Olivia

It's hard to understand the negativity around Olivia. Yes it's completely mis-soled as a flesh and fear stalk and slash, it is in fact a sweet love story about a child escaping her damaged past with a bit of horror, social realism and domestic terror thrown in. Of course compared with Crimes Of Passion or Track 29 is lacks thy the fireworks but there are lots of little moments where the camera lingers on bridge lights or the parrots which Ulli Lommel adds to give it a strange stylish flourish. The cast (apart from Robert Walker) are universally great especially Suzanna Love in the title role, even the bit parts are played with utter sincerity and a fair amount of talent. White of the Eye is a similar film which has a much better reputation but Prozzie (Olivia or Double Jeopardy) has oodles to recommend it, in fact it's almost a precursor to David Lynch's Lost Highway without the surrealism. The only criticism, much like Olivia or Jenny, the film doesn't quite know what, or indeed who, it wants to be.

I saw this for the first time recently n I still cannot fathom why I got pulled into seeing this. It's not a bad film but erotic dramas n thrillers ain't my cup of tea. Nevertheless, the lead actress' beautiful face kept me going. Suzanna Love was truly attractive n her brief nudity was an icing on the cake. Plot wise it is a bit far fetched but some scenes r pretty atmospheric. I really wanted to know how the husband survived n how he tracked her down. Also did she purposely migrate to Arizona so that she can bump into her lover.

My review was written in March 1983 after a screening in the Bronx.

Filmed half in London and half in Arizona in 1981 with the shooting title "Faces of Fear", "A Taste of Sin" is an effective psychological horror thriller from prolific Germany-to-U;S. Filmmaker Uli Lommel. Biggest treat her for film buffs and horror fans is Lommel's equal-time raiding of not merely the works of Alfred Hitchcock, but also the Hitchcock-derived thrillers of Brian DePalma.

Prior to its present (tacked-on to suit a sex-themed ad campaign) moniker, picture bore a series of better titles: "Beyond the Bridge", "Double Jeopardy" and "Olivia".

Opening (culled from Hitchcock's "Marnie") has 6-year-old Olivia (Amy Robinson) watching (through a keyhole) her British prostitute mother servicing a G. I. who's into bondage. She helplessly sees her mom killed by the G. I. Fifteen years later, Olivia (played as an adult by Suzanna Love, star of all even of Lommel's U. S.-made pics) has a British husband Richard (Jeff Winchester), and dresses up at night to relive her mom's experience as a streetwalker near London Bridge. Controlled by her (imagined) mom's voice from beyond the grave, she starts killing her customers while being wracked with guilt for not coming to mom's aid versus the G. I. Olivia falls in love with Michael Grant (Robert Walker), an American working on a project to restore the bridge. In a fight with Richard over her that takes place on the bridge, Grant is victorious, and Richard ends up hurtling into the water below.

With the film half over, scene shifts to Arizona four years later where London Bridge has been transplanted (along with its fatalistic associations for the lead characters). Grant finds Olivia working as a condominium saleslady using a new name (Jenny) and with a new mousy appearance and American accent. Suspenseful plot twists (and red herrings) involve lifts from "Vertigo", "Obsession", "Sisters","Psycho" -you name it.

Though this type of derivative filmmaking is hotgly criticized these dys (with DePalma perhaps the number one whipping boy), Lommel plays it straight and comes up with an entertaining B picture. He obviously enjoys the Hitchcock association, even casting Vera Miles from "Psycho" in his next film "Brainwave" (opposite Tony Curtis instead of Janet Leigh) and recalling Walker (son of "Strangers on a Train" namesake and near lookalike) for the lead in "Devonsville Terror".

Suzanna Love is quite impressive in the chameleon lead role, calling for at least three distinct personalities. Walker, still looking boyish at age 40, is an empathetic hero, though one keeps expecting him to become sinister, given Hitchcok's switcheroo casting of his dad 30 years earlier. Joel Goldsmith's synthesizer music score is effective, but the film is hampered by drab would-be film noir visuals, for which five cinematographers are credited.

"Olivia," also known under a variety of other salacious titles, such as "Prozzie" and "A Taste of Sin," follows Michael Grant, an American engineer in London who is helping dismantle the London Bridge. He meets and falls in love with Olivia, a woman haunted by her prostitute mother's murder, and who herself is in an abusive relationship. When Michael attempts to fight off Olivia's husband one night, it ends in tragedy. Four years later, in Lake Havasu, Arizona, where the London Bridge has been relocated, Michael encounters Olivia's apparent doppelgänger, a local tourism ambassador named Jenny, who claims she has never met him.

This offbeat entry in Ulli Lommel's early filmography is certainly an anomaly--it is not so much a horror film as it is a psychological thriller, though it is, as is the case with most of Lommel's work, preoccupied with themes of childhood trauma, particularly children's exposure to their parents' sex lives. The titular character, Olivia, is haunted by her mother's death, and begins slipping between identities, at times living out a secret life as a prostitute--just like her mom. The film toys with Olivia's psychological state, suggesting early on that she may be a Norman Bates-like character prone to dispatching men, but she remains no less sympathetically portrayed by Suzanna Love.

The second half of the film marks a major tonal shift, moving the setting from dreary London to the sunny Arizona desert, where Olivia--or at least someone who resembles her--resurfaces to haunt Michael. In a way, the extreme contrast between the two locales makes the film feel like two different movies, though this is perhaps part of the point. In any case, both sections of the film have their own stark atmospheres, and there are a number of haunting visuals throughout.

While the plot is at times rather ridiculous, there is still something oddly charming and entertaining about "Olivia." The film teeters between character study and full-blown psychological thriller, only occasionally dipping its toe into the horror pool. It is really more a meditation on childhood trauma than anything else, and it ultimately unravels into a perverse but engrossing love story-turned-tragedy. It is worthwhile for its visuals and at times otherworldly atmosphere, as well as its astute representation of a broken woman. 7/10.

An English woman in a loveless marriage (Suzanna Love) meets a man from America involved in the dismantling and sale of the London Bridge (Robert Walker Jr.). Events eventually switch to Lake Havasu City where the bridge has been reconstructed.

Shot in early 1981, "Olivia" is a Hitchcockian psychological drama/thriller helmed by Ulli Lommel for $500,000 (which would be equal to $1.7 million today). While there are bits borrowed from "Nightmare" (1981) and "Psycho," this isn't a slasher.

The pace is unhurried and there's a cinematic beauty to the proceedings with its soothing piano-oriented score, DESPITE the seedy side issue of prostitution and the troubling death scenes. Along with the artistry, there are some interesting themes, such as bad childhood experiences haunting one's adulthood, raw sex vs making love and a woman finding her "prince."

Suzanna is a highlight and was the director's wife from 1979-1987. In my opinion she looks best as a brunette in glasses. She's (unnecessarily) shown nude, but in a tasteful way; stay away if you find that disagreeable. On the other side of the gender spectrum, Robert Walker Jr is perhaps best known for playing the titular character in the 1966 Star Trek episode "Charlie X."

There are several alternative titles, including "Double Jeopardy," "A Taste of Sin" and "Beyond the Bridge."

It runs 1 hour, 25 minutes, and was shot in London and Lake Havasu City in west-central Arizona.

GRADE: B-