Olivia (1951)

U.S. title: The Pit of Loneliness 

At a French finishing school, an English student falls in love with the headmistress. There is another teacher who is always indisposed and jealous of the attention the headmistress receives.

This is similar to Mädchen in Uniform, but for some reason which is not exactly clear in my memory I liked that film a lot more than I liked Olivia. Anyway, so many films depicting so similar situations makes me think that colleges for girls used to be cesspools of unnatural desires; I suppose parents maybe looked the other way with the comforting thought that at least they wouldn't have to worry about unwanted pregnancies. In this film, the headmistress refrains from fully indulging her desires towards the protagonist, out of scruples. It is implicit, though, that she had had no such scruples with some of the other students, besides having relationships with one or more of her colleagues. The film is not explicit about her reasons, but seems to suggest that the intensity of the girl's passions, as well as her inexperience, raised a red flag on the older woman. The villain of the film is the German teacher. I guess Germans were still an easy target in 1951. Maybe one of the main flaws here is that the protagonist's feelings are aroused too soon and without a development which would make it more convincing. Or maybe the shadow of a previous better movie with a similar plot made this one feel kind of redundant.

Rating: 37