Risco Dobrado

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.

If you go into this movie believing it to be a horror - as I did - you will be disappointed. It might pass as a thriller, but this is mostly drama, and character study.

15 Years ago, Olivia's mother - a hooker - was killed by one of her customers. Now 20 and married to Richard, Olivia is still haunted by her mother's death. Richard is a bit of a brute, and when he refuses Olivia getting a job, she decides to follow in her mother's footsteps - not to make money, but to avenge her mothers death by killing men who picks her up.

One night she is spotted by Michael Grant, an engineer, while taking pictures of a bridge he is working on. Getting acquainted, Olivia enjoys his sensitivity and they start seeing each other while Richard is at work. Olivia is totally nuts, and I found her annoying at times. The film just gets worse towards the end and without spoilers I guarantee you're not going to like how this plays out.

I found the film slow and uninteresting, so chances are I'm going to forget this in an instant. Not that it would matter...

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.

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.

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.