Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

kurt-2000 OK...like any red blooded American male, I could watch, Welch and Cannon all day long doing above average film and TV projects, but this film isn't interesting in the 21st century, even if it was moderately interesting in '73. If you like murder mysteries, then you might find it interesting. But don't most films today require solving a mystery? The comments made by the characters might have seemed intelligent and witty in '73, but I found this film boring. I was interested in seeing it, since Welch was recently bragging about this film being shown at a west coast theater that shows old films and discussion later. That still doesn't make it great, even if some film buffs liked it.Impressive cast, and two of the actors in this film would later co- star in one of my favorite mini-series for television: 'Jesus of Nazareth'.But I can't ethically recommend that someone invest their time watching it.

James Hitchcock The script for "The Last of Sheila" was written by two men who were both better known for other things, Stephen Sondheim who is best known as a composer, and the actor Anthony Perkins, best remembered as Norman Bates in "Psycho". The film opens with a young woman named Sheila Greene being killed in a hit-and-run accident. A year later her husband Clinton, a wealthy movie producer, invites six friends, all connected with the film industry, to join him on a pleasure cruise off the French Riviera aboard his luxury yacht, the "Sheila". Once the cruise is under way, Clinton informs his guests of the game that he has organised for their entertainment. Each of the six is given a card containing what Clinton calls "a pretend piece of gossip"- e.g. "you are an informer", "you are a homosexual", etc. Each guest must keep his or her "piece of gossip" a secret from the others; the idea behind the game is that, every evening, the guests are given a clue then have to take part in a treasure-hunt type game to find out who holds the card relating to that evening's "gossip". After the first evening, however, it begins to appear the gossip contained on each card may not be "pretend" at all but rather the revelation of an actual secret; that evening's card read "you are a shoplifter" and it is revealed that one of the guests, an actress named Alice Wood, was indeed once arrested for shoplifting. Some of the guests begin to suspect that Clinton may be playing a cruel game with them and that his real purpose may be to expose the person responsible for the death of his wife. (He refers to the game as "The Sheila Greene Memorial Gossip Game"). It therefore does not come as any great surprise when Clinton is found murdered on the second evening. "The Last of Sheila" is really a film of two halves. The first half seems like a stylish, elegant and unusual mystery, which keeps us wondering just why Clinton is playing such a sadistic game with his guests and what the outcome will be. The trouble is that by far the most interesting character is James Coburn's Clinton, a sinister puppeteer pulling the strings of the others. When Clinton is killed about halfway through, the puppets' strings are cut and they have to try and stand on their own feet. From this point on the film turns into an Agatha Christie-type whodunit, albeit one without a Miss Marple or Poirot-type detective; the guests have to solve the mystery for themselves. (One might ask why they do not simply call in the police; the answer is that if they did that there would not be much of a film).Apart from Coburn, in the sort of cool-but-sinister role I have come to associate with him, none of the cast make much of an impression. Of the female members, only Joan Hackett has much to do; Raquel Welch and Dyan Cannon just seem to be there to lend some glamour, in accordance with the seventies rule that you could not set a film on a yacht without having a couple of girls in bikinis to brighten up the scene. (Welch appears not to have enjoyed making this film very much; at the time there were press reports of frequent clashes between her and the director Herbert Ross and her co-star James Mason). The other male members of the cast, Richard Benjamin, Mason, and Ian McShane, all seem too relaxed about the situation they find themselves in, even though it is a situation which could end with at least one of them going to the guillotine. (France still had the death penalty in 1973).Perkins and Sondheim won the 1974 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. I can only think that there was little competition for the award. (I must admit that I cannot think of any really good mystery films from 1973). What starts off as something potentially fresh and original ends up as something over- familiar and hackneyed. 5/10

WakenPayne 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.

jzappa The Last of Sheila, a star-packed murder mystery written by Broadway legends, really doesn't start or even progress with much momentum at all, but when the true wheels of the actual murder puzzle start turning, it pulls a lot of palpable tension and sharp dialogue out of nowhere and does the job. It doesn't help that first half that I was tempted to turn it off, but the fact that the intrigue ratcheted up at the precise moment when I was going to is what saved it by a hair's breadth. And I'm glad I stuck it out. It proved itself worthwhile.The movie comes out of a fine heritage of murder puzzles from such as Agatha Christie and Patricia Highsmith. In fact, it's a little rare to see this material showing up first as a movie. It feels like the sort of story that would start life as a play. Bringing seven people together and then doing the old "one of the people sitting here amongst us is a murderer" schtick is inherently stagy. Nevertheless, it functions well as a movie, perhaps since the screenplay has as much to do with characters as with crime. The movie was written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins, and they flaunt an apparent sense of showbiz manners and dialogue. They've also play Name That Tune with us: We can enjoy speculating who the bitchy agent was motivated by, or the director on the skids, or the centerfold, each played respectively by Dyan Cannon, James Mason and Raquel Welch, two out of three of whom kept me watching purely just to watch.I like the concept of a murder mystery set among showbiz types because Hollywood is often thought to be shy about death and shrink from it. Genuine sorrow seems quite rare. The movie opens as a watchful-waiting stratagem concerning Coburn and the killer, which is latently intriguing though it rambles too far away from the point of tension and plays more like a '60s romp than an expository double-blind. Yet it makes a striking hairpin halfway through. And it actually is a game to them; they don't spend time mourning when somebody dies, just clean up the blood and tally one more loser against their competition for a win. And yet it's barely started until just two of these characters spend a great deal of time deliberately hammering out the true significance of the clues, a scene so tight, well-acted, well-written and loaded with sharp wit that it makes the whole package worth it.A better part of the performances are pointed and mercenary, and very good, particularly James Mason with his typical cultured obstinacy. Dyan Cannon as the agent. Joan Hackett is beautiful and tender, and Richard Benjamin treads a fine line between voice of reason and a screenwriter trying to think in formulas. Coburn is always entertaining owing to his sheer presence and it's interesting watching an Ian McShane so much younger than anyone my age is aware he ever was. Welch is quite wooden by comparison, but as I said before