Director: Herbert Ross
Year Released: 1973
Rating: 3.0
Flamboyant Hollywood power player (James Coburn) invites several 'friends' and colleagues to join him on his yacht to play a 'game' in which deeply personal secrets about all on-board are slowly revealed, including the identity of the person who actually killed former call girl-turned-journalist Sheila. Tons of fun and with twists galore - though there are some loop-holes in the structure, things like that are forgiven when so clever a script is constructed (by Steven Sondheim and Anthony Perkins, no less!). The "Whodunnit" genre is one that's often ignored by Hollywood but which have often turned into very good movies - I really enjoyed David Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner and past adaptations of Agatha Christie books (including And Then There Were None), for example. Keeps you thinking and guessing and searching for clues in every line and every action, which makes for a pleasant interactive experience - it also says something about the secret desire to find out about the seedy pasts of others.
