Special Exhibit: THE LAST OF SHEILA

Year: 1973

Duration: 120 minutes

Where to watch: Amazon Prime, Google Play, iTunes Store

I love a good whodunit, and there are few as well-crafted as The Last of Sheila, a film that should be much more famous than it is, and one of the few instances where the genre works as well on screen as it does on literature.

The film assembles a great cast for its suspects, including James Coburn, James Mason, Raquel Welch and, again, a young Ian McShane (he also featured on last week's recommendation, but I swear it's just a coincidence).

The delightful script was wirtten by Anthony Perkins (the actor of Psycho fame) and Stephen Sondheim (of musical theatre fame). The unlikely duo apparently collaborated in two other crime scripts that remain unfilmed. I'm very curious about them.

Despite all of this, the movie was not a commercial success and, at the time, not much of a critical one either. Today, it remains somewhat obscure, but it's certainly deserving of a watch.

It's not perfect. There are a couple of strange tonal changes and the first act, if vital, is flawed. Still the craft of the mystery is among the very best I've seen and completely overcomes any problem the film might have, assuming you're into puzzle-solving.

As such, explaining too much about it's plot would spoil all that's good about it. It suffices to say that Coburn's character invites six guests to his yatch, all of whom are suspects in his wife's death. For the trip, he has planned some games that might reveal their secrets. From that, you expect a great twist for the third act, but this film rewards you with a whole string of them, all carefully seeded, yet you likely won't see most of them coming.

If you loved Knives Out, or you're looking for a mystery film with an original conceit, you should check this one out.