Especially during the last half hour, I was literally glued to the screen and regularly re-watched the most vital dialogs 2 or even 3 times in order to be sure I understood everything. It's always great when a movie sucks you like this. Of course, a film like this also owes a lot of its impact to the cast. In addition to James Coburn, the rest of the all-star cast gives away splendid performances as well. According to the trivia section, Raquel Welch behaved like an annoying diva and made herself quite unpopular amongst her co-players, but hey, she's Raquel Welch and she looks astounding! Hammer-horror nymph Yvonne Romain ("Curse of the Werewolf", "Night Creatures") briefly appears at the beginning of the film as the titular Sheila. Another nifty detail in the script is that one of the main characters refers to Hammer horror later in the film, when they're solving a riddle inside an abandoned monastery. I could go on and on about the inventiveness of the script and the particular attention that director Herbert Ross pays to minor details, but you get the idea. "The Last of Sheila" comes with my highest possible recommendation.

James Coburn stars as a movie bigwig who hosts six pals for a week on his yacht in the south of France. He loves intricate puzzles and has planned a clever game that will identify the killer of his late wife.A famous cast is the highlight of this film and while it oozes glamour and Hollywood in-jokes, my mind wandered and it took three tries to finish watching it. Coburn is robust and charismatic and also convincingly sadistic. Dyan Cannon is good as an airhead agent but her never-ending, raucous guffaws are tiresome. Ian McShane and Raquel Welch are good as minor characters. Joan Hackett, Richard Benjamin, and James Mason have the most screen time; they are all excellent in well-developed roles and a pleasure to watch.In my opinion, the game that the guests are playing is too convoluted and pointless to follow; there are constant red herrings and it doesn't amount to much in the end. One of the stars leaves halfway through and is greatly missed. Plot holes abound and it's hard to identify with any of the characters or the story.This film is recommended for those who like complex puzzles and clues. I thought it was just okay.

Complex or simple depending on your skill as a puzzle solver this is a top grade thriller either way.Featuring a dynamite cast, beautiful settings and blessed with something that is rarer than you would think, a clever script, this grabs you right from the first shot and teases you along until the exciting conclusion. The entire group of actors each get a spotlight moment or two but a few do stand out. Dyan Cannon is brassy, frisky and funny. The wonderful Joan Hackett is touching as the troubled Lee and James Mason is cool and classy as a rather disreputable character. Actually with the exception of Joan Hackett's Lee all the characters are rather loathsome people with a few redeeming qualities, some very few.Herbert Ross keeps the whole film moving at a good pace but what really puts this over is the skill of the actors and the strong script by Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim. Recommended.

Okay, first of all the premise of this film when written on paper looks interesting. What part of "man invites friends over knowing one of them accidentally killed his wife a year earlier" doesn't sound interesting? The way they go about it is also pretty good.The way the writing is done is very good if you want a well-written mystery that does get explained rather well (and would you believe it - it was written by Anthony Perkins who played Norman Bates). It sort of gives off clues that you never look out for until the mystery is almost over. Which is rather well done.Now onto my complaints, the mystery in my opinion would have worked better if Clinton didn't die and actually went on with the game. I just would think that it would have been set off in a better direction than what we had. It just seemed like a great way to go through a mystery.Not only that but I felt unable to connect with the characters. None of them were interesting. Which is my biggest complaint. Because aside from that it could have been great.So it is a well written mystery but aside from that I'm just unable to connect with the characters.