"The Last Of Sheila," A Great Whodunit
"The Last Of Sheila" was a Warner Brothers release in 1973, lasting about two hours. I first saw it later on television, but I don't recall if it was on network television or on some local station. You likely have not heard of this movie, but it is really quite good, and it has some very well known stars from its era: James Mason, James Coburn, Dyan Cannon, Raquel Welsh, Joan Hackett, Richard Benjamin and Ian McShane.
I will only cover the basic story here, but I will not reveal the ending or some other specific information, because it will ruin it for you, if you've never seen the movie. This mystery/whodunit film is centered around a group of six people, all connected to Hollywood, invited to spend several days for a Mediterranean cruise of southern France on the yacht of a movie producer, Clinton Greene, played by James Coburn, who seems to enjoy making people feel uncomfortable. The get together takes place about a year after the producer's wife, Sheila, had been struck and killed by a hit and run driver. His yacht is named "Sheila." Once assembled, Clinton's guests are told they will be playing a game, something for which he has a deep affection.* He assigns a "gossip" secret to each of the six people on a printed card. Somewhat later "the players display the cards as": "shoplifter," "hit and run killer," "homosexual,"** "little child molester," "informer," "ex-convict." While he claims he made up the secrets, it seems each secret may just truly fit with one of the participants, although he does not give that person their own real life secret. The object of the game will be for the participants to find out the secrets of the others, but to keep their own secret from being discovered. The yacht will dock each night, at which time the producer will give the group a clue that will tell them where to go to discover that night's secret, although they will have to use their brainpower to even figure out exactly what the clue means. If the person with that particular night's secret uncovers the secret, that night's game will be declared "over." This is a movie where you have to pay lots of attention to what's going on, or you will not likely be "in the game." There are lots of little clues to the audience throughout the picture, but you may not recognize them as such at first.
So as not to spoil things for those who would like to see the picture, I will not tell much more, except that other incidents happen on the cruise and during the game playing, including a murder! This is a good picture which should keep you guessing what the hell's going on, right to the very end; unless of course, you are crafty enough to put everything together beforehand. Well worth watching and lots of fun!
* The "game" theme was based on the real life penchant for such party games by the script writers for this film, Anthony Perkins, well known for starring in the movie "Psycho" and several other films, and Stephen Sondheim, an award winning lyricist and music composer, who wrote the lyrics to "West Side Story," for instance, and the music and lyrics to many, many other Broadway and movie scores.
** The subject of homosexuality is dealt with briefly in an interesting way in the film, especially for those times, when the subject was often taboo.
Photo is of the 2012 Warner Archive DVD
WORD HISTORY:
Rib-This word, related to "reef," and used primarily as a noun, goes back to Indo European "rebh," which had the idea of "curved or arched cover." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "rebja/rebjo," meaning "curved covering for the chest," but also, "reef," perhaps from the notion of "rocks protruding near the water's surface like ribs on a body." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "ribb," which meant "rib." This later became "ribbe" (and the "e" would have been pronounced "eh" or "ah"), before the modern version. The verb form, meaning "to tease someone," came from the noun much later, from the notion of nudging or poking someone in the ribs when joking or teasing with them. The other Germanic languages have: German "Rippe," Low German Saxon "Ribb," West Frisian "ribbe," Dutch "rib" (also "ribbe"), Danish and Norwegian "ribben," Icelandic "rif(bein)" (literally "rib bone"), Swedish "ribba." ^
^ The Swedish, Norwegian and Danish forms are likely borrowed forms from Low German (maybe also reinforced by Frisian), as these languages also had "similar" to Icelandic, as "rev/riv/rif."
I will only cover the basic story here, but I will not reveal the ending or some other specific information, because it will ruin it for you, if you've never seen the movie. This mystery/whodunit film is centered around a group of six people, all connected to Hollywood, invited to spend several days for a Mediterranean cruise of southern France on the yacht of a movie producer, Clinton Greene, played by James Coburn, who seems to enjoy making people feel uncomfortable. The get together takes place about a year after the producer's wife, Sheila, had been struck and killed by a hit and run driver. His yacht is named "Sheila." Once assembled, Clinton's guests are told they will be playing a game, something for which he has a deep affection.* He assigns a "gossip" secret to each of the six people on a printed card. Somewhat later "the players display the cards as": "shoplifter," "hit and run killer," "homosexual,"** "little child molester," "informer," "ex-convict." While he claims he made up the secrets, it seems each secret may just truly fit with one of the participants, although he does not give that person their own real life secret. The object of the game will be for the participants to find out the secrets of the others, but to keep their own secret from being discovered. The yacht will dock each night, at which time the producer will give the group a clue that will tell them where to go to discover that night's secret, although they will have to use their brainpower to even figure out exactly what the clue means. If the person with that particular night's secret uncovers the secret, that night's game will be declared "over." This is a movie where you have to pay lots of attention to what's going on, or you will not likely be "in the game." There are lots of little clues to the audience throughout the picture, but you may not recognize them as such at first.
So as not to spoil things for those who would like to see the picture, I will not tell much more, except that other incidents happen on the cruise and during the game playing, including a murder! This is a good picture which should keep you guessing what the hell's going on, right to the very end; unless of course, you are crafty enough to put everything together beforehand. Well worth watching and lots of fun!
* The "game" theme was based on the real life penchant for such party games by the script writers for this film, Anthony Perkins, well known for starring in the movie "Psycho" and several other films, and Stephen Sondheim, an award winning lyricist and music composer, who wrote the lyrics to "West Side Story," for instance, and the music and lyrics to many, many other Broadway and movie scores.
** The subject of homosexuality is dealt with briefly in an interesting way in the film, especially for those times, when the subject was often taboo.
Photo is of the 2012 Warner Archive DVD
Rib-This word, related to "reef," and used primarily as a noun, goes back to Indo European "rebh," which had the idea of "curved or arched cover." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "rebja/rebjo," meaning "curved covering for the chest," but also, "reef," perhaps from the notion of "rocks protruding near the water's surface like ribs on a body." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "ribb," which meant "rib." This later became "ribbe" (and the "e" would have been pronounced "eh" or "ah"), before the modern version. The verb form, meaning "to tease someone," came from the noun much later, from the notion of nudging or poking someone in the ribs when joking or teasing with them. The other Germanic languages have: German "Rippe," Low German Saxon "Ribb," West Frisian "ribbe," Dutch "rib" (also "ribbe"), Danish and Norwegian "ribben," Icelandic "rif(bein)" (literally "rib bone"), Swedish "ribba." ^
^ The Swedish, Norwegian and Danish forms are likely borrowed forms from Low German (maybe also reinforced by Frisian), as these languages also had "similar" to Icelandic, as "rev/riv/rif."
Labels: Anthony Perkins, Dyan Cannon, English, etymology, Germanic languages, Ian McShane, James Coburn, James Mason, Joan Hackett, movies, mystery movies, Raquel Welch, Richard Benjamin, Stephen Sondheim
posted by Randy at 4:21 PM
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