The Last of Sheila

A puzzle film built on a game, set on a yacht. Clinton is a wealthy Hollywood producer. His wife Sheila was killed in a hit-and-run a year ago and the driver was never found. He invites six friends onto his yacht; all of them are in the film business and all were at the party that night. A game will be played across the voyage. Each is given a card with a secret written on it: thief, homosexual, informer, child molester. The rule is to work out who was given which card. But the secrets on the cards were not chosen at random. Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins wrote the screenplay together. The two were known for setting elaborate puzzle games for their friends in real life, and the film came directly out of that habit. The structure challenges the audience as well: the clues are shown openly on screen and the solution is reachable from the start. Richard Benjamin, Dyan Cannon, James Coburn, Raquel Welch and James Mason are in the cast. Herbert Ross directed. One of the most cleverly constructed examples of its kind for anyone who likes puzzle mysteries and closed-setting whodunits. For a viewer looking for depth of character, the film is interested in the mechanism and the people stand as parts of the structure.