Tag: Dyan Cannon

The Last Of Sheila (1973)

When Rian Johnson was doing the press rounds for Knives Out and discussing “Whodunnit” influences, one title he would offer, which I’d never even heard of before, was The Last Of Sheila (1973). It has the distinction of being written by actor Anthony Perkins and musical composer Stephen Sondheim, and apparently based on Sondheim’s love of parlour games and staging mysteries for celebrity friends. The plot concerns a successful Hollywood producer (James Coburn with his toothy grin at full devilish beam) inviting his less than successful Hollywood friends to his yacht for a week of games. It’s one year since his wife Sheila was killed in a hit and run accident, and the tragedy becomes part of the game playing. His guests – a stacked cast including Richard Benjamin, Joan Hackett, Dyan Cannon, James Mason, Raquel Welch and a young sexy Ian McShane – start to suspect there might be an element of revenge to the twisted festivities. There are lots of witty one liners, lovely seaside locations, stylish 1970s fashions, and complicated twists as things get murderous. There’s also a few strange attitudes that are either cultural artefacts of the era or represent a very cynical take on Hollywood by the writers (without spoilers, one character’s disturbing criminal past is met without comment or reaction). Directed by Herbert Ross, I had a great time watching this alongside its peculiar turns and its jaded denouement. Available to rent on iTunes (though the sound mix is a bit tinny). Recommended.

Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969)

While a Criterion Collection streaming service is still absent in Australia, SBS OnDemand at least offers a good selection of art-house titles and acclaimed foreign films in its library. The recent season (from Sony Pictures networks, I believe) of Quentin Tarantino programming a ‘Swinging Sixties’ line up of movies from that era, to tie into Once Upon A Time In… Hollywood, have been enjoyable to watch, introduced by him and film writer Kim Morgan. For example, I’d always heard of Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) and had assumed, mainly on the basis of the key image of the title characters in bed together, as a dated and daggy sex farce. Finally watching it, I was surprised at how it was more sophisticated than I expected, a comedy based on observation rather than caricature and cliche. The first film directed by Paul Mazursky (Moscow On The Hudson, Down and Out In Beverly Hills), the film finds sly laughs in its quartet of white wealthy Californians taken with the new cultural moment of free love and direct honesty. It helps that Robert Culp, an actor who I usually associate with being authoritarian and strict, is part of the first couple – Bob and Carol – alongside Natalie Wood who become true believers to the new movement after a weekend retreat called The Intervention. Their other friends – Ted and Alice – played by Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon are at first bemused but then sent into a tailspin over their blasé attitude to affairs. While some of the comic scenarios are a bit dated, I thought this movie was a good time with its talented quartet of actors, particularly Gould and Wood. Score is composed by Quincy Jones and ends memorably with the Burt Bacharach and Hal David standard, ‘What The World Needs Now Is Love’. Available to stream on SBS OnDemand.