"The Lover in the Attic" was a lackluster film in large part due to the slow pacing. The long midsection of the film was sluggish with repetitive scenes of the young lover of Walburga "Dolly" Oesterreich (née Korschel).

Miss Dolly Korschel married a fat and abusive business magnate named Fred Osterreich. For a lengthy period in the marriage, Miss Korschel kept her lover hidden in the attic. The man was an aspiring, but untalented, mystery writer named Otto Sanhuber.

A major problem of the film was the lack of sympathy for either Otto or his Dolly. It was clear that Fred was a repellent creature. But there were never sparks of genuine affection between Dolly and Otto. The film takes great pains in demonstrating that Dolly only wanted a sex slave.

In film technique, a technical disaster was the staging of the death scene where Otto (accidentally?) shoots Fred. The actual sequence of events was sloppy in the film editing, and it was never made clear what happened with the two males rolling on the floor.

The one strength of the film was in period costuming. The era of Prohibition was well-established due to the apparel. But in one of the scenes in the speakeasies, it made no sense that Otto would get a case of the sweats and be forced to leave. He seemed to be living for moments just like this one where he could get out of his attic "prison."

The trial scene was also disappointing with the homicide case argued unconvincingly by both sides, resulting in a hung jury for Dolly and a brief sentence for Otto, which was subsequently reduced due to statute of limitations.

There was an obligation to provide some human element to this story. But there was no moral lesson and, above all, no compassion given for the three poor slobs who were the main characters.

Very disappointing!

Kudos to Lifetime for going back in time to find true life murder stories. Based on the real life Wisconsin woman who kept her lover in the attic for years culminating in her husband's murder. Even more bizarre is how they in effect escaped punishment for it. The production has enough of a historical look considering Lifetime budgets aren't that much. The cast is well chosen. David Fierro plays the fat rich husband and they really make him look repulsive and abusive. Molly Burnett plays the woman who keeps her lover in her attic. She vamps it up just enough without overacting. Well done. Kevin Fonteyne plays the naive young man kept in the attic. He acts suitably whipped.

Interesting from start to finish. The movies based on true crime stories are always the best ones.

There was a lot of movie they had to stuff into a two hour time slot. They did it quite well. This story would normally be too far fetched and corny if it wasn't true. But it was true and it makes you wonder... can people really be like this? It seems like that's how many true life movies are. Truth is stranger than fiction. The acting, period flavor, and all the visuals generally were just right. Except the scenes of Dolly driving and her at the beach. The lighting was just plain lousy. Some of the risqué scenes were not as risqué as they should have been. But I'll give them a pass on that since it was a made for TV movie. I particularly liked the fact that they used Otto as the narrator throughout the movie. Narration is a good effective way to tie up lose ends and clear up any misconceptions on the part of the viewer. This same story has already been filmed a few times in the past, and I did not see those. But I was happy with this version.