Novel Cover.
Film Poster.
Bloodline is a 1977 thriller novel by Sidney Sheldon which was subsequently adapted into a 1979 film directed by Terence Young and featuring an All-Star Cast including Audrey Hepburn, Ben Gazzara, James Mason, Romy Schneider, Omar Sharif, Beatrice Straight, and Gert Fröbe.
After pharmaceutical industry titan Sam Roffe dies in an apparent hiking accident, his lovely daughter Elizabeth is left to inherit control of the company and his shares. The problem is that his four cousins (three in the film adaptation), or their spouses, are all desperately in need of money for various reasons, but cannot sell their shares of stock unless she agrees to take the company public. Soon they, as well as Sam's handsome underling Rhys Williams, are all potential identities of a saboteur who is out to destroy the company — and Elizabeth — via phony mishaps and accidents. Who is the culprit, and how does all this connect with a series of murders of beautiful women across Europe by a sinister film crew?
The novel contains examples of:
- "Begone" Bribe: Anna Roffe's father offers her husband Walther Gassner money to make him leave her. Walther uses it to buy her a ring.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Roffes, consisting of a daughter and four cousins of a recently deceased pharmaceutical company president, are a wealthy and dysfunctional family. Elizabeth is the daughter, the heroine and a relatively well-adjusted soul — but the cousins...Anna is married to a psychotic, Simonetta has a husband who has a whole second family via his mistress, Helene is dangerously power-hungry and makes her husband suffer for her whims, and Sir Alec is in debt to the British mob. All the men in this bunch (plus Helene) have a reason to pressure Elizabeth into taking the company public and then selling their stock in it.
- Heir Club for Men: Ivo Palazzi didn't like it that his children by his wife were all girls and that all his sons were illegitimate because he wanted male heirs to carry on his name. For Sam Roffe, his child being a girl was more of a tragedy than her mother having died within thirty minutes after the child's birth.
- Gold Digger: Walther Gassner is suspected of being this, but he isn't.
- Henpecked Husband: Charles Martin, not least because he's a lot more timid than the thrill-seeking, hard-living Helene. He's so desperate to have something for himself that he invests in a vineyard.
- I Have This Friend: Walther tries this with regards to treating psychosis. Subverted in that he does have a friend: Anna.
- Impoverished Patrician: Due to his wife's gambling addiction, Sir Alec finds himself in debt with the British equivalent of the Mafia.
- Intimidating Revenue Service: Max Hornung in Switzerland's version of the IRS is so competent several businessmen tried and failed to bribe him. When one of them learned he desired to become a police detective, they pulled strings so he'd get the job. People cooperate with his investigations out of fear he'll find something on them. When he does have to find someone, he'll find them!
- I Want Grandkids: Anna's father initially felt this way, but it wasn't strong enough for him to accept Walther into their lives, hence a "Begone" Bribe.
- London Gangster: The British Mob are the reason Sir Alec Nichols needs to sell his shares of Roffe & Sons Pharmaceuticals.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: The saboteur's schemes revolve around feigned accidents — a shipment of mislabeled drugs here, a factory explosion there.
- The Mistress: Donatella is having an affair with Ivo Palazzi — he has three sons with her and he's struggling to keep this a secret from his wife and three daughters.
- Mrs. Hypothetical: Elizabeth Roffe imagines becoming "Mrs. Rhys Williams". That comes true.
- Non-Idle Rich: Despite being able to simply sell her shares of her family's company, Elizabeth decides to run the company, in part because she's never had an opportunity to prove her worth in the world.
- The Reveal: Two big ones:
- Anna and Walther's subplot ends with the reveal that she is mentally ill, not Walther; her children have been dead all along for one thing.
- The saboteur is Sir Alec Nichols, who is also responsible for Sam's murder AND hiring the crew that is producing snuff films, with women chosen specifically for their resemblance to the wife he came to resent.
- Serial Spouse: Helene Roffe-Martin in Bloodline. Charles isn't her first husband, and he probably won't be the last.
- Tontine: Roffe & Sons Pharmaceuticals' founder saw to it that his heirs wouldn't be allowed to sell their shares unless all shareholders agreed to it. Detective Max Hornung, investigating the murder of Sam Roffe, compares this with the tontine.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Elizabeth spends the first two decades of her life trying to win the favor of her father, who dismisses her because she is not a son.
The 1979 film adaptation adds examples of:
- Adapted Out: Anna and Walther are completely absent, probably because The Reveal would be hard to adapt into a visual medium as a secondary, rather than primary, plot thread.
- Age Lift: Elizabeth and Rhys are twentysomethings in the novel, but to accommodate the casting of Audrey Hepburn (who was 50 at the time) and Ben Gazzara, they're stated to be considerably older.
