Bloodline (1979) Paramount/Drama-Thriller RT: 116 minutes Rated R (language, violence, nudity, sex) Director: Terence Young Screenplay: Laird Koenig Music: Ennio Morricone Cinematography: Freddie Young Release date: June 29, 1979 (US) Cast: Audrey Hepburn, Ben Gazzara, James Mason, Claudia Mori, Irene Papas, Michelle Phillips, Maurice Ronet, Romy Schneider, Omar Sharif, Beatrice Straight, Gert Frobe, Marcel Bozzuffi, Pinkas Braun, Ivan Desny. Box Office: $8.2M (US)
Rating: ***
They don’t make movies like Bloodline anymore. I’m talking about soft-headed, soap opera trash filled with beautiful people in expensive clothes doing bad things in exotic countries. Based on the 1977 best-selling novel by Sidney Sheldon, I recall seeing a lot of women reading the book at the pool my family belonged to in the late 70s. When I saw that it was going to be a movie, I suggested to my mother that we go see it, but she saw right through my ploy to see my first R-rated movie. I didn’t get to see Bloodline until early ’94 when it showed up on cable TV one weekday very early in the AM. It was during the big ice storm that brought life to a virtual standstill for a few weeks that winter. University was closed due to the weather, so I didn’t have to attend classes. I set my clock so I’d be up in time to watch. I was hooked from the moment Ennio Morricone’s score began playing over the opening credits. For the next two hours, I was in Bad Movie Nirvana.
By all means, Bloodline should have been a hit. Not only was the book the hottest beach read the previous summer, it also marked the second film appearance of film icon Audrey Hepburn since 1967’s Wait Until Dark (the first being 1976’s Robin and Marian). Even at 50, the actress still looked resplendent. She plays Elizabeth Roffe who inherits her father’s billion-dollar pharmaceutical company after he dies in what appears to be a tragic mountain-climbing accident. This is an unexpected development for the company’s primary shareholders- i.e. cousins- as her father always kept her out of the family business.
Now that he’s gone, the cousins want to make the company public so they can sell their stocks and pay off debts. Sir Alec (Mason, The Verdict) owes a great deal of money to some very dangerous types due to his gambling habit. Race car driver Helene (Schneider, Death Watch) and her husband Charles (Ronet, Purple Noon) are basically broke due to his failed business ventures. Ivo (Sharif, Doctor Zhivago) has two families with two different women, wife Simonetta (Papas, Zorba the Greek) and mistress Donatella (Italian actress Mori) who threatens to tell his wife about their three sons if he doesn’t come up with a cool million.
Naturally, it doesn’t go over well when Elizabeth decides to hold off on going public as the by-laws prevent members from selling their shares on the world market unless it’s a unanimous decision. The company is presently in financial dire straits, but she sees a way to save it upon discovering that one of her scientists has invented a pill that can extend life.
It’s also revealed that Sam was actually murdered. The lead investigator is Inspector Max Hornung (Frobe, Goldfinger) who spends most of his time conversing with a computer. Besides the cousins/board members, the list of likely suspects also includes CEO Rhys Williams (Gazzara, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie). If you guessed that a romance develops between him and Elizabeth, you’d be 100% correct! If you also guessed that somebody starts making attempts on Elizabeth’s life, you’d be on a roll! Somewhere in all this, snuff films recording the murders of prostitutes fit in. The movie never makes clear how they connect to what’s going on, but that’s part of the fun. The narrative is a total mess. This can probably be attributed to 40 minutes being cut from Bloodline prior to its release. I’ve never seen the missing footage, so I can’t comment on whether or not it clears things up.
Reportedly, Hepburn wanted out of Bloodline once she realized how trashy it was, but was contractually obligated to finish. Somehow, she still manages to emerge with her dignity intact. She was a classy lady all the way. The rest of the cast isn’t so lucky. Wait until you get a load of the horrible overacting. Mori takes away top dishonors with her scenery-chewing shrewish Donatella. She enforces her will early on by leaving painful scratches on Ivo’s back that Simonetta somehow knows are there despite being completely unaware of his other family. Speaking of which, Ivo certainly knows how to cover his ass when it comes to keeping his children’s names straight. Get this, he has three sons with Donatella and three daughters with Simonetta. Their names are Bruno, Carlo and Dino AND Bruna, Carla and Dina. How perfect is that? It’s just one of the many unintentionally hilarious things in Bloodline. I defy you not to giggle uncontrollably when company secretary Kate (Straight, Network) advises Elizabeth to picture the board members in their underwear when she’s nervous about heading her first meeting. It’s the same exact advice Mike Brady gave daughter Jan on The Brady Bunch about overcoming her fear of public speaking. And who says TV isn’t educational?
Bloodline is two hours of sublimely silly soap opera trash that attempts to distinguish itself by posing as a mystery-thriller. Who killed Sam Roffe? That’s the big question. It could be any one of the cousins. It could even be Rhys. His marriage to Elizabeth certainly casts suspicion on him. Is the movie suspenseful? In a very vague sort of way, yes. By the time the killer’s identity is revealed, it feels like the writer randomly selected one of the characters. However, the climax will more likely provoke laughter than shock as we watch Hepburn struggling not to fall from the roof of a burning villa with the still-unseen killer in hot pursuit (pardon the choice of words). Even funnier is watching the inspector fumble with a rifle as the surrounding police officers fear death by accidental gunshot. Now we go from the hysterical to the inexplicable with the sequence in which Elizabeth visits the small Polish town where her father was born and raised. By way of flashbacks, we learn how he got started in the pharmaceutical business. Much of this takes place during WWII meaning the Nazis were in charge. None of this has anything to do with anything that happens in the movie, so why include it? Also, the Schneider-Ronet story arc feels like it belongs in a different movie. Again, it’s possible that the cut footage clears this entire mess up.
In the end, Bloodline is pretty to look at with the expensive designer clothing, the exotic locales and Ms. Hepburn. The cinematography by Freddie Young is gorgeous. Morricone’s score is terrific as always. I must however point out how clumsily edited the race sequence in the movie’s opening scenes is. Could it be any more obvious that the makers are using stock footage from an old F1 race? This movie is also filled with plot holes and inconsistencies. For example, does it really not occur to Elizabeth to hire a bodyguard after umpteen attempts are made on her life?
The fact is that Bloodline is a complete narrative mess. But it’s so much fun to watch. It’s a great bad movie! It ranks right alongside The Betsy, The Other Side of Midnight and The Lonely Lady as a trash movie classic. If that’s your cup of tea, I highly recommend Bloodline.
