Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Audrey Hepburn | ... | Elizabeth Roffe | |
Ben Gazzara | ... | Rhys Williams | |
James Mason | ... | Sir Alec Nichols | |
Claudia Mori | ... | Donatella | |
Irene Papas | ... | Simonetta Palazzi | |
Michelle Phillips | ... | Vivian Nichols | |
Maurice Ronet | ... | Charles Martin | |
Romy Schneider | ... | Hélène Roffe-Martin | |
Omar Sharif | ... | Ivo Palazzi | |
Beatrice Straight | ... | Kate Erling | |
Gert Fröbe | ... | Inspector Max Hornung | |
Wolfgang Preiss | ... | Julius Prager | |
Marcel Bozzuffi | ... | Man in Black | |
Pinkas Braun | ... | Dr. Wal | |
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Wulf Kessler | ... | Young Sam Roffe |
Sam Roffe, president of a multi-national pharmaceutical corporation, is killed while mountain-climbing. It is first determined to be an accident, but Inspector Max Hormung later deduces that Roffe was murdered. Sam's daughter Elizabeth assumes control of the company, and while traveling through Europe she immediately becomes a target as well. Suspicion falls on the Roffe cousins, all of whom want to go public with the company and sell their stock at a huge profit. Since this would be against her father's wishes, Elizabeth rejects their advice and decides to keep the company within the family. As Inspector Hormung investigates the background of the cousins, more attempts are made on Elizabeth's life. Hoping to reveal the guilty party, Hormung is able to connect these attempts to a series of murders on prostitutes, which are recorded on snuff films. Written by alfiehitchie
When "Bloodline" was released in 1979, a major magazine review pointed out that in the course of the story, ostensibly for failure to pay a gambling debt, a character's knees are nailed to the floor. The critic then went on to say, `This is what Paramount Pictures is going to have to do to get audiences to sit through this picture.' There aren't enough negative things to say about this abomination of a movie. The meandering, incoherent story is hampered at every turn by ludicrously bad production values. The direction, the inept blocking of the scenes, the lighting, the sets in every case conspires to make the results look cheap and hollow. The movie is really a miracle of dreadfulness. The following is one of thousand small crimes against cinema throughout the picture: There is an explosion in the street. This is conveyed by a flash of light on the actors in the scene and a sound effect. The next shot, meant to be the view of the street from the window, is a still photograph beneath which someone is apparently waving a lit piece of paper. Just before the cut from this scene, the photograph actually starts to buckle from the heat of the flame. And the filmmakers left this in the film! The real crime against cinema is the fact that the name of Audrey Hepburn is associated with this repugnant film, a monstrosity so putrid, one wishes every single copy of it would magically disappear.