Film

The Last of Sheila

Name: The Last of Sheila
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Released: 1973
Cast: Richard Benjamin, Dyan Cannon, James Coburn, Joan Hackett, James Mason

Written by Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim from their own real puzzle-hunt parties, this is Hollywood insiders playing a nasty parlour game on a yacht, and it curdles fast. Twisty, catty, gleefully mean about the industry it came from - it's for anyone who likes their whodunits with genuine venom and a puzzle you can actually solve.

TMDb rating

6.9

If you liked this

Knives Out2019

A modern, sharp, hugely fun ensemble whodunit that shares Sheila's love of elaborate set-pieces and rich people behaving appallingly under polite manners.

But More crowd-pleasing and warm-hearted than Sheila's genuinely nasty social satire - it wants you to like somebody.

Sleuth1972

Same era, same obsession with elaborate psychological game-playing, here boiled down to two masterful actors trapping each other one move at a time.

But A stagey two-hander instead of an ensemble - no scavenger hunt, no crowd of suspects, just pure cruelty for two.

Deathtrap1982

A deliciously twisty theatrical thriller about writers manipulating each other for entertainment and credit, with rug-pulls that keep coming.

But Campier and broader in tone, and its biggest twist lands early rather than being drip-fed like Sheila's.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Rules of the Game1939

Both use elaborate party games among rich people to strip away social masks; Renoir essentially invented the template of genteel cruelty disguised as sport that Sheila later weaponised into a murder plot.

Renoir's country-house ensemble, where a hunting party's games and flirtations expose the moral rot of the wealthy, decades before Sheila's yacht did the same thing with a scavenger hunt.

But Subtitled, slow by modern pacing standards, and closer to tragedy than thriller - no puzzle to solve along the way.

Gosford Park2001

Altman's overlapping ensemble picks apart class, service and buried resentment at a country house weekend that turns lethal.

But Slower and more interested in the servants' quarters than in puzzle mechanics or a solvable mystery.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery2022

A tech billionaire's island getaway, insufferable famous friends, and an elaborate game with real stakes - practically Sheila's spiritual descendant.

But Has a warmer heart under the satire; it's less bitter about its characters than Sheila ultimately is.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery poster

Clue1985

A gleeful, endlessly quotable ensemble farce built entirely on secrets, accusations and rewritten endings.

But Pure slapstick comedy with none of Sheila's real menace or genuine contempt for its characters.

Murder on the Orient Express1974

A star-studded classic whodunit with a genuinely satisfying puzzle, lavish period style, and a detective worth rooting for.

But Straighter and more reverent as a detective story, missing Sheila's insider-Hollywood bitchiness entirely.

Rope1948

Hitchcock's real-time chamber piece about hosting a party while hiding a murder, tension baked into every polite exchange.

But There's no puzzle for the audience to solve, and the single-take gimmick is more formal experiment than game.

And Then There Were None1945

The original stranded-guests-die-one-by-one template, still crisp, clever and enjoyable eighty years on.

But Earnest rather than sly - you won't find any of Sheila's winking self-awareness here.

The Traitors2022

It descends directly from the same idea that fuels Sheila: assign a hidden killer role inside a game and watch civilised people turn feral. Here the game is real and the cruelty isn't performance.

Real strangers compete in an unscripted game riddled with secret 'murderers,' alliances and betrayals - all the psychological warfare of Sheila's dinner-party puzzle, except nobody's acting.

But No script, no crafted final twist, no star wattage - it's messier, meaner in a different way, and far less elegant than a puzzle film.

House of Games1987

Same bones as Sheila's scavenger hunt - a game constructed entirely to expose or destroy someone - but stripped of Hollywood gloss and left as a bleak, unglamorous study in professional deception.

Mamet's cold, precise con-artist noir, where an entire elaborate scenario is staged purely to manipulate one person while wearing total charm as camouflage.

But Clipped, dialogue-heavy and played dead straight - none of Sheila's camp, star power or theatrical flourish.