Surely this has to rank as one of the most ill-conceived, poorly made films in Paramount Pictures' history. Audrey Hepburn inherits control of a pharmaceutical company after her father dies and the firm's board members (her cousins) close in and try to convince her to go public, thus making them all rich. When that fails, one of them tries to kill her. Unless Hepburn's family is some sort of creepy version of the UN General Assembly, this is a very oddly cast group of characters...James Mason (British) is married to degenerate gambler Michelle Phillips (American), Omar Sharif (Egyptian, playing an Italian) has a wife and mistress as well as two sets of children. Irene Papas (Greek) plays his wife. Romy Schneider (Austrian) is the jet-setting race car driving cousin married to failed businessman Maurice Ronet (French). They all have various fetishes with one even into snuff porn films. The acting is pretty bad, with Mason really debasing himself. Phillips' role seems to have been left largely on the cutting room floor and Sharif appears to be playing the film for laughs. Ben Gazzara plays Hepburn's husband/business partner and he emerges unscathed. Hepburn is given a minimal amount of inane dialog, but the poor editing makes some of her scenes seem really silly. Despite having DR. NO and FROM Russia WITH LOVE to his credit, the director Terence Young proved to be a very bad filmmaker. Was he putting this junk together with his eyes closed? The kinky music score by Ennio Morricone is fun however completely out of place.
Review of Bloodline
