Lola (1970 film)

Lola (originally released as Twinky, also known as London Affair) is a 1970 romantic comedy drama film directed by Richard Donner and starring Charles Bronson and Susan George. It was written by Norman Thaddeus Vane.

Plot
A 38-year-old writer of pornographic novels named Scott meets and falls in love with a sixteen-year-old school girl whilst living in London.

When Scott is refused a permanent visa to remain in Britain, the couple get married in Scotland and move to America where by state law Twinky must go to school. Tensions arise when Twinky wants to engage in teenage pastimes, while Scott struggles to complete his novels in order to earn a living. She runs away and is found by Scott in the cellar. Twinky then leaves for London the next day after writing Scott a tearful farewell letter.

Production
The idea and script for the film was written by Norman Thaddeus Vane, which author Simon Richter believes was the key force behind the film. Vane's script has been suggested to be somewhat autobiographical, as it mirrors the author's own marriage to 16 year-old model Sarah Caldwell, whom he married in the mid-1960s when he was 38.

Music
The title song and two other original numbers are composed and performed by Jim Dale.

Release
The film had its world premiere at the Metropole Victoria in London on 15 January 1970. It opened in London on 15 February 1970.

Reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "With a frenzied assortment of fashionable tricks (frozen frames, slow motion runs, speeded-up bicycle rides), an insistent pop score, a gratuitous hippy party and yards of exposed teenage thigh, Richard Donner drives what one hopes will be the final nail into the coffin of the Swinging Sixties. The film is predicated on the irresistible appeal of its nymphet heroine and on the assumption that her first fumblings towards maturity are of riveting psychological interest; but since she is surrounded by a family of cutely kooky characters ... it is hard to take problems seriously, the more so since the unbelievably fey dialogue with which she is saddled ...does little to elucidate the processes of the adolescent mind at work. Susan George, who has elsewhere shown herself an actress of some promise, can do little with the part which, with the camera moving in for close-up after close-up of her tossing blonde hair, takes on the nightmare quality of a ninety-minute shampoo commercial."

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 1/5 stars, writing: "Richard Donner directs this abysmal relic from Swinging London that not even its distinguished supporting cast can salvage. Susan George plays a 16-year-old schoolgirl who elopes with an American novelist played by Charles Bronson. Both sets of parents are appalled. The audience is, too."

The Contemporary North American Film Directors: A Wallflower Critical Guide state that the film exploited "the sexual freedom of its era", describing Susan George's character as a "naive young nymphet".

Leslie Halliwell said: "Dreary sex comedy drama, the fag end of London's swinging sixties."