Blood Trail (1979)

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Movie
German title Blood trail
Original title Bloodline / Sidney Sheldon's Bloodline
Country of production USA
Germany
original language English
Publishing year 1979
length 117 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Terence Young
script Laird Koenig based
on the novel of the same name by Sidney Sheldon
production David V. Picker
Sidney Beckerman
music Ennio Morricone
camera Freddie Young
cut Bud Molin
occupation

Blood Trail is a German-American crime film shot in Germany, Switzerland and France with an international star cast led by Audrey Hepburn . It was directed by the James Bond film director Terence Young .

action

Sam Roffe, the very wealthy owner of a large Zurich-based pharmaceutical company, has mysteriously died. His confidante Rhys Williams then flies to New York to deliver this painful news to Roffe's daughter Elizabeth. She had hardly had any contact with her father lately. But now Elizabeth Roffe has unintentionally become an heiress of millions overnight. The Roffes family clan represented on the board includes several members who react very differently to the death of the old man and, as shareholders of the pharmaceutical empire, also expect a lot from the change in power at the top of the group. There is Roffe's cousin Sir Alec, who hopes to finally be able to sell his shares at a profit, while Hélène Martin, a native of Roffe who is married to the feeble Charles Martin, wants a central position in the group. Her worthless husband, on the other hand, really wants nothing more than that the flow of money from the family business flows even more strongly than before in order to finally be able to escape his unloved wife. Simonetta Roffe-Palazzi, on the other hand, is a bored mother and frustrated wife with no real goal in life. Her husband Ivo and father of several families cheats on her with the classy Donatella, who is also after the expected financial blessing.

All Roffes except Elizabeth have one primary goal in common: they finally want to sell their blocks of shares at a profit, which they have previously been denied. All the greater is the disappointment and bitterness that Elizabeth obviously wants to comply with her father's wishes and continues to forbid the shares to be monetized. With this decision, Roffe's daughter quickly falls into the crossfire of the dear relatives. She only receives support in her work from Rhys and Sam Roffes longtime secretary Kate Erling. From this common fate, Elizabeth quickly developed a love for Rhys, and both plan to marry. Meanwhile, Police Inspector Hornung has started the investigation into the Roffe case; he firmly believes that the company patron was murdered. Elizabeth soon agrees with this view, because she too suspects someone from the family behind the fatal attack on her father.

In the meantime, the ambitious Hélène approaches Rhys in Paris, with whom she once had an affair. She suggests that they jointly take control of the empire. At the same time, Kate Erling dies horribly in Zurich: she falls deep into her death with an obviously manipulated elevator. Hornung not wrongly combines that this attack must have been aimed at him and Elizabeth Roffe. It is not the only attack on the millionaire heiress: Sometimes Elizabeth's brakes on her jeep are manipulated, then again she almost knocks a snowmobile over on a Swiss ski trail. Elizabeth Roffe rushes to Paris, into the arms of her future husband Rhys, who knew how to ward off Hélène's advances. Rhys tells his prospective that Charles Martin wants to break away from the family clan. Once again, Elizabeth, with the help of Rhys, is able to save a makeshift family bond. Back in Zurich, the events roll over, all of which are detrimental to the family business: one of Roffe's chemists is killed in an alleged sabotage explosion. Hornung, on the other hand, uncovered a series of sex murders which, “needed” for a snuff film , are apparently related to the Roffe clan. Obviously, the footage for the snuff porn seems to come from the Roffe lab.

Inspector Hornung takes a closer look at five family members who are suspicious in his eyes, including Rhys Williams, who was newly added by virtue of marriage. Elizabeth then makes a shocking discovery: she discovers a letter from Hélène to Rhys, in which she asks him to take over the power of the company at her side. Now the Roffe heiress begins to have massive doubts about her newly wedded husband. Completely desperate, she leaves the family snake pit and escapes to the Roffe estate in Sardinia , not without informing Inspector Hornung, the last one she now blindly trusts. At the airport of Olbia Elizabeth is picked up by the police major Campagna, who accompanies her to her villa for security reasons. There he makes her a strong coffee that contains a strong sleeping pill. When Elizabeth wakes up, the villa is on fire. Someone shouts "Try to make it look like an accident!" Elizabeth Roffe rescues herself with great difficulty on the roof of the property. From there, she can see Sir Alec on one balcony while her husband Rhys is on another balcony. At the bottom is Inspector Hornung with a police sniper at his side. Everyone screams at them. Who can Elizabeth trust now? Then a shot is fired on the orders of Inspector Hornung. The villain Nichols receives his just punishment.

Production notes

The production, which cost around 12 million dollars, was shot from November 1978 to February 1979. It premiered on June 29, 1979 in the USA, and premiered in Germany on December 20, 1979. On February 4, 1991, it was first broadcast on TV in Germany on Pro Sieben . The revenue from blood trail in the United States amounted to only $ 5,366,000.

The film structures were designed by Ted Haworth . From the German side, F.-Dieter Bartels , Herta Hareiter and Helmut Gassner were involved in the production. The costumes are by Enrico Sabbatini .

A scene with the German nude and young model Ursula Buchfellner as one of the snuff film murder victims fell victim to the scissors.

Reviews

"As he has shown in his James Bond films (" Dr. No, "" Greetings from Moscow "and" Fireball "), Terence Young is a director with a certain style for the comic, but although" Blood Trail "is often laughable, the film has no sense of humor. It's the kind of fiction that is grumpily disapproved of for various shabby details ... "Blood Trail" takes Miss Hepburn's Givenchy dresses more seriously than the actress who wears them ... Under these circumstances, there is no reason to suspect the quality of individual actors enter into."

"Unbearable adaptation of Sidney Sheldon's novel, which was one of those bestsellers that Californian blondes read on the beach when nobody wants to play volleyball."

- Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 135

"All-star suspense shocker who continuously wants to look better than he actually ever is."

- Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 122

"Unimaginatively staged, moderately entertaining crime thriller in an upper-class milieu with star cast."

Individual evidence

  1. blood trail. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 

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