Sam Roffe, president of a multi-national pharmaceutical corporation , is killed while mountain-climbing . When her dad is murdered, a rich heiress , Elizabeth (Audrey Hepburn) , becomes the next target of an unknown murderer amid the international jet set and submitted to a twisted conspiracy . It is first determined to be an accident , but Inspector Max Hormung (Gert Frobe) thanks to an old computer deduces that Roffe was murdered by a hired killer . Hoping to reveal the true guilty , the stubborn commissioner investigates here and there among the supposedly beneficiaries of the death , as the line between love and death is the bloodline . After that , Sam's daughter Elizabeth assumes control of the company , and subsequently traveling through Europe and running the pharmaceutical empire , as well . Suspicion falls on the Roffe cousins , all of whom want to go public with the company and sell their stock at a huge profit . Since this would be against her daddy's wishes , Elizabeth rejects their advice . As Inspector Hormung investigates the background of the cousins , as family secrets run deadly . Then more attempts are made on Elizabeth's life and there are several suspect people , all her relatives : James Mason as Sir Alec Nichols , Claudia Mori as Donatella , Irene Papas as Simonetta Palazzi , Michelle Phillips as Vivian Nichols , Maurice Ronet as Charles Martin , Romy Schneider as Hélène Roffe-Martin and Omar Sharif as Ivo Palazzi .
This intriguing and suspenseful film contains tense scenes , thriller, drama , mystery and shocks . Adding disturbing frames concerning a series of murders on prostitutes , which are recorded on snuff films , and eventually tense sequences especially in its final part , in a creepy denouement , near of the end with a crazy killer attempting to murder her . The plot is plain and simple : a pharmaceutical heiress becomes the next target of an unknown killer amid wealthy relatives craving for the inherited fortune , who's the killer ? . Although it is sometimes slow moving and stagy , however , being entertaining for the continuous suspense and tension . This film was made and released about two years after its source novel of the same name by Sidney Sheldon was first published in 1977 and the book was Sheldon's fourth novel , this prolific writer was very adapted and wrote several scripts , such as : The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer , The dangerous hero , The borrowed lady , Gambling Daughters , South of Panama , The Buster Keaton story , Jumbo , among others . The picture has been panned for being an inexcusably repulsive montage of predictability , bad taste and incoherence and the reason for some hardcore fans of Audrey Hepburn will be sickened to see her in such a travesty , in fact , it was only film rated ¨R¨ she played , as it contains graphic sex scenes and grisly violence . A large and notorious cast , that's why the essential entertainment of the film results to be to discover who main and support actor and actress appearing here and there . As a mature Audrey Hepburn is nice as the pharmaceutical heiress who decides to keep the company within the family , resulting to be involved into a conspiracy to kill her and she immediately becomes a deadly target , while Ben Gazarra plays her suspicious lover . The very secondary cast includes a lot of familiar faces from B-European genres , such as : Pinkas Braun , Wolgang Preiss ,Marcel Bozzuffi , Ivan Desny , Dan Van Husen , Ursula Buchfellner , Hans von Borsody, Mike Monty , and many others.
Special mention for the attractive and enjoyable musical score by maestro Ennio Morricone in his usual style . As well as evocative and adequate cinematography by expert cameraman Freddie Young . Shot on a large number of locations in Munich , Burghausen, Bavaria, Germany , London , Paris , Cinecittà , Rome, Lazio , Italy , Copenhagen, Denmark and Sardinia, Italy . This thrilling motion picture was middlingly directed by Terence Young , containing a lot of flaws , gaps , shortcomings and predictibility . Terence was an uneven craftsman who realized three of the first four James Bond films , as ¨Dr No¨, ¨From Russia with love¨ and ¨Thunderball¨, such successful blockbusters were hard to continue , though he attempted in search of more box office hits . His biggest film was , beyond doubt , ¨Wait in dark¨ with Audrey Hepburn and Richard Crenna . However , his last period was largely unsuccessful , full of failures and duds as ¨Amazons¨ , ¨Klansman¨ , ¨Blood line¨, ¨ Inchon¨, ¨Jigsaw man¨, ¨Takeover¨ , though some action scenes remained undiluted . Rating : 5/10 . Mediocre , only for Audrey Hepburn and Ben Gazzara fans.
