The Last of Sheila: Sondheim's Movie

[keen on kean]

Posted: 3/10/07 at 3:25pm

I have just ordered this DVD - having discovered that it is written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins. Anyone like it? Anyone hate it? It's Sondheim so I imagine there are plenty of people in both camps.
Updated On: 3/11/07 at 03:25 PM

[TomMonster]

Posted: 3/10/07 at 3:28pm

It's a fun mystery with over 700 clues. However, being Sondheim, the answer to the mystery is in front of you from the very beginning...

Lot's of fun! Enjoy.

(The film was based on one of Sondheim's party games--though not quite as deadly.)

[pab]

Posted: 3/10/07 at 3:30pm

I own it on DVD and have watched it few times. I found it entertaining.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/10/07 at 3:49pm

Lots of fun. Dyan Cannon and Raquel Welch are each a scream and Joan Hackett is excellent. God, that woman was a good actress.

The men are good too, and Richard Benjamin is a great example of the 1970s closet. James Coburn would be sexier if he didn't play the part as if he knew how sexy he was--which makes him less sexy. But, after all, it was the 70s. Think how much cocaine they must have done on that set.

[keen on kean]

Posted: 3/10/07 at 3:55pm

I hate to be incredibly naive, but wasn't Bejamin married to Paula Prentiss forever? Just a beard?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/10/07 at 4:05pm

I really like this movie. Everyone is good in it. Joan Hackett was a wonderful actress. Anything she did she made it 10x better. I grew up watching her on TV and she always had this wonderful break in her voice that made me hang on every word.

I too discovered this movie because of Sondheim. I was reading a book about his musicals and in it there was a chapter or section on the movie.

[keen on kean]

Posted: 3/10/07 at 4:49pm

Chita - I am about half way through "Sondheim & Company" and if I keep buying everything I am discovering thanks to this book, I am going to be bankrupt!

[keen on kean]

Posted: 3/10/07 at 4:49pm

double post - apologies
Updated On: 3/10/07 at 04:49 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/10/07 at 5:00pm

There are worse ways to go broke.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/10/07 at 5:06pm

That's the one.

Broke? Tell me about it. After reading the chapter on the tribute that became the scrabble double LP, I went looking for it and bought it for $80. Less than a year after that it came out on CD.

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 3/10/07 at 9:28pm

Back in the early 1980's, when my family got our first VCR, this movie was one of the first one's that I rented.

And wasn't Ian McShane a hottie back then, too?

[jasonf]

Posted: 3/10/07 at 9:57pm

Good movie - good mystery that makes you slap your head at the end.

[romantico]

Posted: 3/10/07 at 11:23pm

One of my favorite movies! I have always been obsessed with Sondheim's notorious Halloween party's. His scavenger hunts and parlor games are just incredible. I wish there was a book just on his stories and parties. I wish Sondehim would write more mysteries.

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 3/10/07 at 11:37pm

You almost got your wish. After the way "Merrily We Roll Along" bombed, he almost gave up writing musicals and was going to start writing mysteries.

[romantico]

Posted: 3/10/07 at 11:39pm

I know. Whats 'Getting Away With Murder'? Did he write that with George Furth? I saw the book at the bookstore the other day and was surpised that I had never heard of it.

[mattonstage]

Posted: 3/11/07 at 12:05am

Keen: His character in the movie was closeted.
romantico: Getting Away with Murder played Broadway for 29 previews and 17 performances back in Feb/March 1996, with Christine Ebersole, Terrence Mann, and John Rubenstein among the stars.

I love the movie, by the way, a couple of good twists at the end.

[Dark_Angel]

Posted: 3/11/07 at 3:30am

Just looked this up on IMDB.
What a cast! I had no idea Sondheim wrote a screenplay! I have to rent this now. Thanks for bringing this movie to my attention. Sounds like a lot of fun. I love mysteries.
Another thing I did not know: The song "FRIENDS" sung by Bette Midler is from this movie! It's listed in the movie's poster credits!

Updated On: 3/11/07 at 03:30 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/11/07 at 8:00am

She had been singing it in club dates (including the Continental Baths) before she recorded it for the movie.



I was too young to see her at the baths but I saw her at the Bitter End and at a club in a mall in New Jersey during that time.

[Dark_Angel]

Posted: 3/11/07 at 8:27am

oh, i wouldn't know anything about bathhouses. but thanks for the info!

[romantico]

Posted: 3/11/07 at 8:31am

Anthony Perkins also wrote the screenplay along with Sondheim. Herbert Ross, a frequent guest at Sondheim's party's directed.

[TomMonster]

Posted: 3/11/07 at 1:58pm

Those were some seriously fun parties! I miss Tony and Herb...

[mattonstage]

Posted: 3/11/07 at 2:01pm

Bette should sing it at whatever the next Sondheim benefit/concert is. And you know they'll be another.

[keen on kean]

Posted: 3/11/07 at 2:26pm

So now I've finished the chapter in Sondheim & Company about Streisand's Sondheim album. Quick someone stop me before I hit Amazon.com again! But seriously, is that worth getting? (I hope the author gets commissions - I love the book so much it is like a long not-so-subliminal commercial for all this good stuff.)

[TomMonster]

Posted: 3/11/07 at 2:38pm

Definately worth getting! It's the album that has made him more money than all of his shows put together...

[tazber]

Posted: 3/11/07 at 3:45pm

Is that the Broadway Album, or did she record an all Sondheim album that i don't know about?

Never heard of Sheila! Must. Have. Now.