Dyan Cannon

The sixth Pink Panther comedy was the last to star Peter Sellers (the following film in the series incorporated previously unseen footage), and it was also the last in the series to show any signs of genuine inspiration. It's a weak entry in the Panther pantheon, involving a rather mundane plot about a "French Connection" drug deal that leads Inspector Clouseau--presumed murdered and now sleuthing incognito--to Hong Kong for a brash, slapstick finale that almost compensates for the routine gags that precede it.

Composer Stephen Sondheim (Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods) and actor Anthony Perkins (Psycho) wrote this witty, complex thriller directed by Herbert Ross (Steel Magnolias, The Goodbye Girl). A movie kingpin (James Coburn), whose wife Sheila was killed by a hit-and-run driver a year before, hosts a cruise aboard his sleek yacht. His guests are all friends (and some lovers) who may know more about Sheila's death than they're letting on (James Mason, Raquel Welch, Dyan Cannon, Richard Benjamin, Joan Hackett and Ian McShane).

Heaven Can Wait is a romantic fantasy about Joe Pendleton (Warren Beatty), a Los Angeles Rams quarterback who is accidentally summoned to heaven by an overly zealous celestial escort. Pendleton is returned to earth in the body of another man, who is a corporate giant. While practicing to once again play for the Rams, Pendleton must escape attempts on his life while romantically pursuing a beautiful Englishwoman (Julie Christie) who protests the destruction caused to her village by one of his many corporations.

The trap is set...for a wickedly funny who'll-do-it. If you were a famed mystery playwright with a devastating string of recent flops, what would you do for a can't-miss thriller script? Beg for it? Pay for it? Pray for it? Kill for it?