I think one of the main reasons Wait Until Dark was so upsetting to me as a kid was because the person at the receiving end of Alan Arkin’s homicidal abuse was Audrey Hepburn.
MY Audrey Hepburn! The sweet,
elegant, refined, ceaselessly classy, Audrey Hepburn! I didn’t even think of
her as the character in the film. In fact, even today, were you to ask me the name
of her character, I couldn’t say. All I could tell you is that Eliza Doolittle is
blind; Sabrina doesn’t know she's in possession of a doll full of heroin, and a mean man in a
leather jacket chases Holly Golightly around with a switchblade.
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| Wait Until Dark - 1967 |
Like many, I fell in love with Audrey Hepburn the first time
I saw her on the screen. And it never bothered me one whit that I rarely, if
ever, expected her to be anything but her own glorious self from film to film.
Hepburn’s screen persona and personal identity were both so intrinsically
interlinked in my mind; actress and image remained one and the same. I simply
counted on her bringing the same charming, immensely likable personality to
whatever role she played—like an insurance policy of goodwill. It got so that no
matter what a film’s shortcomings, Hepburn’s reliably enchanting presence assured
me of at least a couple of blissful hours spent in the glow of her
one-of-a-kind, movie star incandescence.
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| Two for the Road - 1967 |
I grew up during the early days of movie-star overexposure
(via talk shows, game shows, TV specials), so a significant part of Hepburn’s appeal was
scarcity. Not only did she not make many films (contributing to my youthful
perception that when she did deign to
appear in a movie, it HAD to be special), but Hepburn took a lengthy hiatus
from acting precisely at the time I discovered her. I was in the fourth grade
when she starred in two of what would become my absolute top favorite Audrey Hepburn films: Two for the Road and Wait Until Dark (both 1967)—only to
abruptly drop from sight to raise a family. I was in college when she returned
to the screen for Robin and Marian (1976).
I was overjoyed at the prospect of Audrey Hepburn’s comeback
(“I hate that word!” – Norma Desmond)
but Richard Lester’s Robin and Marian
turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag. Hepburn was wonderful as ever, indeed, she’s
really rather remarkable, and her scenes with Sean Connery are heartachingly
good and never fail to move me to tears. But I always saw Hepburn as a true
original and a “star”…someone worthy of the kind of even-handed role
Katherine Hepburn shared with Peter O’Toole in The Lion in Winter. In the Richard Lester film, Hepburn’s Maid
Marian struck me as being just a shade above a secondary role. Responsible
for shouldering all the emotional weight, hers was a mature, glorified but nonetheless typical “supportive girlfriend” role
in a male action/adventure film.
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| Robin & Marian - 1976 |
And while saner minds might have considered Sidney Sheldon’s name
attached to the project to be a red flag of no small significance, I allowed myself
to be distracted by the possibilities posed by the film’s sizable,
international cast of (mostly) genuine movie stars; Hepburn being reunited with
director Terence Young (who guided Hepburn to her 5th Academy Award
nomination with Wait Until Dark); and
the opportunity for her to sport chic frocks by her favorite designer, Hubert de
Givenchy (Robin & Marian’s 16thcentury
nun’s habit didn’t cut it for me).
Bolstered by the popularity of the bestseller, the draw of Hepburn’s 2nd screen comeback (ahem,…return), and an inordinate
amount of publicity centered around the age discrepancy between the novel’s heroine
(23) and Hepburn herself (50 playing 35), Bloodline
was set to be a major release from Paramount for the summer of ’79.
Alas, despite its tony pedigree, Bloodline proved to be rather anemic at the boxoffice. Audiences, as they say, stayed away in droves, a result perhaps of finding the film’s rather distasteful (and nonsensical) porno snuff film subplot to be as cruel a misuse and mistreatment of Audrey Hepburn as anything Alan Arkin had dished out.
For those not around in the late-70s (or who were, but not as immersed in smut as yours truly), Bloodline's distinctive, ribboned throated female with the overemphasized red lips, poster graphic (figuring significantly in the film's bafflingly superfluous porno subplot) referenced...inadvertently perhaps..a then-popular line of porn mags and videos known as Swedish Erotica. That company's trademark was to feature "models" with deeply scarlet lips, wearing only a smile and a colorful scarf tied around the neck. The lovely platinum blonde with the hard countenance above is Seka, one of the company's most popular performers.
I know this because one of my earliest jobs when I moved to LA was working at Adam & Eve's Adult Books (Nudist Magazines! Art Films!), located right next to where I lived at the time: The Villa Elaine Apartments on Vine Street. I sold a lot those Swedish Erotica porno loops. Film is film, yes? Vive le cinéma! (screencap is from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls)
Alas, despite its tony pedigree, Bloodline proved to be rather anemic at the boxoffice. Audiences, as they say, stayed away in droves, a result perhaps of finding the film’s rather distasteful (and nonsensical) porno snuff film subplot to be as cruel a misuse and mistreatment of Audrey Hepburn as anything Alan Arkin had dished out.
SIDNEY SHELDON'S BLOODLINE
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| Audrey Hepburn as Elizabeth Roffe |
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| Ben Gazzara as Rhys Williams |
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| James Mason as Sir Alec Nichols |
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| Romy Schneider as Helene Roffe-Martin |
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| Omar Sharif as Ivo Palazzi |
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| Irene Papas as Simonetta Palazzi |
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| Maurice Ronet as Charles Martin |
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| Michelle Phillips as Vivian Nichols |
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| Gert Frobe as Inspector Max Hornung |
Beautiful Elizabeth Roffe (the cardinal rule for trash
novels is that all heroines must be beautiful) is the doting only child born to
disappointed-she-wasn’t-a-boy pharmaceutical magnate Sam Roffe. When Mr. Roffe
dies suddenly under mysterious circumstances, inexperienced but quick-to-learn
Elizabeth instantly inherits a global, multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical dynasty.
A financially beleaguered company suffering a recent streak (read: suspicious) of
bad luck.
Although pressured by her stock-holding relatives to sell
the company and go public, headstrong Elizabeth (thanks to the help of her father’s faithful secretary and a monumentally boring flashback to her great grandfather’s
humble beginnings in Krakow, Poland) decides, in spite of her inexperience, to
run the business herself. A decision which doesn’t set well with her relatives,
a virtual “It’s a Small World” sampling of sinister multinationality, each grappling
with various degrees of financial hardship.
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| Putting the Bored in Boardroom Even The Muppet Movie didn't have this many scenes set behind desks |
As though to make it easier for ‘merican audiences to follow
along, the extended Roffe family conveniently plays to familiar national stereotypes:
Italian Ivo (Sharif) is a philandering bumbler being blackmailed by his heavy-accented, hot-tempered, black-bra-wearing mistress (Claudia Mori). Paris-based Helene (Schneider) is patronizing and
rude, while her browbeaten husband (Ronet) sinks money into a failing vineyard.
British MP Alec (Mason), in a state of near financial ruin due to his much-younger wife’s gambling addiction, nevertheless maintains a stiff-upper-lip formality and cool head. And good ol' American Rhys Williams (Gazzara) is a direct,
straight-shootin’ sorta guy who’s only flaw seems to be having a weakness for the ladies.
With so many family members standing to financially gain from
the company’s dissolution, it’s only a matter of time before Elizabeth discovers
that not only wasn’t her father’s death accidental, but her resistance to
selling the company has placed her own life in danger. As factory mishaps multiply, close calls escalate, and some bald dude keeps strangling anonymous women while being filmed by a shadowy male figure, the questions mount. Who can be trusted? Are
bloodlines thicker than mountain climbing rope, brake lines, or elevator
cables? And just who is that Boris Badenov lookalike orchestrating those
repugnant snuff films?
More importantly, how the hell did MY Audrey Hepburn get mixed up in this mess?
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| Apt Metaphor Audrey Hepburn trapped in a runaway vehicle that's careening out of control |
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THIS FILM
Whether
it be Jacqueline Susann, Harold Robbins, or Jackie Collins; I love a good, glossy
trash movie. But Bloodline really puts
my blind adoration to the test. It’s a film comprised of all the standard
ingredients, but everything just feels a little off.
There’s
the large cast of recognizable names. Excellent actors all, but just a wee bit past
their prime. I don't like to think I'm an ageist, but a curious side effect of this cast all falling within the 49 – 60-year-old range is that it often appears as though everybody had a “must sit
down” clause in their contracts. There’s a hell of a lot of sitting going on in
this movie. It’s hard to get worked up over discovering the identity of the murderer when no
one in the cast looks like they have the energy to get up out of their chairs and search.
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| Beatrice Straight as loyal secretary Kate Erling |
Then
there’s the promise of exotic, far-off locations. Bloodline spent a sizable chunk of its $12-million-budget flying
cast and crew to New York, London, Paris, Rome, Munich, Sardinia,
and Copenhagen; so why does most of it look as though much of it was shot on a studio
backlot? There’s a scene filmed in a European red-light district that has all the
authenticity and grit of those fake-looking San Francisco backstreets Patty Duke stumbled
around in Valley of the Dolls.
Lastly, there’s the opportunity for a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the thrilling world of international corporations and industry. Arthur Hailey's Airport was overflowing with details about the airline industry; Harold Robbins’ The Betsy was set in the world of automotives; Jacqueline Susann’s The Love Machine was about the behind the scenes machinations of the TV industry; and Sidney Sheldon’s Bloodline takes
place in the cutthroat world of global pharmaceuticals. The sleeping pill jokes
practically write themselves. The dull setting clearly posed a challenge to screenwriter
Laird Koenig, for his idea of creating dramatic tension is to have characters declare
“Let’s call a meeting!” with the frequency (and similar false-urgency purpose) of teens yelling “Surf’s up!” in a Beach Party
movie.
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| What little momentum Bloodline has, comes to a screeching halt as Gazzara takes Hepburn on a 3-hour-tour of a Roffe pharmaceutical plant (or does it only feel that way?). The scene is accompanied by composer Ennio Morricone's carbonated nod to disco and Giorgio Moroder, which had me wishing I had a few Roffe aspirins at my disposal |
I’ve
not read enough Sidney Sheldon to know if this is average or substandard for his usual brand
of schlock. I've only read Bloodline and The Other Side of Midnight, but of the two, Bloodline is the one that feels sorely lacking. Something about the familiar, soap-opera-and-glamour format of Bloodline makes me feel it would have been better served if adapted as a TV movie or miniseries starring a low-wattage personality like Jacklyn Smith or Pamela Sue Martin (for a time Cabaret and Barry Lyndon star Marisa Berenson was in line to play the Audrey Hepburn role). Potboilers like Bloodline always stand to benefit from the built-in
lowered expectations of television. As
it is, with Audrey Hepburn and so many esteemed actors attached to the project,
the film not only acquires a gravitas it can’t possibly live up to (not with
THAT source material), but it also takes on a kind of self-serious air that’s
poison to escapist trash like this.
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| Hepburn's Givenchy wardrobe was more exciting than the film |
PERFORMANCES
Sad
to say, but Bloodline is something of
an embarrassment for everyone involved (except Omar Sharif, who gleefully sinks
to the level of the material and in doing so, somehow salvages himself).
But
my dear Audrey Hepburn is particularly ill-served. I’ve read that she was very
unhappy during the filming (her marriage was falling apart), was feeling rusty
and insecure about her talent, and even sought to bail on the movie once she
learned of the nudity/porn/snuff-film angle (perhaps she was too busy counting
the zeroes on her $1 million paycheck to have been bothered with reading the novel or
script beforehand). All this goes a long way toward explaining why she really
doesn’t seem to be present in this film.
I’m
usually delighted watching Hepburn in anything, but it’s no fun watching
someone who seems to be having so little.
True to movie tradition, the couple's real-life sparks fail to show up on the screen in Bloodline, sealing the film's fate as a romantic suspense thriller with no romantic chemistry, minimal suspense, and negligible thrills. I've never really understood Ben Gazzara's appeal. As Audrey Hepburn co-stars go, he's as bland and colorless as Efrem Zimbalist Jr. in Wait Until Dark. Terence Young can sure pick 'em.
*Special thanks to the readers who jogged my memory.
THE STUFF OF
Spoiler Alert: Read no further. Crucial plot points are revealed for the purpose of discussion.
The
most consistent complaint leveled at Bloodline
is that the very focus of its print and poster ads, the thing that earned it its R-rating, the single narrative thread to stand alone as the most distasteful element of the film----in the end makes absolutely no sense and has no bearing on the central plot or mystery.
From
the time of Bloodline’s release, the subplot involving a serial killer strangling
prostitutes, filming their deaths, and then discarding their bodies in the
river (each with a red ribbon around their neck), has
been a bad taste deal-breaker. Whatever narrow chances Bloodline might have had as a sophisticated thriller or even a camp
classic were forever jeopardized by the ugliness of these scenes. Scenes made all the more odious
due to the fact that they appear to have nothing whatsoever to do with anything else happening in the film.
Well, that’s not entirely true. Bloodline is a movie that has all the earmarks of having been hacked to pieces in the editing process. A fact evident in characters and relationships never being fleshed out or explained, storylines and plot points left dangling, and a general air of abrupt abbreviation. The theatrical release runs nearly two hours, but when it was broadcast on television, there was 40 minutes of unseen footage available to use. Forty minutes!
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| Family Feud Elizabeth- "According to my father, one of them is deliberately trying to ruin the company." |
Well, that’s not entirely true. Bloodline is a movie that has all the earmarks of having been hacked to pieces in the editing process. A fact evident in characters and relationships never being fleshed out or explained, storylines and plot points left dangling, and a general air of abrupt abbreviation. The theatrical release runs nearly two hours, but when it was broadcast on television, there was 40 minutes of unseen footage available to use. Forty minutes!
A
serious casualty of all this cutting (I can only assume) is that it’s never
made clear what the hell the serial killer angle has to do with someone out to
sabotage Roffe Pharmaceuticals.
What’s
missing from the film is expounded upon in the novel (albeit cursorily), so for
those who have no wish to subject themselves to Sidney Sheldon in print for the sake of making sense of a nonsensical movie adaptation, here goes: (Remember folks, spoilers ahead).
Sir Alec (Mason) is sexually impotent, and as a result, his vain, much-younger wife (Phillips) is blatantly (and serially) unfaithful to him. Her incessant gambling and wanton spending brings the mob down on their heads (with one thug threatening to nail her knees to the floor), prompting Alec to resort to sabotage and murder to secure money from his share of Roffe industries.
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| Now, Voyeur The man behind these filmed murders is seen reflected in the dresser mirror |
Sir Alec (Mason) is sexually impotent, and as a result, his vain, much-younger wife (Phillips) is blatantly (and serially) unfaithful to him. Her incessant gambling and wanton spending brings the mob down on their heads (with one thug threatening to nail her knees to the floor), prompting Alec to resort to sabotage and murder to secure money from his share of Roffe industries.
On
a connected but still random note, said Sir Alec, unwilling to divorce his wife yet hating her for her infidelities, is only able to achieve sexual gratification when vicariously “punishing” women
whom he makes up to look like her (the red ribbon bit. The first time they made love, she was wearing a red ribbon around her neck). So Sir Alec pays a maniac to act out his revenge fantasy on anonymous women while he watches from the sidelines and a cameraman films their strangulation deaths. Are you sick yet?
What's obvious from even this brief explanation is that the whole serial killer subplot is still superfluous to the story at large, and could have been jettisoned without affecting the plot in any way. It was retained for its exploitation value. Ironically, it was also likely the very thing that kept the film from attracting the older crowd who remembered Hepburn so fondly.
What's obvious from even this brief explanation is that the whole serial killer subplot is still superfluous to the story at large, and could have been jettisoned without affecting the plot in any way. It was retained for its exploitation value. Ironically, it was also likely the very thing that kept the film from attracting the older crowd who remembered Hepburn so fondly.
STUFF OF FANTASY
For all its flaws, Bloodline has a place in this cinema diary of mine because I was so absolutely caught up with the hype at the time. It was one of those films you get so worked up over seeing that when it proves to be a bit of a disappointment, you don't really admit it to yourself. I recall sitting through it twice on opening night, and then returning the following week. Was it because I liked it that much? Not really. Was I THAT excited to see Audrey Hepburn on the screen again? Well, of course!
One clunker in a career of gems doesn't stop her from being MY Audrey Hepburn.
On April 13, 1979 Grauman's Chinese Theater added two ugly, boxy cineplexes to the original theater built in 1926. Bloodline was one of a package of Paramount releases premiering at the new theaters that summer. I saw Bloodline on opening night, Friday, June 29th, which also happened to be the opening day of both the latest Bond film, Moonraker, and the Bill Murray summer camp comedy Meatballs, two films targeted at a young audience. I watched Bloodline with an audience comprised mostly of older couples and a few folks turned away from sold-out Bond screenings.
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| Premiere features were: Hurricane, Old Boyfriends, and, in the main theater, Superman |
Here's the trailer for Bloodline's 1986 television broadcast. Even in this 30-second clip are scenes not in the theatrical release. Accounting for supporting player Michelle Phillips being so prominently in the ads is the fact that she was appearing on the ABC TV series Hotel at the time. HERE
Bloodline marked the 5th screen pairing of Romy Schneider and Maurice Ronet.
Prior to Bloodline, they appeared in the mystery/thriller Qui? (1970)
