Bloodline (1979)

When her father dies during a climbing accident, Elizabeth Roffe (Audrey Hepburn) becomes the head of the family pharmaceutical empire, Roffe Industries.

Pressure mounts from her money-hungry relatives (including James Mason and Omar Sharif) to take the company public, but Elizabeth decides to keep control of the company with the help of Rhys Williams (Ben Gazzara), one of her father’s aides and the man she loves.

Enter oddball Swiss police inspector Max Hornung (Gert Fröbe), who informs Elizabeth that her dad’s death was no accident. One of the relatives – or Rhys – is a murderer, the inspector says. And it looks as if Elizabeth is next on the murderer’s hit list.

She’s almost run over by a snowmobile, and she just misses being killed in a faulty elevator. And then there are the pornographic movies and the gory murders committed in them.

This US/West German co-production marked Audrey Hepburn’s return from retirement, no doubt tempted by a $1 million salary plus a percentage of the gross.

Unfortunately, the film adaptation of Sidney Sheldon’s best-selling novel – shot in Sardinia, New York, London, Munich, Paris, Rome, Denmark and Switzerland – was a box-office flop and a critical disaster, described as “the biggest all-star disaster ever made”.

Hepburn managed to emerge from the atrocity unscathed. She speaks the stupid lines with conviction and makes every scene she is in bearable. James Mason, another stellar talent, gives the film some much-needed life.

But the rest of the Bloodline cast looks embarrassed by its participation in such a dog of a movie. One example of the film’s incredible awfulness is that it uses Omar Sharif, of all people, as comic relief.

In another casting mistake, Michelle Phillips plays a gambler unable to pay her debts. Phillips’ character gets nailed to the floor for her indiscretions.

It sounds terrible, but worse things can happen. One of them is to sit through Bloodline.

Elizabeth Roffe
Audrey Hepburn
Rhys Williams
Ben Gazzara
Sir Alec Nichols
James Mason
Donatella
Claudia Mori
Simonetta Palazzi
Irene Papas
Vivian Nichols
Michelle Phillips
Charles Martin
Maurice Ronet
Hélène Roffe-Martin
Romy Schneider
Ivo Palazzi
Omar Sharif
Kate Erling
Beatrice Straight
Inspector Max Hornung
Gert Fröbe
Julius Prager
Wolfgang Preiss
Dr Wal
Pinkas Braun
Mrs Wal
Lisa Woska
Young Sam Roffe
Wulf Kessler
Jon Swinton
Maurice Colbourne
Tod Michaels
Guy Rolfe
Terenia
Dietlinde Turban
Krauss
Walter Kohut
Henley
Donald Symington
Commissaire Bloche
Charles Millot
Dr Emile Joeppli
Vadim Glowna
Bruno
Vincenzo Galli-Zugaro
Carlo
Francesco Galli-Zugaro
Dino
Dario Galli-Zugaro
Bruna
Allessandra Imperiali
Dina
Elena Imperiali
Carla
Michaela Imperiali

Director
Terence Young