User Reviews

"Overnight Sensation" is a terrific short film that reworks a Somerset Maugham story ("The Colonel's Lady") and updates it from England of the late 1930s to 1980s Southern California, while still managing to faithfully convey the essence of the original Maugham text. In this version Robert Loggia plays a successful, hotshot photographer (the part of the Colonel in the text) and Louise Fletcher his devoted wife (the Colonel's Lady). Just as in the original story, the wife begins to experience success and her husband struggles to acknowledge or believe it. What makes the film work so well is the combination of excellent performances by the actors, a solid & inventive updating of the original storyline, and assured direction (it makes me wonder why this is Jon Bloom's only director credit). Finally, the denouement (while different than Maugham's original) is creative, yet effective & bittersweet. Highly recommended viewing that's much more satisfying than that other Somerset Maugham adaptation from around the same time (the one starring Bill Murray).