''Bloodline'' (also known as ''Sidney Sheldon's Bloodline'') is a 1979

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by

Terence Young Terence or Terry Young may refer to: *Terence Young (director) (1915–1994), British film director * Terence Young (politician) (born 1952), Canadian Conservative Party politician * Terence Young (writer), Canadian writer * Terry Young (American p ...

from a screenplay by

Laird Koenig Laird Koenig (born September 24, 1927) is an American author. His best-known work is ''The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane,'' a novel published in 1974. The novel was adapted into the 1976 film of the same name starring Jodie Foster. He al ...

, based on the 1977 novel of the same name by Sidney Sheldon. It was the only R-rated film ever made by its star,

Audrey Hepburn Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, t ...

.Canby, Vincent (June 29, 1979)
"Film: Audrey Hepburn in 'Bloodline'".
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. C8.

Plot

Sam Roffe, President of Roffe & Sons Pharmaceuticals, dies in what appears to be a climbing accident, leaving his daughter Elizabeth (

) a billion-dollar empire. Roffe's board members see an opportunity to settle old scores, jockey for higher position, and reap lucrative profits. However, an investigation into Sam's death discloses that it was a murder and that a power struggle is going on within the company. Lead investigator Max Hornung (

Gert Fröbe Karl Gerhart "Gert" Fröbe (; 25 February 1913 – 5 September 1988) was a German actor. He was best known in English-speaking countries for his work as Auric Goldfinger in the James Bond film '' Goldfinger'', as Peachum in ''The Threepenny Oper ...

) informs Elizabeth of his list of suspects, which includes her closest advisers and financially strapped family members. During this time, she marries CEO Rhys Williams ( Ben Gazzara), but he, too, is identified by Hornung as a suspect. As president, Elizabeth follows her father's wishes and refuses to let shares of Roffe & Sons sell on the world market. Her choice prevents the board members from selling their shares as the company's

by-law A by-law (bye-law, by(e)law, by(e) law), or as it is most commonly known in the United States bylaws, is a set of rules or law established by an organization or community so as to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authorit ...

s prohibit it until all board members agree; on the other hand, her death would allow for a unanimous decision. After several attempts on her life, an international chase across Europe ensues. Hornung is able to connect these murder attempts to a series of homicides of prostitutes, which have been recorded on snuff films by using Roffe film stock. He has a witness in a black Gucci leather coat (several suspects are linked to this coat). Elizabeth returns to her father's villa in Sardinia during a sirocco for protection from the unseen murderer, who sets her house on fire after she begins destroying objects and shouting, "Now try to make it look like an accident!" Williams and one of the shareholders, Sir Alec Nichols (

James Mason James Neville Mason (; 15 May 190927 July 1984) was an English actor. He achieved considerable success in British cinema before becoming a star in Hollywood. He was the top box-office attraction in the UK in 1944 and 1945; his British films inc ...

), both show up to save her, but Hornung figures out that Nichols is the killer and shoots him before he can murder Elizabeth in a symbolic snuff film.

Cast

as Elizabeth Roffe * Ben Gazzara as Rhys Williams *

as Sir Alec Nichols * Claudia Mori as Donatella * Irene Papas as Simonetta Palazzi * Michelle Phillips as Vivian Nichols * Maurice Ronet as Charles Martin * Romy Schneider as Hélène Martin *

Omar Sharif Omar Sharif ( ar, عمر الشريف ; born Michel Yusef Dimitri Chalhoub , 10 April 193210 July 2015) was an Egyptian actor, generally regarded as one of his country's greatest male film stars. He began his career in his native country in the ...

as Ivo Palazzi * Beatrice Straight as Kate Erling *

as Inspector Max Hornung * Marcel Bozzuffi as Man in Black * Pinkas Braun as Dr. Wal *

Ivan Desny Ivan Desny (born Ivan Nikolaevich Desnitskij; 28 December 1922 – 13 April 2002) was a Chinese-born actor of Russian descent. Early life Desny was born in Peking, China. Career Desny was a film actor. Bilingual in French and German, he acted ...

as Jeweller * Vadim Glowna as Dr. Joeppli *

Walter Kohut Walter Kohut (20 November 1927 – 18 May 1980) was an Austrian film, television and theatre actor. He appeared in many Austrian and German films over a 30-year period and became known for playing shady characters. He became known internationally ...

as Krauss * Wolfgang Preiss as Julius Prager *

Hans von Borsody Hans von Borsody (; 20 September 1929 – 4 November 2013) was a German film actor. He was born in Vienna into an artistic family of Hungarian descent. His father Eduard was a film director, his uncle Julius a set designer.(in German) His daughte ...

as Peasant Guard *

Charles Millot Charles Millot (born Veljko Milojević; 23 December 1921 – 6 October 2003) was a Yugoslav-born French actor who made many film appearances over a 35-year period. His notable film appearances include: '' The Train'' (1964), ''The Night of t ...

as Commissaire Bloche

Production

Paramount paid Sidney Sheldon $1.25 million plus ten percent of the box office gross for the movie rights to his novel before it was published.Buckley, Tom (June 29, 1979). "In cold cash: the story of 'Bloodline'". ''

''. C5. According to producer Sidney Beckerman, this was a record sum paid by a movie studio for the rights to a book until

Peter Benchley Peter Bradford Benchley (May 8, 1940 – February 11, 2006) was an American author, screenwriter, and ocean activist. He is known for his bestselling novel ''Jaws'' and co-wrote its film adaptation with Carl Gottlieb. Several more of his works w ...

was paid a reported $2 million for the film rights to ''

The Island The Island(s) may refer to: Places * Any of various islands around the world, see the list of islands * The Island (Cache County, Utah), an island on the Bear River, Utah * The Island, Chennai, a river island in India * The Island, Chicago, a n ...

'' a short time later. John Frankenheimer was originally set to direct, but left the project to work on ''

Prophecy In religion, a prophecy is a message that has been communicated to a person (typically called a ''prophet'') by a supernatural entity. Prophecies are a feature of many cultures and belief systems and usually contain divine will or law, or prete ...

'' instead and was replaced by Terence Young. Jacqueline Bisset was approached about playing the lead role, but it went instead to Audrey Hepburn, who was considerably older than Elizabeth Roffe in the novel so the part was rewritten for her. Filming took place from October 8 to December 22, 1978 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and several locations in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

Reception

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...

of ''

'' wrote "As he demonstrated in his James Bond films ('' Dr. No,'' '' From Russia With Love'' and '' Thunderball''), Terence Young is a director of some comic style, but though ''Bloodline'' is often laughable, it has no sense of humor. It's the kind of fiction that is glumly disapproving of its own sordid details, such as one about a lady who has her knees nailed to the floor (offscreen) for not paying her gambling debts." Roger Ebert wrote: "After six months, a week, and two days of suspense, we can now relax: The worst movie of 1979 has opened ... See ''Sidney Sheldon's Bloodline,'' and weep for the cinema." Gene Siskel of the ''Chicago Tribune'' gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four and called it "trash," writing of Hepburn that "she has so much class that you sit there wondering what a woman like her is doing in a movie like this." ''Variety'' stated "'Bloodline' is bloodless. With a plot that becomes more ludicrous the more one thinks about it, this Geria production for Par release plays woodenly." Kevin Thomas of the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote "As an unabashed potboiler it's suitably lurid and preposterous, but unfortunately it merely simmers. The task of making clear the heavily populated, incredibly thick plot of Sheldon's best seller requires so much exposition—and so much zigzagging over Europe—that adaptor Laird Koenig and director Terence Young have scant opportunity to develop characters or work in much action. It's amusing but isn't nearly as much fun as pictures of this kind should be." Gary Arnold of ''The Washington Post'' called the film "surely one of the most perfunctory murder mysteries ever committed to foolscap. Not a bloody thing ever develops. After lining up the characters, Sheldon doggedly shifts scenes, suspects and red herrings until accumulating enough pages to call it a hefty read." Jack Kroll wrote in ''Newsweek'' that "if I were Sidney Sheldon, I'd demand to have my name removed from the title of this torpid turkey ... Junk movies should be fun - this one is just dumb."Kroll, Jack (July 9, 1979). "Acute Hardening of the Arteries". ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

''. 68.

Extended version

An extended version of 155 minutes has been shown on network TV. This cut gives more clarity to certain plot points, especially those involving James Mason's character.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bloodline (Film) 1979 films 1979 crime films 1970s business films 1970s crime thriller films 1970s mystery thriller films Adaptations of works by Sidney Sheldon American business films American crime thriller films American mystery thriller films 1970s English-language films English-language German films Films about businesspeople Films about inheritances Films about snuff films Films based on American thriller novels Films directed by Terence Young Films scored by Ennio Morricone Films set in country houses Films set in Sardinia Films set in Switzerland Films set in Poland Films shot at Cinecittà Studios Films shot in Denmark Films shot in London Films shot in Munich Films shot in New York City Films shot in Paris Films shot in Sardinia German crime thriller films German mystery thriller films Paramount Pictures films West German films 1970s American films 1970s German films