American Cinematographer - September 2004 - 21

MOTION

PICTURES &
TELEVISION
Sheila, but it might as well be a chal¬
lenge directed at the audience. The
Citizen Kane of whodunits, this lost 70s
classic is diabolically clever entertain¬

bout of

truth-telling

the vindictive

decided to transfer their love of elabo¬

modest but

rate games to the big screen. Dense
with subtle clues, sly allusions and frus¬

scenes

trating red herrings, The Last of Sheila
not only rewards but also demands
repeat viewings. Veteran director
Herbert Ross and cinematographer
Gerry Turpin, BSC (both now deceased)
thoughtfully visualized the film with
witty, resourceful framing and a canny
use of flashbacks, which keep this
exceptionally talky film from becoming
bogged down in the details. Underneath
all the gamesmanship on display, the
film is also a nasty bit of business with
craven, backstabbing Hollywood char¬
acters and, in true 70s style, a
profoundly cynical ending - milked for
maximum irony by the use of Bette
Midler's song "Friends" over the end
credits.
In the film, movie producer Clin¬
(a hilariously arrogant James
Coburn) hosts a cruise aboard his luxury
yacht in the south of France a year after
his wife, Sheila, was killed by a hit-andrun driver. His guests, all Tinseltown
insiders of varying levels of fame and
success, have been invited to take part
in a series of elaborate experiential
games in exotic locales that include a
tiny French town and a medieval
monastery. When Clinton dies in an
apparent accident during one of the
games, two of the more intellectual
participants (James Mason and Richard
Benjamin) begin to suspect that the ulti¬
ton

object of Clintons games was to
pin the responsibility for Sheila's death
on one of the guests. This spurs a tense
mate

the partici¬

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the boat who had

penned by the late actor Anthony
Perkins and famed composer Stephen
Sondheim, longtime friends who
ment

among

pants, as it becomes clear that Clinton
was, in fact, murdered by someone on

perhaps caught on to
object of the game.

Courses offered in

The Last of Sheila has been

given

a

Acting
Cinematography
Directing
Documentary

respectable transfer in this
worthy DVD from Warner

Bros. As in most films from this era,
in deep shadow (of which there

are a few in Turpin's noir-influenced
cinematography) fare the worst, with
readily apparent pops and crackles on
the print. But on the whole, Turpin's
images are sharp and well saturated
and have crisp blacks, a vast improve¬
ment on the washed-out picture of
earlier VHS copies of the film. The

DVD's

mono

soundtrack fares

a

Music Videos

Producing
Screenwriting
Special Effects
Sound

bit

than the picture, as the film's
dialogue at times sounds tinny
and muffled. Fortunately, subtitles are
included as an option to clear up any
confusion the viewer might have.
A commentary from Sondheim
would have been fascinating, but
instead this disc offers a joint commen¬
tary by Benjamin and fellow cast
members Dyan Cannon and Raquel
Welch. Welch's track was clearly
recorded separately, and her rather
superfluous comments are kept to a
worse

dense

minimum.

Two

cheerful

old

pros,

Benjamin and Cannon don't offer up
anything too profound regarding the
film's complex structure (though they
have fun pointing out all the clues), but

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their fond reminiscences about the luxu¬

rious four-month shoot in the south of
France go down easily. Cannon reveals
that the model for her loudmouthed

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super-agent character was none other

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than Sue

Mengers, and the opulent
yacht used in the film belonged to
producer Sam Spiegel. Benjamin
describes the legendary real-life games
organized by Sondheim and Perkins, one

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American Cinematographer - September 2004

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