BLOODLINE

Audrey Hepburn

BLOODLINE (1979). Director: Terence Young. 

"People who don't pay up end with their knees nailed to the floor." 

When her father, the head of an international pharmaceutical firm, is murdered, Elizabeth Roffe (Audrey Hepburn of The Unforgiven) takes over the company with the help of Rhys Williams (Ben Gazzara of The Young Doctors), whom she marries. But virtually all of the board members, all of whom are Elizabeth's relatives, are desperate for money, and appalled that she refuses to make the firm public, whereupon they could get ready cash. Before long, there are several attempts on Elizabeth's life, including an elevator crash that kills her secretary (Beatrice Straight). Who is the culprit: Ivo (Omar Sharif), whose mistress is demanding money; Helene (Romy Schneider), a ruthless race car driver; Sir Alec (James Mason), whose wife (Michelle Phillips) has run up huge gambling debts; or someone else? And who is responsible for the murders of several young women in snuff films? 

Ben Gazzara and Audrey Hepburn

Certainly an entertaining movie could have been made from Sidney Sheldon's absorbing page-turner, but this is a by-the-numbers effort with some unfortunate casting, slack direction, and an obnoxious musical score by Ennio Morricone, who simply layers the same treacly tune over every scene whether it is appropriate or not.  Director Young seems to have forgotten all he knew about directing, and despite an okay climax, Bloodline has virtually no suspense. The aforementioned elevator crash sequence is so brief and inept that it's positively comical. The best passages in the book, which concern Elizabeth's grandfather's ordeals in a Polish ghetto and the origins of Roffe Industries, get only a little screen time. This was sort of the second "comeback" picture for Hepburn, who gives a competent performance and looks good, if a little scary-skinny with, as one viewer put it, "ribs up to her neck." Gert Frobe from Goldfinger plays an inspector who tries to track down the culprit, but James Mason positively walks off with the picture, which is no surprise. 

Verdict: So much happening and still so dull. **.

ANATOMY OF A MURDER

James Stewart

ANATOMY OF A MURDER (1959). Produced and directed by Otto Preminger.

"Get off the panties! You've done enough damage." -- Judge Weaver.

Folksy former D. A. Paul Biegler (James Stewart) is importuned by his soused buddy, Parnell (Arthur O'Connell), to defend an Army lieutenant, Manion (Ben Gazzara), after the man shoots and kills a bar owner who allegedly raped his wife, Laura (Lee Remick). The trouble is that Laura seems rather sluttish, Manion has a hair-trigger temper, and the defense that Biegler comes up with -- an irresistible impulse that Manion couldn't control -- may not fly with the jury. And a hot shot prosecutor from out of town, Claude Dancer (George C. Scott), may put the lie to Laura's story in any case.

Eve Arden and Arthur O'Connell

Anatomy of a Murder is a frustrating picture. On one hand, it is very entertaining, frank, suspenseful and fast-paced, its nearly three hour length flying by in short order. There are also some excellent performances from Stewart (who in one interview did not seem to see his character as any kind of hero, which he isn't); Remick (who offers one of her best performances, in fact); Gazzara; a splendid Scott, who makes the most of his comparatively brief scenes; and especially O'Connell, who is superb as Parnell -- Stewart, O'Connell and Scott all received Oscar nominations, the last two in support. Eve Arden is also on hand as Biegler's seriously underpaid secretary, and she also makes the most of her scenes with her customary aplomb. Murray Hamilton also scores as a bartender, along with Kathryn Grant as the daughter of the victim, and Don Ross [Walk the Dark Street] makes his mark as a jailbird who testifies against Manion. Sam Leavitt's [Advise and Consent] cinematography was also rightly nominated for an Oscar, although I didn't especially care for Duke Ellington's jazz scoring.

Ben Gazzara

On the other hand, if you're expecting a neat and tidy story where all of the loose ends are tied up as in a Perry Mason episode, be forewarned that Anatomy of a Murder is not only ambiguous in its plot line but morally ambiguous as well. This last is no surprise, as the film is based on a novel written by the defense attorney who actually represented someone similar to Lt. Manion and fictionalized the true case. The result in real life was the same as in the movie. Frankly, some people may want to throw something at the TV screen when the film is over, while others will ruefully note that the justice system is imperfect and some people never quite get the justice they deserve.

George C. Scott and Lee Remick 

Another problem with the picture is that at times it is off-puttingly light-hearted, almost playing like a parody of a courtroom drama. You're gratified when the judge finally tells people that this is a serious matter, although it seems to take him forever to do so. Stewart's "aw shucks" manner becomes a little grating at times. And what on earth is up with that flamboyant cigarette holder than Manion uses in the court room? Judge Weaver is played by an actual judge, Joseph N. Welch, who later became an actor and had three credits. Although his performance is okay, for better or worse he does add to the almost comical tone of some sequences in the picture. Otto Preminger also directed the terrific Angel Face.

Verdict: Your call. Quite absorbing and well-acted, one of Preminger's better directorial jobs, thought-provoking, but it may have you gritting your teeth. ***. 

THE YOUNG DOCTORS

Ben Gazzara and Fredric March

THE YOUNG DOCTORS (1961). Director: Phil Karlson.

Dr. Joseph Pearson (Fredric March) is an experienced pathologist who finds himself with a new, younger colleague, Dr. David Coleman (Ben Gazzara). David sees a lot that's wrong with the operation in the hospital, but Pearson tells him that he has tried to do the things he suggests but is always told it costs too much money. Experienced, but hopelessly set in his ways, Joseph scoffs at the thought of a certain blood test for a pregnant woman that David feels is crucial, and he prevents the test from being made. Even as this is going on, David discovers that a nurse he is falling for, Cathy (Ina Balin) may face the loss of a leg due to bone cancer. While some of the medical information in The Young Doctors has to be taken with a grain of salt due to advances in medicine over the past fifty years, the picture works on an emotional and dramatic level and is not just a schlocky soap opera like many of the subsequent doctor movies that were made afterward. March is excellent, although he perhaps makes some odd choices in how he plays some of the final sequences. Gazzara [A Rage to Live] is also quite good, although he's never what you could call a charm boy in his romantic scenes, but Ina Balin [The Patsy] is as lovely and efficient as ever as nurse Cathy. Another fine performance is from Eddie Albert, doing some of the best work of his career as another doctor, particularly in a tense, beautifully-done sequence when he  operates on a baby that nearly dies. There's also surprisingly good work from Dick Clark as yet another doctor who is the father of said baby, and Aline MacMahon [Babbitt] scores as Dr. Lucy Grainger, who ministers to Cathy. Elmer Bernstein has contributed a nice score as well. Based on "The Final Diagnosis" by Arthur Hailey. The same year that this popular film was released came the debut of two famous TV medical dramas, Dr. Kildare and Ben Casey.

Verdict: Very absorbing drama with several expert performances and decided emotional impact. ***1/2.

WHEN MICHAEL CALLS

Elizabeth Ashely gets a call

WHEN MICHAEL CALLS (1972 telefilm). Director: Philip Leacock. An ABC Movie of the Week.

Helen Connelly (Elizabeth Ashley of The Carpetbaggers) begins getting phone calls from a boy who claims he is her nephew, Michael -- unfortunately Michael died in a blizzard fifteen years before. Helen tries to dismiss the phone calls and what they may signify from her mind, but then some of her friends and acquaintances wind up dying in mysterious ways. Did Michael somehow survive and is he out for revenge, or is someone else carrying out a grudge plot against the townspeople? Based on a novel by John Farris, When Michael Calls is minor but suspenseful and well acted, with good performances from Ashley, Ben Gazzara [Bloodline] as her concerned ex-husband, and especially Michael Douglas [The China Syndrome] as Michael's older brother. John Farris turned to directing the same year for Dear Dead Delilah with Agnes Moorehead.

Verdict: Holds the attention. **1/2.

VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED

VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED (1976). Director: Stuart Rosenberg.

In 1939 Nazi Germany allowed about one thousand Jews to depart the country on a ship bound for Cuba, the SS St. Louis. This alleged "humanitarian" gesture was strictly a propaganda act, a smokescreen, as one character puts it, as it was never intended for the passengers to disembark in Cuba or anywhere else. Turned away by several nations, including, shamefully, the U.S., some of the passengers wold prefer death or mutiny to returning to Hamburg and certain execution in concentration camps. You would imagine that a movie on this subject would be very powerful -- and you can't help but be moved by the passengers' plight and the horrendous persecution and emotional devastation they were undergoing -- but Voyage of the Damned, unfortunately, plays like a lesser Movie of the Week with an almost-all-star, international, Movie of the Week-type cast [with some exceptions], "acting" up a storm at times but nonetheless seeming once-removed throughout it all -- in other words, the acting and direction are fairly perfunctory. Sequences that should have had great impact are pretty much frittered away by Rosenberg, and the movie is about 45 minutes too long, slack and lacking in needed tension. I mean, when you consider the situation these people were in! Some of the lesser known actors, such as Victor Spinetti as Dr. Strauss, who works in Cuba and desperately wants to get his small children off the ship, are more effective than the bigger names, although James Mason and Nehemiah Persoff are solid as usual. Sadly, Voyage of the Damned is blah when it should have been a masterpiece.The very large cast includes everyone from Lee Grant, Faye Dunaway and Ben Gazzara to Max von Sydow [as the captain], Wendy Hiller, Malcolm McDowell and even Orson Welles. Although they all have their moments, these could not be considered one of the better performances of any of them.

Verdict: Watch Judgment at Nuremberg instead. **1/2.

A RAGE TO LIVE

A RAGE TO LIVE (1965). Director: Walter Grauman.

Grace Caldwell (Suzanne Pleshette) has a strong sexual drive and won't apologize for it. She gets a bad reputation in the neighborhood and worries her mother and brother. Grace marries dignified Sidney Tate (Bradford Dillman), but when Roger Bannon (Ben Gazzara), an old acquaintance who's working on their barn, tells her how much he's longed for her for years, well Grace just can't help herself and she and hunky Bannon embark on an electric affair. This all leads to a lot of melodramatic but highly entertaining developments and confrontations, especially when one frustrated wife (Bethel Leslie) believes that Grace is carrying on with her husband (Peter Graves). The movie, constricted by the weakening production code, is, alas, of the "sin and suffer" variety, and Grace must pay for actions that many husbands indulge in without guilt or punishment. Still, the movie sort of thumbs its nose at the censors as well. Pleshette and Gazzara make a very sexy pair in and out of the sack. The performances are all good and the picture moves at a brisk pace. Far, far more entertaining than the British study of amorality, Darling, which was released the same year and won a few Oscars. Loosely based on a novel by John O'Hara.

Verdict: Great popcorn movie. ***.