Oliver's Story is a 1978 American romantic drama film and a sequel to Love Story (1970) based on a novel by Erich Segal published a year earlier. It was directed by John Korty and again starred Ryan O'Neal, this time opposite Candice Bergen. The original music score was composed by Lee Holdridge and Francis Lai. It was released by Paramount Pictures on December 15, 1978.

This film's promotional tagline is: "It takes someone very special to help you forget someone very special."

Plot

Oliver Barrett IV is emotionally devastated by the death of his young wife, Jenny Cavilleri, who succumbed to leukemia. As he tries to lose himself in his work as a lawyer, the long hours do not ease his pain, especially when he finds that his views conflict with those of the senior partners at the firm.

Oliver's inconsolable grief begins to alienate those around him, at least until he finds new love with Marcie Bonwit, the wealthy and beautiful heiress to the Bonwit Teller fortune. Despite his affection for her, Oliver finds it difficult to leave the memory of Jenny behind, which causes many problems in their relationship, even as he concurrently begins a reconciliation with his autocratic father Oliver III. Though Oliver and Marcie eventually part, Oliver and his father are reconciled when both men discover surprising things they never knew about each other and Oliver finally joins Barrett Enterprises.

Cast

  • Ryan O'Neal as Oliver Barrett IV
  • Candice Bergen as Marcie Bonwit
  • Nicola Pagett as Joanna Stone
  • Ed Binns as Phil Cavilleri
  • Benson Fong as John Hsiang
  • Charles Haid as Stephen Simpson
  • Kenneth McMillan as Jamie Francis
  • Ray Milland as Oliver Barrett III
  • Josef Sommer as Dr. Dienhart
  • Sully Boyar as Mr. Gentilano
  • Swoosie Kurtz as Gwen Simpson
  • Meg Mundy as Mrs. Barrett
  • Beatrice Winde as Waltereen
  • Father Frank Toste as Father Giamatti

Production

Development

Rights to the project were legally complicated: because Paramount had bought Erich Segal's original screenplay for Love Story and the novel Oliver's Story was written afterwards, the studio retained the sequel rights to the characters, i.e. it could make a sequel using the same characters. However Segal could still write his own sequel book. Paramount had first refusal rights on Segal's book, but if they refused his offer, Segal could take the project to another producer.

Segal was reported as working on a screenplay sequel to Love Story called Oliver's Story as early as 1972. However Segal wound up writing the novel version first although "it took me five years of trembling and fear to start," he said. "I was terrified of the curse of the second novel." The novel was published in February 1977 and became a best seller. Segal said various studios were unhappy with the book as a film project because "no one dies".

This meant there was a chance for two rival Love Story projects - Oliver's Story, from the Segal novel, and a Paramount sequel, Love Story Two, not from the novel. Don Simpson, vice president of production at Paramount, said the studio had four screenplays in total under consideration for the sequel (this presumably included the script from the Newmans), plus the sole right to use Ryan O'Neal's services. Segal felt a version of Oliver's Story could have been made without O'Neal but Simpson argued "anybody who goes out and does a sequel without O'Neal is going to fall flat on their face at the box office."

In August 1977 Segal said Lew Grade had bought the rights to Oliver's Story for $1 million and that filming on the project would start on 15 October 1977, possibly starring Richard Jordan or Jan-Michael Vincent as Oliver Barrett IV and Jacqueline Bisset as the female lead, with Charles Jarrott most likely to direct.

By September, however, it was announced that Lew Grade had relinquished his rights to the project and Segal and Paramount had come to terms - the studio would adapt Oliver's Story. Segal had dropped his price to $1.5 million.

In January 1978 it was announced John Korty would direct Oliver's Story and that Paramount would make the film with an unknown male star, while O'Neal was going to make The Champ at MGM. Korty was best known for his television movies and low budget feature films. Korty later said he had been approached to direct by Picker. He claims Picker called him up and said, "Erich Segal is writing his own script and I'm pretty sure it's going to be terrible,” so "“I'm looking for somebody to treat it like an independent film... I know your work and I would love to have you direct this with the idea that you'll probably end up writing a script as well, and it's going to be a six or seven million dollar Christmas release from Paramount.”

Korty went to New York to start casting, seeing a lot of theatre actors. His choices for the leads were William Hurt and Meryl Streep. While David Picker was supportive, Korty says Michael Eisner, then head of Paramount, did not want to cast them as they were unknown. Korty later said, "To this day I think, 'What would that movie have looked like with Meryl Streep and Bill Hurt, you know?'" "Without O'Neal, Oliver's Story would be a totally different film," said Korty later during filming. "To most people, Ryan O'Neal is Oliver Barrett. That's what's going for us now. They're involved in his life.” O'Neal says Bergen was reluctant to appear in the film and he had to persuade her by giving her one of his points in the film.

Filming

Filming began in March 1978 and took place over ten weeks with shooting in New York and Hong Kong.

"Oliver's Story is the easiest thing I've ever done," said O'Neal during filming. "Love Story was the next easiest. I knew the part. It was a reactive kind of character, and there was a lot to react to."

Korty said "It's the only time I had a serious cutting problems and you know I could have fought it. The DGA's [<nowiki/>Directors Guild of America] rules about so many things are nice to have, but of course they can't overcome power politics. And in this case I had very little power. And unfortunately David Picker went along with the Paramount executives... So the movie that came out is almost necrophilia. You know, it's Ryan on a bridge mourning the loss of Jenny."

Critical reception

Unlike the original film, Oliver's Story was poorly reviewed and was not successful at the box office. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 22% based on reviews from nine critics.

O'Neal thought a major reason behind the film's failure was that the character played by Nicola Pagett was cut out of the last third.

Korty said the film "was a big failure, and they all blamed me. Lots of critics [said], 'How could you have ended the film this way?' Well, that wasn't my ending, but I had no choice because it was a $7 million picture and Paramount was in the driver’s seat."

Erich Segal had "loved the way the film" of Love Story had turned out, in part because he was involved in the filming process. However, with Oliver's Story he says "Paramount bought it, said 'Thanks a lot, we'll see you at the premiere' and that was that." In 1980 Segal claims he never saw the film. "After I read the script I knew I wouldn't want to see it."

Soundtrack

Oliver's Story soundtrack was released on vinyl and cassette tape by ABC Records in December 1978.

Side 1:

  • "Prologue" – Francis Lai (1:58)
  • "Theme from Love Story" – Francis Lai (2:06)
  • "Love Theme from Oliver's Story (Oliver's Theme)" – Francis Lai (2:12)
  • "Night Drive to Cambridge" – Lee Holdridge (4:35)
  • "Oliver's Childhood Room" – Lee Holdridge (1:25)
  • "Love at the Red Apple (Oliver's Theme)" – Francis Lai (3:51)

Side 2:

  • "Love Theme From Oliver's Story (Oliver's Theme)" – Francis Lai (3:02)
  • "Hong Kong Park" – Lee Holdridge (0:53)
  • "Tentative Feelings (Oliver's Theme)" – Francis Lai, Lee Holdridge (1:59)
  • "Tennis, Jogging, and Singles Bars (Oliver's Theme)" – Francis Lai, Lee Holdridge (2:14)
  • "Montage of Moments" – Francis Lai, Lee Holdridge (5:40)

References

  • Erich Segal official website
  • Oliver's Story a TCMDB
  • Oliver's Story at Letterbox DVD