THE LAST OF SHEILA
US, 1973, 113 minutes, Colour.
Richard Benjamin, James Coburn, James Mason, Joan Hackett, Raquel Welch, Dyan Cannon, Ian Mc Shane.
Directed by Herbert Ross.
The Last of Sheila - Whodunit? Whatever our qualms about depicting evil on the screen, the murder mystery generally gets our applause and our choice for an entertainment. If true, then you shouldn't miss this film. Songwriter Stephen Sondheim and actor Anthony Perkins have written a very complicated story with clues and false trails galore until the least suspected murderer is revealed. Set on a Mediterranean luxury cruise with a cast like Richard Benjamin, James Mason, James Coburn, Dyan Cannon and Raquel Welch, the suspects all made to play truth games, the film holds the interest until the end. And that is what murder mysteries are made of. Entertainment for adult audiences.
1. How ironic was the title?
2. Was this a good murder mystery? Why? Was it fair?
3. What cinematic techniques helped the effect? Did any take away from it?
4. Were the main characters personalities or caricatures?
5. Why did Clinton invite the guests to play games? was he
really interested in who killed Sheila?
6. What right did Clinton have to play games with his guests and their secrets and reputations? Why did he play God? What kind of a person was he? Is he the "murderable" type? The irony of his being murdered in a confessional?
7. The other characters: their lives, values. fears, secrets, confrontations with the truth: Phillip his commercial, his secret, his attempt to kill Clinton with the propeller, his discovery of the truth. his risk of working it out? Tom - his attractiveness, relationship with Lee, his intelligence (the first to work out the first clue), screenplay-mind, his initiative in working things out (playing God also), his ultimate cruelty towards Lee and Clinton, self-centred (relationship with Alice)? Lee - her background, relationship with Tom, reaction to Clinton's game, alcoholic, her smashing him, her confession, being cunningly victimised and murdered by Tom? Alice - as a person, star, marriage, intelligence, affair with Tom, her secret? Anthony as a type, his ambitious marriage, secret, fear of being accused? Christine -efficient worker, good-time girl, her secret?
8. The nature of the games - the hotel key, the monastery?
9. Cruelty, cunning, callousness?
10. What makes a film like this so popular?
