In the late 60s and early 70s, close friends Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim were known within their showbiz social circle to conceive and stage terrifically complex scavenger hunts for parties they’d host. Director Herbert Ross—along with his wife Nora Kaye—was a frequent participant and found the games thrilling enough to hire Perkins and Sondheim to script a whodunit for him, despite the two never having written a screenplay before (or after). The result was 1973’s superlative The Last of Sheila, currently streaming on the Criterion Channel as part of their Vacation Noir collection. James Coburn plays a multi-millionaire who, a year after his gossip-columnist wife has been killed in a hit-and-run, invites a group of Hollywood friends aboard his yacht for a weeklong Mediterranean pleasure cruise with an elaborate scavenger hunt. Things quickly turn deadly, in this entirely satisfying mystery, which features an all-star cast, including Richard Benjamin, James Mason, Ian McShane, Raquel Welch, and Dyan Cannon—playing a talent agent based on Sue Mengers. —Spike Carter