The Dark Side Of Mrs. Olson

A couple of nights ago, we were watching the 1946 version of The Killers. During a scene where a lovely blonde watches Burt Lancaster's amateur boxer at a fight. Christoper turned to me and said "Isn't that Mrs. Olson from the old Folgers commercials?" Sure enough, it was actress Virginia Christine in an early role. She played a woman who follows the shady Lancaster around like a masochistic puppy dog, then gets dumped as soon as he meets sultry Ava Gardner at a party. Even though she played the prototypical film noir gal with aplomb, the woman seemed much more in her element in a later scene as a happy housewife. Still, it was strange seeing her young and in b&w, playing without a phony Swedish accent or a serving tray of hot coffee.
Ms. Christine played Mrs. Olson in a series of Folgers ads that were a constant prescence on the airwaves between 1965 and 1986. Mrs. Olson was always the picture of calm benevolence, but it also seemed a bit creepy how she gently prodded her neighbors into divulging their affairs while serving rich "mountain grown" coffee. Like her Killers character, there was a darker subtext to Christine's Mrs. Olson. Everything seemed too perfect and orderly in her world. She had to be hiding something.
Posted by mhinrichs at August 24, 2003 05:48 PM