The Last of Sheila is a murder mystery from 1973 and is a neo noir film. Herbert Ross both produced and directed the film, with a spectacular cast that includes several screen legends and veterans including Richard Benjamin, Dyan Cannon, James Coburn, Joan Hackett, James Mason, Ian McShane, and Raquel Welch.
Sheila Green (Yvonne Romain, Curse of the Werewolf) is killed in a hit-and-run car accident while walking home from a party one night. One year later, her husband, her wealthy film producer husband Clinton (James Coburn, Major Dundee, In Like Flint) invites friends that were at that party a year ago to a one-week cruise across the Mediterranean. Invitees include film director Phillip Dexter (James Mason, North by Northwest, Odd Man Out), actress Alice Wood (Raquel Welch, One Million Years B.C., 100 Rifles), talent agent Christine (Dyan Cannon, Heaven Can Wait, Revenge of the Pink Panther), Lee Parkman (Joan Hackett, The Terminal Man), Anthony Wood (Ian McShane, Tam-Lin) and Tom Parkman (Richard Benjamin, Goodbye Columbus, Westworld). Clinton loves playing games and wants to play “The Sheila Greene Memorial Gossip Game” as his wife was a gossip columnist. In this game he assigns everyone a secret, one person is an alcoholic, another a hit-and-run person and so on. They cannot share the secrets with anyone. Each day for six days they are given clues to find out the person with the secret. Unfortunately, death follows while playing this game and everyone on the yacht is suddenly in great danger.
I enjoyed this picture and thought this was a well-made thriller. I am also a fan of who-done-it murder mysteries. This will be a nostalgic film for some with a look back at the seventies style hairdos, clothing and acting from the performers. The climax came out of nowhere and provided a good jolt. The cast, as one would expect, does a tremendous job with their respective roles. One of the actors in the film is a homosexual, which was still a forbidden fruit at the time. James Mason had to say the word homosexual a few times and I noticed that he kind of mispronounced it, replacing the x with an s sound! A pair of icons in cinema, Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim co-wrote this classic. I mention this as Stephen Sondheim recently passed away, and this is the one and the same Anthony Perkins known to us mainly as Norman Bates in Psycho.
Warner Archive presents The Last of Sheila with a nice new 1080p transfer. It is superb presentation indeed with rich colors, inky black levels, and excellent shadow detail. On the back of the Blu-ray, it says the film is in the aspect ratio of 2:40:1, and it is clearly 1:85:1. Colors are rich and bold, ranging from the various outfits the actors wear to the beautiful shots of the ocean. The French locations looks simply breathtaking with plenty of rich details, with credit going to cinematographer Gerry Turpin. Flesh tones appear to be accurate. No DNR or other digital enhancements appear to have been used.
The English DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio soundtrack has its ups and downs. Dialogue is often flat, but musical scores composed by Billy Goldenberg and other action sounds are highly aggressive. No audio issues such as crackling, or hissing were detected. English subtitles are available for this offering.
There is an audio commentary with three of the actors Richard Benjamin, Dyan Cannon, and Raquel Welch who discuss The Last of Sheila. A theatrical trailer is the other extra. These were ported over from the DVD.
The Last of Sheila Blu-ray is easily an upgrade in the audio and video department and at least Warner Archives did port over the extras making this a superb package on top of the film which is great seventies thriller! Recommended!
The Last of Sheila
Director- Herbert Ross
Cast- Richard Benjamin, Dyan Cannon, James Coburn, Joan Hackett, James Mason, Ian McShane, and Raquel Welch
Country of Origin- US
Distributor – Warner Archive/Warner Brothers
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –11/29/2021