Villainess Review: Olivia Stevens (Cut, Color, Murder)

It had been over four months since Hallmark Movies and Mysteries aired an original mystery film. That's a long wait for this fan. HM&M starts their wave of holiday films in late October, and they last for the rest of the year and even about a week or two into the New Year, but during the break, I did learn about this movie, Cut, Color, Murder. From the looks of it, this should be the first of yet another original mystery film series, and if so, I'm looking forward to more of these. The star pairing in this film is Julie Gonzalo, who was recently part of the Arrowverse with her regular role as Andrea Rojas on Supergirl, and Ryan McPartlin, who played on L.A.'s Finest.

Gonzalo played main protagonist Ali Bowden, the owner of a hair salon, which featured, among other things, a verbal spat between two women: Olivia Stevens and Sara Hendricks. The big event in this film is the Miss Golden Peak pageant, as each one had a daughter as an entrant. The pageant's director, Mitzi Stewart, stopped the infighting--well, she tried to; the heat between them goes back to when they were in the pageant themselves.

Upon seeing Ali's younger sister, Chelsea Bowden, Mitzi invites her to participate, but later on, Mitzi disqualifies Chelsea, as she didn't have the acquired GPA of 3.5, but she was only off by a hair. Anyway, Chelsea is disappointed, Sara seems satisfied (seems like she leaked Chelsea's 3.499999 GBA--like I said, a hair), but later on, during rehearsal, Mitzi is found stabbed to death--with a pair of shears. The shears belonged to Ali's friend Rachel, but she was quickly cleared, in favor of Chelsea as a suspect.

Ali went on her own investigation to clear her sister, which included a look at the video footage to see where everyone was at the time of Mitzi's death. Chelsea was shown visibly, so she's cleared, but there was a new group of suspects, and Olivia was one of them. Olivia's meeting with Ali included a reveal that her daughter, Liza, was also disqualified for the same reason that Chelsea was ousted: her GPA. She also voiced her belief that Sara leaked Liza's GPA (Sara herself admitted it later on to Ali), and regarding Ali's investigation, the progression of her quest saw her dodge a few bullets headed towards her.

The gun was revealed to be owned by Mitzi's co-worker and secret lover, Stan, who ended up arrested. However, Ali watched the video again, and noticed something very important: Mitzi took Sara's blazer by mistake, and she was wearing said blazer when she was killed. Ali put two and two together and phoned detective Kyle Crawford (McPartlin), but she received a text that mentioned the past murder of Ali's detective husband, Dan Reed, leading to Ali driving to an abandoned warehouse, where she was chloroformed and tied up by the very person who was revealed as the true murderer: Olivia Stevens.

Olivia confessed that she had planned to kill Sara, not Mitzi, as Sara was the one responsible for Liza being disqualified. She saw Mitzi in Sara's blazer, and believing that it was Sara, Olivia stabbed Mitzi to death, and she fired Stan's gun at Ali in an attempt to frame him. The villainess used Dan's murder to lure Ali, and stated that she would do anything for Liza as she began her plan to burn down the warehouse and kill Ali. However, Ali ended up saved by Kyle and his superior, Fred Wright, and afterwards, the trio pursued Olivia, whose attempt to escape was comically thwarted by Ali, who flung an open door at Olivia's face.

Cut, Color, Murder aired on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries on February 6, 2022, and part of the film's stellar cast included April Telek as the villainess, Olivia Stevens. I'm a fan of April Telek, and I've wanted to see her play a villainess so badly, because I always thought she'd be amazing in an evil role. My hope came true in 2020, when she appeared as the evil Sara Kahn in Picture Perfect Mysteries: Exit, Stage Murder, and it left me hoping for more. Telek definitely delivered with this film; Olivia was very vicious in her murderous quest. Her obsession with revenge led her to murder someone she thought was the object of her fury, and she was willing to literally burn it all down if it meant that she would get away with her crime. I just can't help but love Olivia's entrance in her reveal! Telek was terrific in every scene, but the way she appeared to Ali during her villainous reveal...the words "like a boss" come to mind!

April Telek has done the Hallmark mystery thing before; she appeared in a Garage Sale Mystery film and an Aurora Teagarden film--both of her characters were suspects, but not villainesses (you can imagine my disappointment). She did appear in the latest A Cinderella Story film, "Starstruck," as evil stepmother Valerian, and that same year, Telek appeared in the Lifetime true crime film, Circle of Deception. She also appeared in episodes of Supernatural and Frequency, and now that she has two HM&M villainesses under her belt, I remain hopeful that Telek takes that amazing talent to Lifetime and play some very wicked characters in their films.

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Check out Olivia Stevens' profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki down below!