I like Ulli Lommel's film The Bogey Man so much that I have 3 different copies of it; I even have 2 of it's poor sequel. I also collect many of the 88 Films releases, so when this came out I just had to buy it.
The British blu ray comes with an enticing cover (film is entitled Prozzie) and is part of 88's Slasher Classics Collection. This, however, is NOT a slasher movie, much more a psychological thriller with a bit of sex and horror thrown in. I prefer the first half of the film, which is set in London. It's pretty dark and has a few Lommel touches reminiscent of The Bogey Man. But when the action moves to Arizona the plot becomes pretty silly & unbelievable. This film grew on me after a second viewing, so I'm glad I hung on to my Blu Ray copy as I had contemplated selling it.
14 Reviews
Bonkers!
BandSAboutMovies31 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Woah boy, this movie.
As a child, Olivia (Suzanna Love, a DuPont heiress, which doesn't explain why she's in this movie, and the wife of the director, which does) watched as her mother was murdered by an American army john who was way too into S&M.
Fifteen years later, she's trapped in a loveless marriage and the ghost of her mother guides her life, but not in any positive way. She tells Olivia to hit the streets and take a man home, then commands her to kill him by bludgeoning him with a vase.
While getting rid of the body, Olivia meets an American engineer named Mike (Robert Walker Jr., Hex) who is in England to help dismantle the London Bridge and bring it to Arizona (a plot point of the Hasselhoff vs. Jack the Ripper film Terror At London Bridge). Finding true passion, Olivia finally finds happiness, until her husband finds out and assaults her. He also shows up on the bridge and confronts the couple and ends up thrown off, presumably to his death.
Four years later, Mike is back in Arizona and obviously didn't get charged with manslaughter. That's when he meets Jenny, a tourism director who looks exactly like Olivia, except for her hair color and accent. Ah, if only this would all be easy for Mike, but the mistakes of the past - and the ghost of Olivia's mother - are not so easily forgotten.
Released as Prozzie, Double Jeopardy and the very roughie sounding A Taste of Sin, this was written, produced and directed by Ulli Lommel, who may have started his career working with Warhol, Fassbinder and the New German Cinema, but is probably best known for his movie The Boogeyman.
This was co-written by John P. Marsh, who took a student film he made about a woman being fascinated by the oldest profession and added it to Lommel and Love's idea to have the moved London Bridge play a role in the story.
This movie was completely unlike what I was expecting. It's somewhere between giallo and slasher and totally in the middle of strangeness.
As a child, Olivia (Suzanna Love, a DuPont heiress, which doesn't explain why she's in this movie, and the wife of the director, which does) watched as her mother was murdered by an American army john who was way too into S&M.
Fifteen years later, she's trapped in a loveless marriage and the ghost of her mother guides her life, but not in any positive way. She tells Olivia to hit the streets and take a man home, then commands her to kill him by bludgeoning him with a vase.
While getting rid of the body, Olivia meets an American engineer named Mike (Robert Walker Jr., Hex) who is in England to help dismantle the London Bridge and bring it to Arizona (a plot point of the Hasselhoff vs. Jack the Ripper film Terror At London Bridge). Finding true passion, Olivia finally finds happiness, until her husband finds out and assaults her. He also shows up on the bridge and confronts the couple and ends up thrown off, presumably to his death.
Four years later, Mike is back in Arizona and obviously didn't get charged with manslaughter. That's when he meets Jenny, a tourism director who looks exactly like Olivia, except for her hair color and accent. Ah, if only this would all be easy for Mike, but the mistakes of the past - and the ghost of Olivia's mother - are not so easily forgotten.
Released as Prozzie, Double Jeopardy and the very roughie sounding A Taste of Sin, this was written, produced and directed by Ulli Lommel, who may have started his career working with Warhol, Fassbinder and the New German Cinema, but is probably best known for his movie The Boogeyman.
This was co-written by John P. Marsh, who took a student film he made about a woman being fascinated by the oldest profession and added it to Lommel and Love's idea to have the moved London Bridge play a role in the story.
This movie was completely unlike what I was expecting. It's somewhere between giallo and slasher and totally in the middle of strangeness.
Better than Jade.
Fella_shibby15 April 2020
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.
Incredibly good
nko_1238 January 2008
You all can read the plot summary from IMDb, so I won't write about it.
I got my hands on the DVD of "Olivia" yesterday. DVD cover didn't look great, more like erotic b-film, but WOW! The film runs only 1 h 20 minutes but many things happens during the film, and you won't be bored. There is something for everybody; romance, thrill, erotic and murders. Does that sound awesome combination? Maybe not, but in this film it is.
It looks like a big Hollywood studio film from the end of 1970's, but it was actually made with budget of $500,000. I have to admit that there are few moments when you can see that it was made with small budget, but it doesn't bother watching.
A must see for people who likes to see erotic thriller, but also for the IMDb users here who says that Lommel hasn't done any good film.
This is incredible.
I got my hands on the DVD of "Olivia" yesterday. DVD cover didn't look great, more like erotic b-film, but WOW! The film runs only 1 h 20 minutes but many things happens during the film, and you won't be bored. There is something for everybody; romance, thrill, erotic and murders. Does that sound awesome combination? Maybe not, but in this film it is.
It looks like a big Hollywood studio film from the end of 1970's, but it was actually made with budget of $500,000. I have to admit that there are few moments when you can see that it was made with small budget, but it doesn't bother watching.
A must see for people who likes to see erotic thriller, but also for the IMDb users here who says that Lommel hasn't done any good film.
This is incredible.
A bridge too far.
BA_Harrison12 July 2020
As a child, Olivia witnesses the brutal murder of her prostitute mother by a client; fifteen years later, she is in an abusive marriage, and, suffering from schizophrenia, hears her dead mother's voice instructing her to become a hooker. Olivia (Suzanna Love) kills her first customer, but falls for American engineer Mike Grant (Robert Walker Jr.), who treats her with kindness and compassion.
When Olivia's husband Richard (Jeff Winchester) catches his wife in a passionate clinch with Mike, he attacks the engineer, but accidentally falls from London Bridge into the Thames during the altercation, after which Olivia disappears into the night.
Four years later, Mike is working at Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where London Bridge has been reconstructed. There, he bumps into a condo saleswoman called Jenny, who he recognises as Olivia. They rekindle their love affair, unaware that Richard is still alive, and has tracked Olivia to her new home in the desert.
Theories abound about the exact meaning of the nursery rhyme 'London Bridge is Falling Down', an enduring playground favourite amongst young children. Ulli Lommel's Olivia (AKA Prozzie AKA Double Jeopardy), which centres around the famous bridge, is also something of a puzzler. I suspect that the director was trying to use the bridge, so out-of-place in Arizona, as a metaphor for Olivia herself - but it's a clumsy conceit that Lommel is unable to make work.
The awkwardness of Lommel's uneven script is compounded by ham-fisted direction, terrible acting, and badly executed scenes of violence, Lommel even resorting to borrowing from his own (utterly diabolical) Bogeyman II, with a ridiculous death-by-electric-toothbrush scene (it didn't work there, and it's just as unbelievably dumb here as well).
An obvious low budget certainly doesn't help matters, the film looking cheap and nasty throughout, but even if Lommel had been able to 'build it up with silver and gold' I doubt if he could have made Olivia anything but another rather forgettable clunker.
When Olivia's husband Richard (Jeff Winchester) catches his wife in a passionate clinch with Mike, he attacks the engineer, but accidentally falls from London Bridge into the Thames during the altercation, after which Olivia disappears into the night.
Four years later, Mike is working at Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where London Bridge has been reconstructed. There, he bumps into a condo saleswoman called Jenny, who he recognises as Olivia. They rekindle their love affair, unaware that Richard is still alive, and has tracked Olivia to her new home in the desert.
Theories abound about the exact meaning of the nursery rhyme 'London Bridge is Falling Down', an enduring playground favourite amongst young children. Ulli Lommel's Olivia (AKA Prozzie AKA Double Jeopardy), which centres around the famous bridge, is also something of a puzzler. I suspect that the director was trying to use the bridge, so out-of-place in Arizona, as a metaphor for Olivia herself - but it's a clumsy conceit that Lommel is unable to make work.
The awkwardness of Lommel's uneven script is compounded by ham-fisted direction, terrible acting, and badly executed scenes of violence, Lommel even resorting to borrowing from his own (utterly diabolical) Bogeyman II, with a ridiculous death-by-electric-toothbrush scene (it didn't work there, and it's just as unbelievably dumb here as well).
An obvious low budget certainly doesn't help matters, the film looking cheap and nasty throughout, but even if Lommel had been able to 'build it up with silver and gold' I doubt if he could have made Olivia anything but another rather forgettable clunker.
A Touch of Surreality
Thorsten_B10 November 2007
Somehow one is reminded of Brian de Palmas film "Obsession" when watching this rarely seen German-American production from the early eighties. Ulli Lommel, once member of Rainer Werner Fassbinders highly intellectual actors group, turned to directing when he still under Fassbinders influence, but after his mentors untimely death he finally turned to more commercial topics. "Olivia" or "A Taste of Sin", as it is apparently also known at first sight looks like pure (S)Exploitation, but there's more to it. As Lommel says in the short interview that accompanies the films' German DVD release, the idea of the story came to his mind when he, while on a trip with his then-wife Suzanna Love (playing the main part), found out that the London Bridge was rebuild in Arizona. He used this as the outline for a sort of identity-switch trouble-personality killer-love story combining two places with two personalities, both of which essentially having been one from the very beginning. True, the way the story unfolds is far from cinematic brilliance, but nonetheless it is quite entertaining; and in no one way is this modern fairytale the brutal splatter film that others would probably want it to be. There are some harsh effects, and a few violent scenes are included in the aforementioned DVD as bonus (yet only the material that was originally cut out is seen, which makes some of this bonus shorter than even a second!). But sex, murder and blood, while still important for the outline, are not the main attractions. Lommel intensely tries to give his film a psychological touch. Because of his limited skills in storytelling, he does not succeed. But still: Olivias rite of passage makes for entertaining viewing, especially is you like that particular touch of weirdness, absurdity and "otherness" that so many great underground pictures from the 70s carry.
Dumb "Thriller"
billcr1217 May 2012
Warning: Spoilers
Olivia is also known as Prozzie, and either way, it is just as bad. The prostitute in question is Olivia, who has seen her hooker mommy killed by a client, warping her world view for life. At first, our heroine is living a domestic life, cooking for her husband and walking the dog. Then one day, mother dear sends messages from the grave telling Olivia to join the world's oldest profession and do away with all those terrible john's looking for a little sex.
She meets Mike, an engineer who is working on a project building a replica of London Bridge in Arizona. Her husband discovers the affair and is dispensed with rather quickly by psycho girl. She disappears and is presumed dead by Mikey.
Flash forward to the U.S.A. and Mike finishing the copycat bridge and guess who he sees; a twin of his old lover Olivia, but now she is a real estate agent with an American accent instead of a British one. Men begin to turn up dead, as our deranged, bipolar bad girl sends more horny guys to their early graves. No matter which title is used, there is no reason to sit through this wannabe erotic "thriller."
She meets Mike, an engineer who is working on a project building a replica of London Bridge in Arizona. Her husband discovers the affair and is dispensed with rather quickly by psycho girl. She disappears and is presumed dead by Mikey.
Flash forward to the U.S.A. and Mike finishing the copycat bridge and guess who he sees; a twin of his old lover Olivia, but now she is a real estate agent with an American accent instead of a British one. Men begin to turn up dead, as our deranged, bipolar bad girl sends more horny guys to their early graves. No matter which title is used, there is no reason to sit through this wannabe erotic "thriller."
Lommel's character study of two women(?)--and two bridges
drownsoda901 November 2020
"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.
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.
This Mommy's Princess Should Stay Locked Up In The Castle Keep.
P3n-E-W1s310 September 2022
Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Olivia; here's the breakdown of my ratings:
Story: 1.00 Direction: 1.50 Pace: 1.00 Acting: 0.50 Enjoyment: 1.00
TOTAL: 5.00 out of 10.00
This Ulli Lommel movie takes a step forward in cinematography but takes two backwards in the acting and story departments. And that is both a shame and a mystery as The Demonsville Terror (1983) was a much better affair.
Lommel, John Marsh, and Ron Norman give the audience a wishy-washy tale of a woman who is either haunted by her dead mother or is suffering grave psychological issues. For one thing, the writers could have structured this doubt better. How good would the narrative be with the possibility that Olivia's mother had returned from the dead(?) It would keep the viewers guessing and involve them greater in her tale. Sadly, they don't handle this or her mental problems too skilfully. But the worst element is the characters. They are too dispassionate, and their dialogue is atrocious, and in the worst way - There's no accidental humour in their chatter; it merely makes your skin crawl and soul cringe. This obstacle is regrettable because the synopsis isn't lousy. After witnessing the murder of her prostitute mother, Olivia grows up to be a repressed doormat of a human being. But then. One night, her dearly departed mother starts talking to her and out steps a new Olivia; down her mother's prostitution road. During one of her nightly outings, she meets the love of her life, and things start to look up for Olivia - until mommy rants her wicked words in her skull. Then her world falls apart when her curious hubby spots her with the new infatuation. Will life work out for Olivia and the men in her life and the mother in her noggin, or will she fall into the rabbit hole? There are plenty of opportunities to add intrigue, romance, and eerie suspicions, but the writers fail to add the slightest smidgen of interest.
Luckily for the viewer, Ulli Lommel's skill behind the camera has increased a hundred-fold from Boogeyman. He proffers many superb compositions and alluring and stimulating camera pans. It's a shame that he's yet to master the pacing, as this is where the direction lets the film down. It's all too slow. Combine that with the poorly structured story and stale characterisations, and you teeter on the edge of boredom. Somehow, Lommel keeps the movie's head above the tedium line, and I put this down to his cinematography.
As I view these Lommel flicks, it becomes evident that one of his principal players, Suzanne Love (who's been the lead in all of them so far), is a hit-and-miss performer. In Olivia, she misses massively: She's too flat and dull. I can understand the dullness of Olivia's married persona, but when she becomes the prostitute and later the lover, she should be more vivacious and alive, but she still comes across as bland. At least she's not as wooden as Jeff Winchester, who portrays her overbearing hubby, Richard. He demands some respect, however, because he depicts the best corpse I've ever seen in a movie. The scene where Olivia dumps him into a travel trunk is brilliant. Winchester doesn't make it easy for Love, but it looks more realistic than most.
I cannot recommend Olivia to any movie viewer. I believe it's Ulli Lommel's version of watching paint dry. Though he does a fantastic job of making a namby-pamby tale performed by spiritless performers strangely appealing, it's just not enough to warrant you guys and gals wasting your time. Go check out The Demonsville Terror; it's infinitely better than this picture.
Tell your mother to Shut Up and come here to look at my IMDb list - Killer Thriller Chillers to see where I ranked Olivia - or to find a better movie to watch.
Take Care & Stay Well.
Story: 1.00 Direction: 1.50 Pace: 1.00 Acting: 0.50 Enjoyment: 1.00
TOTAL: 5.00 out of 10.00
This Ulli Lommel movie takes a step forward in cinematography but takes two backwards in the acting and story departments. And that is both a shame and a mystery as The Demonsville Terror (1983) was a much better affair.
Lommel, John Marsh, and Ron Norman give the audience a wishy-washy tale of a woman who is either haunted by her dead mother or is suffering grave psychological issues. For one thing, the writers could have structured this doubt better. How good would the narrative be with the possibility that Olivia's mother had returned from the dead(?) It would keep the viewers guessing and involve them greater in her tale. Sadly, they don't handle this or her mental problems too skilfully. But the worst element is the characters. They are too dispassionate, and their dialogue is atrocious, and in the worst way - There's no accidental humour in their chatter; it merely makes your skin crawl and soul cringe. This obstacle is regrettable because the synopsis isn't lousy. After witnessing the murder of her prostitute mother, Olivia grows up to be a repressed doormat of a human being. But then. One night, her dearly departed mother starts talking to her and out steps a new Olivia; down her mother's prostitution road. During one of her nightly outings, she meets the love of her life, and things start to look up for Olivia - until mommy rants her wicked words in her skull. Then her world falls apart when her curious hubby spots her with the new infatuation. Will life work out for Olivia and the men in her life and the mother in her noggin, or will she fall into the rabbit hole? There are plenty of opportunities to add intrigue, romance, and eerie suspicions, but the writers fail to add the slightest smidgen of interest.
Luckily for the viewer, Ulli Lommel's skill behind the camera has increased a hundred-fold from Boogeyman. He proffers many superb compositions and alluring and stimulating camera pans. It's a shame that he's yet to master the pacing, as this is where the direction lets the film down. It's all too slow. Combine that with the poorly structured story and stale characterisations, and you teeter on the edge of boredom. Somehow, Lommel keeps the movie's head above the tedium line, and I put this down to his cinematography.
As I view these Lommel flicks, it becomes evident that one of his principal players, Suzanne Love (who's been the lead in all of them so far), is a hit-and-miss performer. In Olivia, she misses massively: She's too flat and dull. I can understand the dullness of Olivia's married persona, but when she becomes the prostitute and later the lover, she should be more vivacious and alive, but she still comes across as bland. At least she's not as wooden as Jeff Winchester, who portrays her overbearing hubby, Richard. He demands some respect, however, because he depicts the best corpse I've ever seen in a movie. The scene where Olivia dumps him into a travel trunk is brilliant. Winchester doesn't make it easy for Love, but it looks more realistic than most.
I cannot recommend Olivia to any movie viewer. I believe it's Ulli Lommel's version of watching paint dry. Though he does a fantastic job of making a namby-pamby tale performed by spiritless performers strangely appealing, it's just not enough to warrant you guys and gals wasting your time. Go check out The Demonsville Terror; it's infinitely better than this picture.
Tell your mother to Shut Up and come here to look at my IMDb list - Killer Thriller Chillers to see where I ranked Olivia - or to find a better movie to watch.
Take Care & Stay Well.
Crazy, but cool
christopher-underwood1 April 2019
Variously known as, Olivia, A Taste of Sin, Prozzie and Double Jeopardy, this has as many twists and turns as it does titles. Eccentric ex art house director Ulli Lommel, writes, directs and even looks after camerawork here in a very strange film. Seemingly considered by the makers as 'Hitchcockian' there is only one decent scene of suspense and lots more that appear to have crept in from many and varied a genre. As so often with low budget fare the bonus is that you never quite know where things might go, but who expects the evil child, slasher, sexploitation movie to tell the story of the moving of London Bridge to Arizona?! Likeable, varied, ludicrous but involving with Suzanna Love helping enormously in a most convincing central role. Crazy, but cool.
Righteo.
bombersflyup10 October 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Olivia is a very weird, low budget film.
It starts abysmally, then it makes no sense thereafter. If Olivia's going to kill a random stranger, then why not her abusive husband. He supposedly dies falling off a bridge and she runs away. Then she's apparently got a different identity or appearance, but looks exactly the same to me. The lover plays along though, don't know what's going on. Lead Suzanna Love is beautiful however and there's even tantalizing moments. The husband's apparently alive and fine and kills her lover, poor cinematography. He funnily wants to go back to how it was before, not worried for his safety and she kills him... Movie over.
It starts abysmally, then it makes no sense thereafter. If Olivia's going to kill a random stranger, then why not her abusive husband. He supposedly dies falling off a bridge and she runs away. Then she's apparently got a different identity or appearance, but looks exactly the same to me. The lover plays along though, don't know what's going on. Lead Suzanna Love is beautiful however and there's even tantalizing moments. The husband's apparently alive and fine and kills her lover, poor cinematography. He funnily wants to go back to how it was before, not worried for his safety and she kills him... Movie over.
Lommel and Love's Most Accomplished Film
shaneschoeppner119 July 2009
Warning: Spoilers
While Ulli Lommel is best known in the States as the director of the eighties ghost-slasher flick "The Boogey Man", he has directed many other films. They seem to have deteriorated in quality over the years, but he's still cranking them out, even now in 2009. In my opinion the eighties were his best years creatively, and alongside "The Boogey Man" he made a series of other gory thrillers, including "The Devonsville Terror", "Brainwaves", and "Olivia". He cast his then-wife, Dupont heiress Suzanna Love, in all of his films during this period, and even after their divorce she continued working for him. Suzanna, who had already had small roles in Milos Forman's "Hair", as well as a couple of Lommel's other films, became a fetching and beguiling leading lady, and she brought something sympathetic and touching to all of her performances. I think that "Olivia" is the best collaboration of their careers. The title character in "Olivia" is a little girl, living in London, who witnesses the violent murder of her prostitute mother by one of her johns. Deeply traumatized, Olivia (Love) grows up to be a bored, working-class housewife. Her belligerent husband, who apparently knows nothing of his wife's experience, is condescending and cruel. He will not let Olivia work, and she spends her nights watching the hookers who work the nearby London Bridge. She begins hearing her dead mother's voice in her head, encouraging her to work as a prostitute. She does, and at her mother's command she murders one of her johns. She meets an American and falls in love, and when her husband discovers her secret life, he attempts to murder her new man. But he is killed instead, by a fall from the bridge during the scuffle. Olivia, afraid of true love and riddled by guilt and fear, flees to America and tries to block the experiences from her mind. But the man who killed her husband crosses her path again one day, and their affair resumes. But it appears that her deceased husband is still alive, and he tracks Olivia down and murders the man she loves. Ultimately, Olivia murders her ex-husband violently with a butcher knife, and dumps his body in the Colorado River. By the end of the film Olivia is a broken, tragic figure, emotionally disfigured by deep traumas in her life. She is truly a lost soul, and the ending of the movie is decidedly downbeat. No worries about a typical Hollywood ending here; "Olivia" generally seems to revel in doing the unexpected, the distasteful, and it ultimately leaves its lead character bereft, shattered, alone, and more than a little unhinged. It is a brave and original film, one that does not shy away from its own bleak and unsettling nature. There is a creepy, kinky atmosphere to "Olivia" which is very effective. The music is perfectly weird, and the many night shots in the film make it a nerve-jangling experience. It is beautifully photographed, well cast, nicely written, and effectively edited. There is never a dull moment in the film, and this is, in no small part, due to the main performance by Love. She throws herself completely into the tawdry, showy role of Olivia, and comes off better than in any of her other films. Love the actress keeps pace with her director, and in doing so gives the performance of a lifetime. Olivia is a tour-de-force role, and Love gives it her all, making her character scary and sympathetic at the same time. Lommel, equally, seems to know exactly what he wants from the material, and how to get it. Together, they turn this low-budget labor of love into a solid genre entry, one that remains effective and spooky to this very day. Highly recommended!
Arizona Screaming to the bridge.
bbjzilla14 July 2020
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.
Enjoyable Hitchcockian horror cheapie
lor_25 January 2023
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.
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.
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