Quarterly Cinema Scan - Volume XLI

On January 23, 2018 I posted Quarterly Cinema Scan XXX.  The movie I featured was Charade*, sometimes described by film historians and pundits as "the greatest film Alfred Hitchcock never made."  As I wrote in that post, Charade has more than a few attributes of a Hitchcock mystery -- even a cameo appearance by its director, Stanley Donan -- and to this day casual fans mistakenly include Charade on a list of their favorite Hitch flicks.

I bring this up because, in a similar vein, The Last Of Sheila, a clever 1973 mystery written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins, could easily be mistaken for an Agatha Christie whodunit in the style of And Then There Were None (aka Ten Little Indians*) and Murder On The Orient Express*.  The formula for Dame Christie was to  put a finite number of characters into a relatively limited setting, such as an isolated mansion or a train, and then have one or more of the characters fall victim to a crime which could only have been perpetrated by one of the other characters.  This formula fits the story line in The Last Of Sheila, too.  (By the way, Sheila co-writer Anthony Perkins’ name might ring a bell. He was the creepy owner of the Bates Motel in Hitchcock’s 1960 thriller, Psycho*.)

James Coburn plays Clinton Greene, a rich Hollywood producer whose wife, Sheila, was killed by a hit and run driver while leaving a Beverly Hills house party in the wee hours.  Greene is a ruthless magnate who has the power to make or break people in the movie industry.  He also has a humorous side, exhibited by his love of game playing.  One year after Sheila's death he invites six acquaintances to spend a week playing games while sailing the Mediterannean aboard his yacht, which is named after his wife.  Five of the six had attended the ill-fated party at Clinton’s house. 

Clinton’s guests are all tied into the Hollywood scene.  Tom (Richard Benjamin) is a down-on-his-luck writer. He’s married to Lee (Joan Hackett), a wealthy socialite. Christine (Dyan Cannon) is a talent agent, the life of the party (as is Clinton). One of her clients is Alice (Raquel Welch), whose main assets have little to do with acting. Alice is managed by her husband Anthony (Ian McShane), a quiet fellow but a keen observer. Philip (the always great James Mason) is a director who’d very much like Clinton to hire him for his next production. 

To start his game, which Clinton has dubbed "the Sheila Greene Memorial Gossip Game,"  he gives each passenger a printed card unique to that passenger.  A misdeed or character flaw is written on each card.  For example, one card reads, "You are a shoplifter."  Another states, "You are an informer."  Clinton describes the messages as "six little pretend pieces of gossip." He instructs each player to keep her card hidden from the others.  The object for each player is to discover everybody's secret (without peeking), and to prevent the others from discovering that player's secret.  Each night the ship will visit a different port of call where proof of one player's secret can be discovered. Before disembarkment at each port, Clinton will announce that night's secret and a clue to get the players pointed in the right direction.

It isn't long before some of the six realize that the secrets, as written on the cards, are not just "dreamed up over the last month" as Clinton originally claimed.  They are for real!  One of their group actually was arrested for shoplifting, although it's not the person who holds that card; another one actually was an informer, but again, it's not the holder of the Informer card, etc.  Is Clinton, in a sinister way, going to accuse one of the six of killing Sheila?

If you enjoyed Knives Out*, my second favorite movie of 2019, you should make an effort to track down The Last Of Sheila.  The similarities between the films are obvious, from the use of an ensemble cast congregated in a limited space, to an array of clues of varying worth, to hush hush affairs, to re-enactments of how a major crime was committed (which re-enactments differ based on theories offered by some of the characters), to a detailed denouement which might possibly challenge even the great Hercule Poirot.  The Last Of Sheila doesn't quite rise to the level of Knives Out in terms of credibility (including motive of the perpetrator), atmosphere, humor or music score.  Still, Sheila is a thinking person's film, so pay attention to detail and listen carefully.

***

The third calendar quarter brought in the long-awaited opening of the 2020 Major League Baseball season, the resumption of National Basketball Association and National Hockey League playoffs, and the controversial beginning of pro and college football seasons.  Some indoor movie theaters have also opened their doors to a limited capacity.  The upshot of all this for many people was a lessening of time watching movies at home.  Still, I managed to squeeze in eight films, most of which were worth viewing.      

1. The April Fools (1969 comedy; Jack Lemmon and Catherine Deneuve, unhappily married to others, discover they enjoy each other’s company and glibly decide to make a new life together in Paris.)  B-

2. Finding Neverland (2004 biopic fantasy; Johnny Depp, a married playwright whose most recent offering was a flop, is inspired by the four young sons of widowed Kate Winslet to write “Peter Pan.”)  B

3. In A Lonely Place (1950 noir drama; Humphrey Bogart, a screen writer with an anger management problem, is the primary suspect in a homicide, while his alibi witness, neighbor Gloria Grahame, falls for him.)   B-

4. It Happened One Night (1934 rom-com; Claudette Colbert, in an attempt to escape her tycoon father, heads from Miami to New York on a bus, meeting fellow passenger Clarke Gable, a recently fired NYC reporter looking for a juicy story.) A

5. The Last Of Sheila (1973 mystery; A year after movie producer James Coburn’s wife is killed by a hit and run driver, he invites six cronies on his yacht for a week of games he designed.)  B+

6. St. Elmo’s Fire (1985 drama; Seven recent graduates of Georgetown, including doper Demi Moore, social worker Mare Winningham and cad Rob Lowe, eventually realize that their strong college bonds alone won’t be of much service facing the harsh realities of adulthood.)  C+

7.  The Sixth Sense (1999 drama; Child psychologist Bruce Willis attempts to help a bullied and troubled little boy, Haley Joel Osment, who claims he is able to see and communicate with dead people.)  A-  

8. Thelma And Louise (1991 drama; Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon are two earthy southern gals who set out in a '66 T-bird for a long weekend of relaxing and end up running from the police in a multi-state chase led by kindly detective Harvey Keitel.)  B+  

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* Charade was featured in a Cinema Scan here on January 23, 2018; A-.

Ten Little Indians was featured in a Cinema Scan here on January 31, 2019; B.

Murder On The Orient Express was reviewed here on November 18, 2017; C+.

Psycho was included in a Cinema Scan here on January 7, 2015; A-.

Knives Out was reviewed here on December 14, 2019; A.