Lolita (1962)

When the novel Lolita was released, the smash hit outraged many because it dared to tell of love between a middle-aged man and a twelve-year-old girl. The film based on this book advances the age of the nymphet to about fifteen and thereby removes much of the controversy. Nevertheless, LOLITA is fun, with enough black comedy to please all those who like that sort of thing and enough room for the film's stars—James Mason, Peter Sellers, Shelley Winters, and Sue Lyon—to show their talents.

The film opens with Humbert Humbert's (James Mason) walk into a messy mansion. After taunting Clare Quilty (Peter Sellers), Humbert shoots him before the film settles into a flashback. The flashback begins with Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged British professor, on his way to take a position at an Ohio college. He stops for a while in New Hampshire before heading west to make a few speeches in the area. When his host's home is damaged in a fire, Humbert is sent to the house of Charlotte Haze (Shelley Winters), a buxom, wealthy, pseudo-intellectual widow—precisely the kind of woman Humbert detests. Humbert considers leaving. When he sees Charlotte's nubile daughter, Lolita (Sue Lyon), however, he decides to stay and allows himself to be wooed by the effervescent and fluttery older woman.

Charlotte is very sensual and makes no bones about wanting Humbert. He, in turn, is at first fascinated and then aroused by Lolita. In attempting to analyze his response to the girl, he concludes that she reminds him of someone he loved as a boy. Perhaps he has never recovered from the experience. In order to be near the seductive Lolita, Humbert marries Charlotte, who is so cloying and jealous that Humbert entertains thoughts of killing her. He contents himself, however, with writing about his distaste for his wife—and his attraction to Lolita—in a personal diary. The issue is resolved when Charlotte finds the diary, reads it, and rushes, distraught, into the street, where she is hit and killed by a passing car.

Lolita, meanwhile, has been away at summer camp. Humbert, now her official guardian, picks her up. The drive to Ohio, where Humbert enrolls Lolita in a private school, is interrupted by overnight motel stops, during which Humbert introduces the lissome teen to intimacy with him. For a brief while the two are happy together; then Lolita discovers boys and begins to make Humbert insanely jealous. He tries to restrict her social activities, but he is obsessed by her and ultimately loses control of the girl. Loses girl Lolita is appearing in a school play written by Quilty, an alcoholic, totally jaded television writer. She lies to Humbert in order to spend some time with the writer.

Humbert and Lolita argue and eventually set out on a long drive, but Humbert gets the feeling they are being followed. Of course they are—by Quilty, who is just waiting for the moment to pounce. (His role offers him the chance to wear several disguises, much as he did in the next film directed by Stanley Kubrick, Dr. Strangelove (1964.) When Humbert and Lolita get sick and are hospitalized, Lolita uses the opportunity to slip out of the hospital and run off with Clare. Many years later, Humbert hears from Lolita. She's married to an unskilled laborer, Dick (Gary Cockrell), and is pregnant. She needs money and calls on Humbert for help. He now learns that it was Clare who took her away but that she left him because he wanted her to do "weird things." Revenge Humbert pleads with her to come back, but she refuses. He gives her all of his money and then sets out to find Clare and wreak revenge. Once at Clare's home, he forces the man into a mad Ping-Pong match before killing him.

Although Peter Sellers is less than his usual self, and Sue Lyon looks the part, Shelley Winters and James Mason both contribute magnificent performances. To satisfy the moral code of the 1960s, an epilogue was added to convey that Mason's character died in prison of a heart attack. As the plot summary indicates, however, the film is not all that shocking; the most erotic scene in the film is a pedicure. Director Stanley Kubrick exhibited great subtlety (he had to, or they'd have given this one a hard time in the theaters)—perhaps too much subtlety.

The film is very (perhaps too) long, which may be the result of having the book's author, Vladimir Nabokov, do his own screen adaptation. (He attempted to cram all of the book's contents into the screenplay. Another adapter, less concerned with being faithful to the text, might have produced a tighter film.)

Cast:

Performer, Character

James Mason, Humbert Humbert

Sue Lyon, Lolita Haze

Shelley Winters, Charlotte Haze

Peter Sellers, Clare Quilty

Marianne Stone, Vivian Darkbloom

Diana Decker, Jean Farlow

Jerry Stovin, John Farlow

Gary Cockrell, Dick

Suzanne Gibbs, Mona Farlow

Roberta Shore, Lorna Eric

Production Credits:

Producer, James B. Harris

Director, Stanley Kubrick

Screenwriter, Vladimir Nabokov (based his novel.)

Editor, Anthony Harvey

Cinematographer, Oswald Morris

Composer, Nelson Riddle