Thursday, November 5, 2020

Bloodline (1979)

Quite possibly the worst film ever made, a hideous film in so many ways, and of course very watchable because of that. 

After the owner of a pharmaceutical company is killed (he is climbing a mountain dressed in what looks like a Spiderman outfit and his rope is cut), his daughter and heir Elizabeth (Audrey Hepburn) is under pressure to sell the company by the board members (a host of stars including James Mason and Omar Sharif) who all have their own money troubles.

Elizabeth decides to not sell and she is now in danger. She manages to survive a number of botched murder attempts. Meanwhile, a detective (Gert Frobe) investigates the death of Elizabeth's father - mostly by talking to a computer (which speaks back of course with a wonderfully retro synthesised voice). There is also a strange snuff-video subplot which doesn't seem to have much of anything to do with the main plot...

The film is a car crash (and also includes a number of car crashes). It is incredibly trashy and shoddy. A perfect adaptation of a Sidney Sheldon book then. The dialogue is banal, the editing rough, the plot makes little sense. Quite why such a great cast wanted to be involved with this is the true mystery. Like the board members in the film they obviously needed the money.