The Grand Illusion

50TH ANNIVERSARY! One of the main inspirations behind GLASS ONION, this classic Herbert Ross-directed whodunit is co-written by the late, great Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins (yes, THAT Anthony Perkins), and stars, among others, recently deceased siren of the silver screen, the iconic Raquel Welch.

A year after Hollywood gossip columnist Sheila Greene's untimely death, her wealthy husband (James Coburn) invites six acquaintances who were present on the fateful day in question to gather on his yacht. His aim? To uncover the truth about his wife's demise and unmask her murderer. In the mix are a struggling screenwriter (Richard Benjamin) and his rich wife (Joan Hackett), a down-on-his-luck former A-list director (James Mason), a fading starlet (Ms. Welch), her gigolo boyfriend (Ian McShane), and a desperate talent agent (a scene-stealing Dyan Cannon). As secrets are revealed and motives unearthed, this unconventional voyage of discovery quickly turns deadly.

“It remains an underrated pleasure, a rare original film mystery (most whodunits are adapted from novels – which means your target audience already knows the solution) with dialogue as precisely turned as one of Norman Bates’s twitches or Sweeney Todd’s razor-rhymes.” Kim Newman, Empire

“A devilishly complicated thriller of superior class… It’s the kind of movie that wraps you up in itself, and absorbs you at the very time you’re being impressed by its cleverness.” Roger Ebert