STRANGERS ON A TRAIN...his best-remembered film

 Actor Farley Granger died in New York on Sunday at age 85. He'd begun his career in Hollywood under contract to Samuel Goldwyn and made his first film, The North Star, in 1943. Five years later he worked for the first time with Alfred Hitchcock on one of the director's most interesting exercises, Rope (1948), co-starring James Stewart and John Dall. In 1951 he again worked with Hitchcock and it is for this film, Strangers on a Train, that Granger is best remembered. The actor later left Hollywood to work on the New York stage; in 1986 he won an Obie Award for his performance in "Talley & Son." Though Farley Granger is not the specific focus, I'm posting this previously published reflection on Strangers on a Train in tribute to of his life and career.

It was the middle of the 20th Century and Alfred Hitchcock's last major film had been Notorious (1946). Four years and four films later, he seemed to be drifting. Though The Paradine Case, Rope, Under Capricorn and Stage Fright were all interesting attempts, only underrated Stage Fright was successful, but it was not major box office.

Hitchcock and Granger on the set

For his next project, Hitchcock looked to the first novel of young Patricia Highsmith. Intrigued by its clever "criss-cross" murder plot, he bought the rights to Strangers on a Train.

Raymond Chandler was tapped to tackle the screenplay, though Czenzi Ormonde, a protege of Ben Hecht, rewrote most of it. Cinematographer Robert Burks collaborated with Hitchcock for the first time and earned an Oscar nomination for his efforts. He was nominated again for Rear Window and won for To Catch a Thief. Dimiti Tiomkin, who had last worked with the director on Shadow of a Doubt, composed the dramatic score. Hitchcock produced and directed for Warner Brothers.

Strangers on a Train (1951) is considered one of Hitchcock's most accessible films; its overwhelming success revived the director's reputation at a crucial point. It also signaled the beginning of his final great filmmaking period.


"meet cute" moment

A virtual case study of Hitchcock's technique, Strangers on a Train  bears all the hallmarks of his style. There are spectacular set pieces, among them - an intense tennis match cross-cut with scenes of a killer's harrowing journey to plant evidence and a carousel sequence that sweeps to a terrifying climax. Prominent historical sites appear; Washington, D.C., landmarks are woven into the scenario, with the Jefferson Memorial in a stark cameo. There is an "innocent man accused" and a powerful doppelganger motif.


Farley Granger and Laura Elliott/Kasey Rogers

Though there are no marquee names, the cast is solid: Farley Granger as handsome, nearly guileless and beleaguered tennis star Guy Haines and Laura Elliott (Kasey Rogers) as his trampy estranged wife, Miriam. Marion Lorne stands out as the discombobulated mother of a killer, Leo G. Carroll appears as a U.S. Senator and Patricia Hitchcock has one of her best roles as his quirky younger daughter.

Alfred Hitchcock once told Francoise Truffaut, "...the more successful the villain, the more successful the picture. That's a cardinal rule..."

The bold, unforgettable performance of Robert Walker as unhinged Bruno Anthony is proof of that rule. Remarkably, Walker had mostly been cast as boy-next-door types up till then. Like Joseph Cotten's Uncle Charley in Shadow of a Doubt, Walker's Bruno is a glib, self-possessed charmer who is also a remorseless killer. Walker is riveting onscreen. His Bruno is confident, slick, erratic...and very unsettling. His smooth veneer barely masks a simmering rage. With a voice that slides from sensual as velvet to cold and hollow as tin, his eyes glitter, glare, caress.

Robert Walker

From the moment Bruno is first seen in the club car insinuating himself into Guy's life, to his final seconds of life, when he mercilessly implicates Guy with his dying breath, Walker dominates and energizes the film. Pat Hitchcock once observed that for all her father's genius, it was Walker's daring performance that 'made' the picture.

Walker died tragically at age 32 less than two months after the film was released. He had appeared in more than 30 films in his career, but it was Strangers on a Train that allowed him to reveal the devastating range of his talent.

Farley Granger later reflected, "he was great in the film; his potential was limitless, his career was just beginning to take wing."

Robert Walker's life had been short and often troubled, but it later became clear that he had a bit of good fortune after all; his greatest role, a virtuoso performance, was preserved in one of Alfred Hitchcock's finest and most popular films.

British film critic and historian David Thomson noted in a 1999 Hitchcock centenniel article on Strangers that Walker's was "...a landmark performance. You see it now and you feel the vibrancy of the modernity...he had had that one chance..."

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Hitchcock's Silent Version of Blackmail on the Big Screen

The era of talking pictures arrived while Alfred Hitchcock was working on his crime thriller, Blackmail, in 1929. The film had already been shot as a silent feature but during post-production the studio asked the director to convert it to partial sound so it could be marketed as a talking picture. Hitchcock, as was his way, had his own ideas. He began to tinker; scenes were reshot with dialogue, additional scenes with dialogue were added. In the end, Hitchcock had two films - his and Britain's much touted "first full length all talkie film" - and the original silent version. In 1929, most theaters in Britain were not equipped for sound, so it was the silent Blackmail that was for a long time the most widely seen and popular of the two films.

One night last summer, the California Film Institute presented a special screening of a 35 mm British Film Institute archive print of the silent version of Blackmail at a theater near me. Accompanying the film with an original score was the Alloy Orchestra, one of the world's foremost silent film orchestras. In attendance was an enthusiastic sold-out crowd.

Alfred Hitchcock and Anny Ondra

Blackmail was Hitchcock's second film of the thriller genre; the first wasThe Lodger (1927), the picture that first brought him widespread acclaim. Blackmail, a film that critic and Hitchcock author/scholar David Sterritt declared "has a strong claim to being his first masterpiece," foreshadows Hitchcock's later work in many ways. Visually sophisticated and gimlet-eyed in its observation of human nature and motives, it includes a delicately lovely woman in grave danger (who spends much of the film as if in a daze) and a grisly murder; the climactic chase scene at a landmark, the British Museum, is the first of such Hitchcock signature set-pieces...and there is no shortage of moral ambiguity.

The story, which Hitchcock conceived as a conflict between love and duty, centers on a middle-class young Londoner, Alice White. Alice lives with her parents, helps out at their tobacconist's shop and is dating a straight-arrow Scotland Yard detective. After the pair has a spat over dinner, she recklessly goes off with an artist/Casanova and ends up involved in a killing (see clip below); as a result her beau is drawn into the investigation - and a blackmail plot.

Blackmail stars Anny Ondra as Alice, John Longden as her detective boyfriend, Cyril Ritchard as the artist and Donald Calthrop as Tracy, the not-so-innocent innocent man. The plot is well constructed, the action is tight and Hitchcock's mastery of suspense is evident throughout.

finis

Though clever and fast-paced, Blackmail is a film of some depth and darkness. Ultimately, the integrity of both central characters is permanently compromised. Though a messy situation is conveniently resolved, the truth comes out between the girl and her man and the film's ending implies an uncertain and possibly bleak future for the two who now share a terrible knowledge and guilt.

The Alloy Orchestra artfully accented this screening of Blackmail, adding dimension and a sense of immediacy to the experience. However...the group is not exactly an "orchestra" but three musicians whose instruments include keyboards, accordion, clarinet, musical saw and a famous "rack of junk." A combination of percussion and electronics allows them to create an array of sounds and effects. The Alloy Orchestra has performed worldwide - for major film festivals, AMPAS and even at the Louvre.

The Alloy Orchestra

Postscript:

I had not seen the sound version of Blackmail when I viewed the silent, but have since. I was a little surprised to discover that I much preferred the silent version. There are, perhaps, some technical reasons for this (rudimentary sound, the awkwardness of English actress Joan Barry voicing Czech-born star Anny Ondra's lines as Ondra performed). What struck me, though, was that the plot was rendered less ambiguous by the addition of spoken dialogue that was more explicit than the intertitles had been.

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Thanks, Dawn, for the Stylish Blogger Award

Dawn at “Noir & Chick Flicks” has kindly honored Eve’s Reel Life with a “Stylish Blogger Award.” Many thanks to Dawn, a real fan of Golden Age classics!  Here’s her URL – http://dawnschickflicks.blogspot.com/

Those honored with the “Stylish Blogger Award” must reveal seven facts about themselves… here are seven things about me that may or may not be interesting:

Bette in Now, Voyager

1.   I’ve loved Golden Age classics since childhood. I believe I inherited this addiction from my mother – along with “Bette Davis love”…her favorite of BD: Now, Voyager

2.  TCM is the default channel at my place, though I’m delving into Comcast’s On Demand Premium Channels/Preferred Selections (thanks to Rick of the Classic/Cafe)

3.  I own very few DVDs…I used to own lots of video tapes and then realized that technology will only change again and again…now I watch movies any and every way I can

4.  I work in TV and have worked in the entertainment biz most of my life

5.  Because of my line of work I’ve met or come into contact with a few of the famous…the most memorable was Loretta Young

6.  My love of film extends from silent era to present day classics, including foreign cinema

"Mad Men"

7.  I am a “Mad Men” fanatic and just found out today that there may be no 2011 season and no new episodes till 2012…NOOOO!

Those chosen as “Stylish Bloggers” are asked to name seven more stylish bloggers – here are my picks:

Distant Voices & Flickering Shadows - http://distant-voicesandflickering-shadows.blogspot.com/

Bit Part Actors - http://bitactors.blogspot.com/

Twenty Four Frames - http://twentyfourframes.wordpress.com/

Kevin’s Movie Corner - http://kevinsmoviecorner.blogspot.com/

Bette’s Classic Movie Blog - http://bettesmovieblog.blogspot.com/

Amateur Film Studies - http://amateurfilmstudies.blogspot.com/

Tales of the Easily Distracted - http://doriantb.blogspot.com/

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For Japan...

This is my entry in CinemaFanatic/JapanCinema's blogathon to benefit victims of the earthquake/tsunami disaster in Japan...I hope those of you visiting my reel life will donate generously by clicking here...

Woman in the Dunes

 I wish I were more knowledgeable about the cinema of Japan, but I am not. That's not to say that I am completely ignorant of Japanese films ...I have seen my share of Kurosawa, most recently, Red Beard (1965) and - amazingly - the first Japanese film I can ever recall seeing is Woman in the Dunes (1964). I was fortunate to have been young during an era when an art house/revival house culture thrived - and it was in a theater dedicated to such cinema that I saw Hiroshi Teshigahara's great film. On the surface it is about an entomologist who becomes trapped in a sand pit with a woman whose life is devoted to the daily shoveling of sand. But more than that it's a consuming existential meditation, beautifully photographed, filled with striking imagery and accompanied by a jarring, expressive soundtrack. I couldn't get it out of my mind then - and I really never have since.

The Japanese film I viewed most recently is a completely different kind of film...

Not long ago I posted a blog about food and film - films in which food "played a lead or supporting role." At the end of it I invited others to comment on their favorites of this "genre."  Among the films mentioned was one I hadn't seen, Juzo Itami’s comedy, Tampopo (1985). I was curious and eventually tracked it down…



Nobuko Miyamoto in Tampopo

 Goro (Tsutomu Yamazaki) is a truck driver on a long haul with his younger partner, Gun (Ken Watanabe). One night they stop at a roadside noodle shop run by a widow, Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto), struggling to keep her restaurant going while raising a young son. When she asks Goro how he likes her ramen he tells the truth: not very good! He then embarks on a mission to help Tampopo master the art of the noodle bowl…

A variety of colorful folk join in and weigh in on concocting the correct recipe and developing the proper method of preparing perfect ramen...broth, noodles, style, attitude...

Tampopo...sharing food

But Tampopo is not a start-to-finish narrative. Several vignettes are woven in - all are related to food but not all directly related to the ramen odyssey. Highlights among these side stories include the amusing predicament of a group of corporate types grappling with the menu in a French restaurant, several friends who get together with the intention of eating spaghetti in the western style and…most famous of all…a gangster and his girl sharing a raw but ultimately sensuous egg.

The mastery of ramen is achieved and the film ends on a high note. Goro, a wandering cowboy of sorts, seems almost to ride into the sunset once he accomplishes his purpose. A final scene puts an exclamation point on the link between food and connection/intimacy/love.

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From Saint to Sinner: Jean Seberg

This Sunday, March 13, the first Sunday of Lent, Turner Classic Movies will feature films about one of the Catholic Church’s most popular saints, Joan of Arc. On Wednesday the 16^th, TCM will honor the Museum of Modern Art’s film archive by screening 14 films representing its collection. Each of these tributes will include a film starring Jean Seberg and directed by Otto Preminger.

While Saint Joan (1957) and Bonjour Tristesse (1958) rank somewhere in the mid-range of Preminger's body of work (which includes Laura, The Man With the Golden Arm and Anatomy of a Murder), they were Seberg’s first two films and significant for their influence on the evolution of her unconventional career.

Preminger was riding high in 1956 when he announced that, a la David O. Selznick’s Gone with the Wind campaign, he was going to audition unknowns for the title role in his upcoming opus, an adaptation of the 1923 George Bernard Shaw play Saint Joan. Enormous publicity accompanied his worldwide search and he auditioned thousands of candidates. In the end he made only three screen tests and selected an inexperienced American teenager over actresses Kelli Blaine of New York and Doreen Denning of Stockholm.

Jean Seberg was a 17-year old amateur from Marshalltown, Iowa, when she was chosen to star as Saint Joan. Though she had aspired to be an actress from an early age, her stage experience consisted of one season with a local stock company. But Preminger was impressed with the unusual combination of piquancy and pliability he detected in her - plus Seberg was an innocent, “younger than springtime,” fine-featured blonde.

Jean Seberg as Saint Joan

For Seberg, the high point of her experience on Saint Joan may have been her fairytale discovery. Once filming began she found herself in the intimidating company of veteran actors such as Richard Widmark, John Gielgud, Anton Walbrook, Richard Todd and Finlay Currie. Gielgud, who was fond of her, noted that she barely knew the rudiments of acting but struggled mightily to find her way. Preminger did little to help. Notorious for mercilessly bullying actors (though not stars), he made no exception for his protégé. In the view of observers including Gielgud, the director endlessly berated her, crushing the very freshness and spontaneity that had attracted him in the first place. As if Preminger's behavior and the pressures of making her first film weren't enough, an accident on the set may have summed up Seberg's dilemma. The scene in which Joan of Arc was to be burned to death required that the actress be chained to a stake. During filming, as smoke and flames began to engulf her, Jean started to scream that she was actually burning. She was quickly rescued and not badly hurt but Preminger, who realized the mishap had been caught on film, was so pleased with "crowd reaction" that he told a reporter he might actually use the footage.

Saint Joan was not well received, though Preminger's promotional fanfare had stirred up great interest and anticipation. Saul Bass's evocative title sequence (shown below) hints at the film's appeal. Perhaps its true potential was the moderate success of a well-intentioned presitige piece, but it failed with the mass audience to which it was promoted. The press criticized Preminger's direction and Grahame Greene's screenplay, but it was Jean Seberg who received scathing reviews and was widely blamed for the flop.

Preminger's next project was already in the works by the time Saint Joan wrapped. And he planned, once again, to feature Jean Seberg in a starring role.

In 1954, 19-year-old French writer Francioise Sagan created an international sensation with her racy first novel, Bonjour Tristesse. Preminger and Seberg's next film would be an adaptation of Sagan's bestseller. Seberg was to co-star with Deborah Kerr and David Niven as Niven's daughter, a spoiled café society brat. The melodramatic tale of dissipation and cruelty was primarily set and filmed on the French Riviera during the high season. And Preminger provided his company with the finest in accommodations and luxury extras. Nevertheless, Seberg was once more subjected to his volatile temperament. This time, though, one of her co-stars stood up to the director. Deborah Kerr challenged Preminger, telling him she could not tolerate his abusive treatment of the young actress.

By the time filming was completed, Seberg was engaged to Francois Moreuil a French lawyer, and her collaboration with Preminger was about to come to an end. Bonjour Tristesse was set for release in January 1958 and, following the demise of Saint Joan, Seberg's career seemed to rest on the success or failure of her second film. In an interview at the time of Bonjour Tristesse's release, she was aggressively grilled on the subject... click here to view Jean Seberg's January 1958 interview with Mike Wallace.

Bonjour Tristesse failed miserably when it was released, and both Preminger and Seberg were subjected to a drubbing in the press. Perhaps by this time the director had given up his dream of making her a star for he had no future plans to work with her and when Francoise Moreuil, by now Seberg's husband, approached him about selling her contract to Columbia, Preminger agreed. Within a year the studio cast her in The Mouse That Roared (1959), a popular Peter Sellers vehicle and, though a "small" film, it was Seberg's first success.

Very soon Jean Seberg's career would undergo another unexpected twist.

...with Belmondo in Breathless

To begin with, and importantly, Bonjour Tristesse had been a critical success in France and Seberg had become a critics' darling there. Meanwhile, her French husband, Francoise Moreuil, happened to be connected to filmmakers/writers associated with the fabled French publication, Cahiers du Cinema - where both Saint Joan and Bonjour Tristesse were highly regarded and Seberg was revered. Soon the young actress was being pursued by about-to-become-legendary filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard to co-star in his first major feature, A Bout de Souffle...or Breathless (1960).

Seberg was introduced to Godard by her husband. After much discussion between the actress and the auteur, a 12-page telegram from Godard to Moreuil and an affordable arrangement for all concerned, a deal was struck. Godard saw Seberg as an international name who could help his film succeed outside France, and Seberg was anxious to prove herself. To her good fortune, Godard was no bully and worked well with actresses, filming them to advantage. Another surprise for Seberg in working with Godard was his approach to the script. She might be given her lines on pieces of paper in the morning before a shoot or Godard might shout lines to her during a scene. Godard was experienced at writing dialogue and he was able to shout while shooting because the film was shot mute with sound and dialogue added later. But all of this was new to Seberg whose previous performances had been entirely controlled by the autocratic Preminger.

No one on the project at the time realized Breathless would receive the level of acclaim or have the influence on cinema that it achieved. Hailed for its bold visual style and approach to editing, it became a pivotal film of the French New Wave.

Jean Seberg became a legend along with the film and her co-star, Jean-Paul Belmondo. Her casual boyish chic and pixie haircut (predating Mia Farrow's famous 'do by many years) remain iconic today. She went on to make films in both Europe and the U.S., though her later American films were generally lackluster.

Saint Joan is now appreciated as a sincere if uneven attempt to translate weighty Shaw to film and is generally viewed as an honorable effort. Bonjour Tristesse's popularity has improved dramatically since 1958. Frequently cited are visually striking scenes of grainy black and white that dissolve into stunning color as the story moves from present to past and back again. The film's themes, estrangement and excess among the rich and languid, are noted for anticipating those Fellini famously visited with La Dolce Vita a few years later. 

Jean Seberg's earliest performances have been assessed more fairly in recent years and many critics view her work far differently than her detractors of the 1950s. David Thomson has called her Saint Joan "a shrewd and touching fusion of provincial America, rural France, and Shaw's notion of a fustian saint picking logic with kings and bishops." He has deemed her portrayal in Bonjour Tristesse "marvelous" and praised her self-possession and maturity.

Turner Classic Movies Schedule
Saint Joan airs Sunday, March 13, at 10:30pm Eastern/7:30pm Pacific
Bonjour Tristesse airs Wednesday, March 16, at 9:30pm Eastern/6:30pm Pacific 

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Tales of Manhattan…and Hollywood (and more): The Last of Sheila

The murder mystery has been a movie staple since the silent era. In the 1930s variations on the drawing-room style whodunit, perhaps epitomized by the lighthearted Powell/Loy “Thin Man” series and the suspenseful Rathbone/ Bruce “Sherlock Holmes” franchise, became popular. Fairly standard in these mysteries was a group of people in a remote location where one (or more) of them is murdered; the killer was not, in most cases, unmasked until the last act. One of Agatha Christie’s most popular whodunits, written in 1939, was filmed by Rene Clair in 1945 as the memorable And Then There Were None, starring Walter Huston and Barry Fitzgerald.  But the “cozy” whodunit has never entirely gone out of style and an updated variant, the whodunit with an all-star cast emerged. This tale concerns one such film, a clever and absorbing entry from the era of “Easy Riders and Raging Bulls,” and how it came to be…

Anthony Perkins

During the late 1960’s actor Anthony Perkins, synonymous with Psycho’s Norman Bates, lived in Manhattan and was part of composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim’s social set.  Sondheim, a Broadway legend among whose masterworks is Sweeney Todd, shared many interests with Perkins, one of which was a love of sophisticated games and puzzles. Sondheim was well known at the time for his own rendition of the “murder game,” an at-home version of the whodunit, and was famous for going to great lengths to ensure his players really experienced “a certain amount of fear …” Writer Peter Shaffer (Amadeus) was so dazzled after playing that he asked Sondheim to stage a game in London at the home of his twin brother, Anthony (Frenzy, Death on the Nile ). The London game later inspired Anthony Shaffer to write Sleuth.  

Stephen Sondheim



A scavenger hunt Sondheim and Perkins cooked up for Halloween 1968 became legendary. It had taken the two friends a full month to plan the “Eleanor Clark French Memorial Treasure Hunt,” to which they invited several famous friends (including Roddy McDowall, Lee Remick and Herb Ross). The group of twenty would spend the night roaming, in limousines with maps, all over Manhattan in search of clues.  Eventually Sondheim and Perkins got together and wrote The Last of Sheila. A whodunit about an elaborate – and murderous  - game, the story became a 1973 film directed by Herb Ross and was studded with stars James Coburn, James Mason, Raquel Welch, Dyan Cannon, Richard Benjamin, Ian McShane and Joan Hackett. Perhaps relishing the opportunity to satirize the movie business, Sondheim and Perkins created characters, both cutthroat and cowardly, straight out of Hollywood.

The Last of Sheila begins with the hit-and-run death of Sheila Green, a gossip columnist (briefly played by Yvonne Romain, formerly of B-movies and still the longtime wife of writer/composer/lyricist Leslie Bricusse). A year later her husband, ruthless producer Clinton Green (James Coburn) invites a group of industry associates to join him for a week-long Mediterranean cruise on his yacht, the Sheila. In attendance is a variety of industry types – director, actress, screenwriter, agent - each in need of Clinton in one way or another. Once all are on board, he reveals that he’s devised "The Sheila Green Memorial Gossip Game" as an entertainment during the trip. However, the devious exec’s true motive is to expose his wife’s killer in public; all six of his guests had attended a party at his home the night Sheila died - and the vengeful producer knows her death was no accident. However, as the game develops, his plan goes awry…

The convoluted cat-and-mouse thriller had originally been set on a snowbound estate on the East Coast. But filming on the Riviera seemed much more appealing to all and the estate was transformed into a luxury yacht. As it turned out, the change in location led to major difficulties…

·    For starters, the yacht chartered for location shooting sank off the coast of Greece on its way to France. A replacement was quickly found but it wasn’t as large as the original and this caused delays and additional expense when interior sets had to be rebuilt.

·    Then there were bomb threats from the Arab terrorist group Black September, apparently in protest of Jews working on the project.

 

Sue Mengers and Jack Nicholson

Not so much a problem for the production but a challenge for the actress,Dyan Cannon was asked to gain weight for her role. Putting on pounds might have been a worrisome proposition, but equally daunting may have been that her character, a blatantly bitchy and profane talent agent, was based on her own (and Perkins’s) agent at the time, the powerful Sue Mengers.

Super-agent Mengers had arrived in Hollywood from New York just in time for the “decade under the influence.” She’d started in the agency business as an MCA receptionist in 1955. Working her way up and around, she departed for the West Coast in 1968 and, at CMA, joined the once exclusive boys club of Hollywood talent agents. Soft-faced, zaftig and very blonde, Mengers played hardball with the best of them.  She developed a reputation for her parties, her pot, her foul mouth and her sense of humor – but most of all, she was acknowledged for her mastery of the art of the deal. Time Magazine called her “a cross between Mama Cass and Mack the Knife.” Mengers was at her apex when The Last of Sheila came out, with a client list that included not only Cannon and Perkins but also Streisand, McQueen, Burt Reynolds, Mike Nichols, Faye Dunaway, Ali McGraw and a long list of other in-demand stars of the new Hollywood.

Cannon, a deft comedienne, bravely soldiered on and her performance as the brassy virago was the picture’s stand-out turn and earned the actress much critical praise.

Raquel Welch

Playing the part of a Hollywood sexpot was Hollywood sexpot Raquel Welch. Anthony Perkins thought she was the most physically perfect woman he’d ever seen, and he was not alone. The former beauty queen/weather girl was in her early 30s then and one of the hottest stars in Hollywood. She’d begun to develop a reputation as difficult to work with and the Sheila set may have been one of the sources of her tag as a diva. At one point she walked off the set claiming director Ross had attacked her. James Mason, highly respected for his then nearly 40-year career, commented publicly that Welch was the most inconsiderate actress he’d ever worked with. Perkins remarked, “She really should have done it closer to when the picture actually opened when something like that in the paper would have done the picture some good.”

Though sprinkled with stars, laced with sly humor and plot twists, and appreciated by critics from Vincent Canby to Roger Ebert, The Last of Sheila was not a box office hit. It would be one year later, with Sidney Lumet’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, that the star-studded whodunit would gain a wide audience.Though Sheila was ignored by the Academy, Sondheim and Perkins’s screenplay won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

Turner Classic Movies is featuring guest programmers on Mondays and Thursdays throughout the month of March, and this time the group has been selected from TCM's own staff. Alexa Foreman of the Studio Production team chose The Last of Sheila and described it as, “a mystery that few have heard of, even though it was written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins, and may be the best-cast movie ever.”

I was not familiar with The Last of Sheila the first (and last) time I saw it, which was years ago on television. At first I was mostly curious to see a film I didn't know about that boasted an all-star cast. But I love a mystery and quickly became engrossed in a tricky plot enhanced by barbed dialogue and a sinister undercurrent.

TCM’s screening of The Last of Sheila will be its premiere on the classic movie channel. The film has developed a cult following among murder mystery lovers over the years and currently has a 91% positive rating from critics at Rotten Tomatoes. I'm looking forward to seeing The Last of Sheila for the first time in a very long time and will be thinking of Stephen Sondheim as I watch...the incomparable Mr. S will be celebrating his 81st birthday on March 22...

The Last of Sheila will air on TCM on Thursday, March 31, at 10:30pm Eastern/7:30pm Pacific (it is currently available to Comcast customers On Demand under Premium Channels/Preferred Collection)
 

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