Movielogr
Bloodline (1979)
Directed by Terence Young
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Overview
A pampered heiress inherits her father’s pharmaceutical empire when he dies in a suspicious accident, and soon finds herself surrounded by ruthless board members and grasping family members who will seemingly stop at nothing to profit.
Rated R | Length 116 minutes
Actors
Audrey Hepburn | Ben Gazzara | James Mason | Romy Schneider | Irene Papas | Omar Sharif | Maurice Ronet | Beatrice Straight | Gert Fröbe | Ivan Desny | Pinkas Braun | Michelle Phillips | Claudia Mori | Wolfgang Preiss | Maurice Colbourne | Marcel Bozzuffi | Wulf Kessler | Guy Rolfe | Dietlinde Turban | Walter Kohut | Donald Symington | Charles Millot | Vadim Glowna | Hans von Borsody | Derrick Branche | Josef Fröhlich | Klaus Guth | Dan van Husen | Friedrich von Ledebur | Leslie Sands | Franziska Stömmer | Lisa Woska | Yves Barsacq | Brigitte Döllerer | Milda Jansen | Eleonore Melzer | Monika Vogl | Barrie Holland
Viewing History (seen 1 time)
| Date Viewed | Device | Format | Source | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08/12/2020 | TV | DVD | Library | 5.5 stars |
| (Average) 5.5 stars |
Viewing Notes
Based on the Sidney Sheldon novel and even though I haven’t read that book I’m guessing it’s better than this movie. The film adaptation clearly cuts a few too many corners to keep it to a 2 hour runtime. There’s a salacious subplot involving snuff films that is just sorta there apart from the main story of the murdered cosmetics magnate. It’s a weird murder mystery and handled rather clumsily. Again, I feel that’s largely due to so many moving parts and trying to contain it all within a 2hr flick.
All that said, I was absorbed into this story despite it raising so many questions along the way. A big one was the age of everyone b/c it seems most of the primaries are playing younger than their actual age at the time. For example, Ben Gazzara is 41 in the movie but really 49 at the time of the film’s release (Audrey Hepburn 50yo in 1979). Not a big deal except trying to understand how all these people are related and how old the murdered tycoon was (one character says he was 64yo). So Hepburn is really playing younger than her real age. However, she doesn’t look younger. In fact, I didn’t even know that was her at first. Then by deduction I realized it had to be her. Guess she was portraying a woman around 40 years old if her dad was 64 and pretty damn spry to be mountain climbing in the opening shot. So strange.
Anyways, this movie seems like it suffered in the editing room as it’s mostly shot well and looks like a late 70s movie that takes the cast all over Europe. I’m sure there’s a good story behind the making of this movie, esp. given this cast. I’d love to hear/read about it.
This dvd was another mystery request from the library. When I pulled it off the shelf I honestly thought it was a mistake or that maybe the InterLoan grabbed the wrong title. Then when the film started I had that “ah ha moment” again. I watched a clip of the opening credits treatment on my TL and thought it was rather neat so I requested the movie. I chuckled as those credit appear (or disappear in this case).
Also this works as another film to celebrate the life of Ennio Morricone who recently passed away. I missed his name in those wild opening credits but during the movie I was like, “this sounds a lot like Morricone’s work.” However, his name doesn’t appear in the closing credits (or I just missed it). So I started the movie from the beginning to see if it was in fact Morricone and yep his name appears. And tbh the score is perhaps the best thing about this film.
RIP il Maestro (November 10, 1928 - July 6, 2020)
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