Lolita (1962)
Let's discuss the British-American-Russian psychological drama Lolita. The film follows Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged professor who becomes sexually infatuated with a young adolescent girl, Lolita.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Written by Vladmir Nabokov, based on his classic novel
Music by Nelson Riddle
Starring James Mason, Shelley Winters, Peter Sellers, and SUE LYON as Lolita
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 76 | July 6, 2025 4:45 PM
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James Mason gives one of the best film performances of all time.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | June 11, 2023 5:19 PM
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The Pumpkin Eater with Anne Bancroft, Peter Finch, James Mason, Cedric Hardwicke AND the incomparable Eric Porter.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 5 | June 11, 2023 5:28 PM
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Those movies were too adult for me when I was a kid đł
by Anonymous | reply 6 | June 11, 2023 5:31 PM
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R6 Have you watched it recently?
by Anonymous | reply 7 | June 11, 2023 5:39 PM
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R4 I love Kubrick and Sellers work together, but the casting in Lolita, could not have been better! Mason, was the most sympathetic villain (IMO), Winters was gifted at playing a bawdy, tactless woman you'd want to throttle with your own hands, even the swinger neighbors were perfect in this. Sue Lyon was also PERFECT as Lolita, from teen seductress to house frau, she was perfectly believable.
Loved that Masons infatuation, and life ended behind the Lolita archetype; the Marie Antoinette portrait. "And don't smudge your toenails!"
by Anonymous | reply 8 | June 11, 2023 6:26 PM
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Saw it a long time ago and was disappointed. Loved the novel but the film was a cheesy 60s sex comedy.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | June 11, 2023 6:36 PM
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@r7, No, by the time I was old enough to watch it I was too Gay to care đ
by Anonymous | reply 10 | June 11, 2023 6:44 PM
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Shelley Winters was perfect as a brash American who you end up feeling sympathetic for. You understand her.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | July 3, 2023 2:35 AM
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There was a photographer named Howard who lurked around our college campus, always trying to get the girls to pose for him. I still feel awestruck when I recall my friend calling him Howard Howard to his face.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | July 3, 2023 2:45 AM
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You can see flashes of Kubrick's brilliance but it's not quite there yet. The opening scene drags on and on. Still, amazing that this was financed and released in the mid 1960s.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | July 3, 2023 2:45 AM
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R14 Very true.
The last half change a lot from the book.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | July 3, 2023 2:48 AM
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Thereâs a 10 part series on Spotify that discusses the novel, the real life kidnapping that inspired it, the film, the stage adaptations, etc. Very interesting.
[bold]Lolita Podcast
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 16 | July 3, 2023 2:49 AM
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Sue Lyon was only 14 when she did that movie. She was impressive and totally ignored by The Academy Awards.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | July 3, 2023 2:50 AM
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The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World by Sarah Weinman
ââââââ
âThe Real Lolita is a tour de force of literary detective work. Not only does it shed new light on the terrifying true saga that influenced Nabokovâs masterpiece, it restores the forgotten victim to our consciousness.â âDavid Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon
Vladimir Nabokovâs Lolita is one of the most beloved and notorious novels of all time. And yet, very few of its readers know that the subject of the novel was inspired by a real-life case: the 1948 abduction of eleven-year-old Sally Horner.
Weaving together suspenseful crime narrative, cultural and social history, and literary investigation, The Real Lolita tells Sally Hornerâs full story for the very first time. Drawing upon extensive investigations, legal documents, public records, and interviews with remaining relatives, Sarah Weinman uncovers how much Nabokov knew of the Sally Horner case and the efforts he took to disguise that knowledge during the process of writing and publishing Lolita.
Sally Hornerâs story echoes the stories of countless girls and women who never had the chance to speak for themselves. By diving deeper in the publication history of Lolita and restoring Sally to her rightful place in the lore of the novelâs creation, The Real Lolita casts a new light on the dark inspiration for a modern classic.
ââââââââ
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 18 | July 3, 2023 2:55 AM
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Why didnât Lyon break out and become a star? She gave a great performance in this, and was a beautiful girl.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | July 3, 2023 2:55 AM
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Peter Sellers was brilliant.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | July 3, 2023 2:56 AM
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Sue Lyon wiki entry indicates a difficult life......
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 21 | July 3, 2023 2:57 AM
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Kubrick said if he had known in advance how heavy Hollywood's censorship was he would have filmed it in London.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | July 3, 2023 3:12 AM
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What do we think of the remake by Adrian Lyne? It caused a moral outrage and didn't get a theatrical release in the US. Beautiful cinematography shot on location around America, highlighting the road trip aspect of the story that Kubrick glossed over. And a lovely score by Ennio Morricone. Melanie Griffith is perfectly grating as Charlotte Haze. She's what I picture in my head when I hear the word Frau. Humbert seems like a hetero DLer. Dominique Swain took the Lolita character in a goofy, almost special-ed direction. The set decoration is impeccable. I found myself pausing the movie to look at all the little details. They found some interesting faces for the bit actors. There's a long faced general store clerk who looks like someone from a Norman Rockwell painting.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 23 | July 3, 2023 3:20 AM
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I think James Mason stole the movie.
Shelley Winters was a close second.
Sue Lyon was great as a selfish teen.
Peter Sellers was a little distracting.
by Anonymous | reply 24 | July 3, 2023 3:30 AM
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Rust & Stardust is an excellent fictionalized account of the Sally Horner kidnapping.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 25 | July 3, 2023 3:49 AM
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I preferred Frank Langella's Quilty to Peter Sellers' Quilty.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | July 3, 2023 4:16 AM
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I think Frank Langella is one of the most underrated actors ever. Check out The Box.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | July 3, 2023 4:22 AM
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This thread is bonkers! Lolita to Langella?!?
What about Evelyn Nesbit!
by Anonymous | reply 28 | July 3, 2023 4:28 AM
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The 1996 Lolita had an impact on the Lolita aesthetic described in the podcast R16 linked, which is an excellent look at the impact and cultural significance of Lolita. Itâs a beautifully shot movie and well-cast, as R23 says, and worth watching. However, it doesn't capture the central horror of the novel: Lolita, in the book, was twelve. Domonique Swain was in her mid-teens, post pubescent. Iâm not suggesting they should have filmed the movie with a younger child, only that it doesnât do anything different from the Kubrick version when it comes to putting Lolita onscreen. That makes Humbert come across as a *little* less of a monster than intended in the novel, although he is still fairly monstrous in the movie. One problem was that several movies around that time featured sexual or sexualized relationships between grown men and teenage girls (Natural Born Killers, The Professional, Wild Things, etc.) so the inappropriate nature of the relationship felt blunted. A younger audience, less exposed to such things in mainstream media, might not react the same way.
The movie succeeds in being beautiful and repellent, which is to say it succeeds in capturing the same general intentions as the novel. It also felt like a horror story, although the same can be said for Kubrickâs version.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | July 3, 2023 4:28 AM
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Few things in this world are funnier than Clare Quilty dancing with Vivian Darkbloom (with Charlotte Haze cutting in).
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 30 | July 3, 2023 4:33 AM
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R30 Really? Few things are funnier than that?
by Anonymous | reply 31 | July 3, 2023 4:40 AM
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It's criminal that Sue Lyon didn't get an Academy Award nom for this.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | July 3, 2023 4:55 AM
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R23 This is the only "Lolila" film I've seen so far. I forgot most of the plot but it was atmospheric, Also: Jeremy Irons is hot.
by Anonymous | reply 34 | July 3, 2023 6:45 AM
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R29 I agree.
However, by the end of the novel you feel for Humbert. You find him kind, handsome, cultured, sophisticated, and better than anyone else in the novel. Yet, he is a sick man who is into sick things.
That is the beauty of Nabokov's writing, even the most reprehensible character comes off as sympathetic.
by Anonymous | reply 35 | July 3, 2023 3:05 PM
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[quote]R35 by the end of the novel you feel for Humbert. You find him kind, handsome, cultured, sophisticated, and better than anyone else in the novel.
Mmmmmm⊠well, aside from the fact heâs a child molester, maybe. Humbert is the definition of an unreliable narrator. IS he truly kind? When he settles down with Dolores in the town of Beardsley, he describes her repeatedly crying herself to sleep, and his having to pay her every time they have sex. Does it sound like the girl is in a relationship with a âkind, handsome, cultured, sophisticatedâ person whoâs âbetter than anyone else in the novelâ? Sheâs saving up the money to run away from him.
When I first read LOLITA as a teen I was seduced by the language, and kind of saw it as a doomed love story. When I reread it in college I had more appreciation for the humor. Now, as a true adult, I see the horror in the story. All 3 things do exist in the novel, but itâs very hard to get past the abuse Humbert visits on a 12-YEAR-OLD!
The film soft pedals all this because 1.) they up Doloresâ age, and 2.) James Mason plays tragic grandeur fantastically.
by Anonymous | reply 36 | July 4, 2023 10:08 PM
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The novel was great, one of the true 20th century classics. The film didnât live up to the book and Iâm not sure why it was necessary. Not all great books need to be made into movies.
by Anonymous | reply 37 | July 4, 2023 10:13 PM
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R30 What are the few things that are funnier?
by Anonymous | reply 39 | July 18, 2023 8:26 PM
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I like the remake better. Irons and Langella were great and Melanie Griffith reminded us that she an excellent actress with the right material.
by Anonymous | reply 40 | July 18, 2023 10:53 PM
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Almost wrecked by an excess of Peter Sellers' schtick.
Mason and Winters are perfect.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | July 5, 2025 10:42 PM
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The book is brilliant, incredible writing, especially for an author to whom English was a second language.
No, the movie isnât the book, itâs its own thing, brilliant and very adult for when it was filmed and released. Peter Sellars is the perfect embodiment of Quilty, but thereâs entirely too much of him. Still it captures his schtick just when he was becoming a big deal. Mason, Lyons and Winters (whom I often find hard to take ) are terrific.
Thereâs nothing actressy or fake about Sue Lyonâs performance, I love the fetishistic way sheâs filmed in her stiff crinolines and high heels, a touching attempt to look womanly when she âs really still a vulnerable little girl.
Apparently while traveling and publicizing the film, the 16-year old Lyon and the handsome 30-something producer James Harris had an affair which Lyons repudiated near the end of her life, saying it effectively destroyed her life. Certainly her marital and personal history was a train wreck post-âLolitaâ and she often seemed crazy and miserable. So life sadly imitated art in her case.
If the film has a flaw, itâs that rural and suburban England does not for a moment suggest America, and part of the pleasure of the book was Nabokovâs satirical take on American middle class life and leisure habits after WWII. But the location displacement and the dry, cold tone give the movie a moody spaciness that is weirdly just right.
Itâs a miscarriage of movie justice that Mason, Winters and Lyon seem never to have been serious contenders for Oscar nominations. But the Academy shunned controversy then, and the book had been the most controversial novel of the mid-â50s. Yet the advertising tagline, âHow Did They Ever Make A Movie Of Lolita?â was more leering and sexual than the movie managed to be. And it wasnât a Hollywood picture so no studio had a rooting interest in promoting it.
by Anonymous | reply 44 | July 5, 2025 10:55 PM
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The novel is astoundingâbut I had to stop reading it due to being triggered (former molested child.). The 1960âs film version is better than the 90âs version, imo.
by Anonymous | reply 45 | July 5, 2025 10:56 PM
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I never understood how it could be heralded as some great film when the subject matter is disgusting. A man tricks a woman and seduces her child and then goes mad with obsession.
Central theme is straight mans stop at nothing to get sex from young women, in this a child! Fuck the Harvey Weinsteins that produced this under the guise of it being art. It's just masturbation fodder for all those perv men that are sex deviants.
by Anonymous | reply 47 | July 5, 2025 11:35 PM
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The film is toned down compared to the book. James Mason is almost likeable by the end.
by Anonymous | reply 48 | July 5, 2025 11:41 PM
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Can't stand Peter Sellars in this. But Mason and Lyon are amazing.
by Anonymous | reply 49 | July 6, 2025 12:09 AM
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I still don't get what the "few things in this world are funnier" in R30
by Anonymous | reply 50 | July 6, 2025 12:13 AM
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"Central theme is straight mans stop at nothing to get sex from young women, in this a child! "
Ok R47 I'll bite. Yep, that is the central drive for the main character. The story asks, what then? How does a society face this fact? Epstein et al just show that the story was precient. If we only had stories about noble characters then we miss out on a lot of interesting work.
by Anonymous | reply 51 | July 6, 2025 12:13 AM
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No R51 it's about them getting their jollies and preying on innocent's. That's why they have casting calls and want women to show skin and take their clothes off.
The only what then answer is to blow their balls off with a shotgun. Not accept it as a fact of life. Despicable.
by Anonymous | reply 52 | July 6, 2025 1:01 AM
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The first film makes it seem like Humpbert isnât necessarily a pedophileâit was just Lolita. When he goes back to see her and sheâs an adult (and a pregnant frau) he is still completely in love with her. The book makes it very clear that he is a pedophile. I agree that James Mason is fantastic and heartbreaking in the film.
by Anonymous | reply 53 | July 6, 2025 1:28 AM
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Shelley Wintersâ best performance.
I think James Masonâs nomination for Georgy Girl in a somewhat similar role may have been in part belated recognition for how good he is hereâthough he is excellent there, too. It sometimes just takes a while for the Academy voters to catch on.
by Anonymous | reply 54 | July 6, 2025 1:55 AM
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Sue Lyon was so gorgeous. I just found out that the producer of Lolita developed an obsession with her during filming and they had an affair đł
by Anonymous | reply 55 | July 6, 2025 1:57 AM
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[quote]though he is excellent there, too.
He was a suicidal drunk.
by Anonymous | reply 56 | July 6, 2025 1:59 AM
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I didn't know Sue Lyon was dead.
by Anonymous | reply 57 | July 6, 2025 2:02 AM
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Sue Lyons would've been better off ... ok, probably... not having starred in it
by Anonymous | reply 58 | July 6, 2025 2:04 AM
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I think as a young teen when I saw this, I was so taken with Shelly Winters...that when her storyline ended, the movie ended.
To this day, I react the same way.
by Anonymous | reply 59 | July 6, 2025 2:24 AM
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I always associated Lyon with Jean Seberg. Two beautiful blondes who probably would have been happier never stepping foot in front of a camera.
by Anonymous | reply 60 | July 6, 2025 2:28 AM
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True. But one was destroyed by early fame and her own demons and the other by the FBI
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 61 | July 6, 2025 3:05 AM
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This has all taken a rather dark turn.
by Anonymous | reply 62 | July 6, 2025 3:10 AM
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Sue Lyon is so fucking underrated in this.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 63 | July 6, 2025 3:10 AM
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This film has very little to do with the book. If you want a more faithful adaption, watch the 1997 film. It's very good. Despite that, I prefer this version. Putting one of the darkest most controversial subjects possible through a sinister black comedic lense in (1962 for christ's sake!) is so gutsy you HAVE to love it. The fact that the characters are throwing around words like "Camp Climax" and quite overtly proposition swinging and so many other perversities in such a quaint little town during such a quaint era just makes it deliciously transgresive. How did they ever make a movie like "Lolita" indeed!
by Anonymous | reply 64 | July 6, 2025 3:25 AM
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Is it excuse the soiled sock or ignore the soiled sock
by Anonymous | reply 65 | July 6, 2025 3:28 AM
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[quote]r61 = and the other by the FBI
Which they wouldn't have if she'd not stepped in front of a camera.
by Anonymous | reply 66 | July 6, 2025 3:32 AM
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"The Frigid Queen" was also a hilarious name for the ice cream place Lo would hang out in. How did they get away with this shit, lol.
by Anonymous | reply 67 | July 6, 2025 3:35 AM
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This is one of my all time favorite movies. Iâm not quite sure why. It could be that each character is so extreme. And I absolutely love the soundtrack. The whole thing is on my playlist.
by Anonymous | reply 68 | July 6, 2025 3:51 AM
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Whatâs her face would have been perfect for this movie- if not for the fact that she hadnât been born yet-
Brook Shields
by Anonymous | reply 69 | July 6, 2025 4:21 AM
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Brooke had her own Lolita, r69.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 70 | July 6, 2025 4:26 AM
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R70- I know
and her mother basically pimped her out to appear in a movie like that
by Anonymous | reply 71 | July 6, 2025 4:35 AM
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R65 Youâre rightâit is âexcuse,â not âignore.â
by Anonymous | reply 72 | July 6, 2025 5:23 AM
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Shelley Winters had big bosoms
by Anonymous | reply 73 | July 6, 2025 3:09 PM
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DL fav Betty Bacall had an affair with Shelley Winters husband. Once Betty called the house and Shelley asked her why she would do that. Betty replied back with "if your husband doesn't respect your marriage, why should I?"
by Anonymous | reply 74 | July 6, 2025 3:10 PM
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"Vivian Darkbloom" is my absolute favorite anagram of all time. In 1962, played by Marianne Stone (who racked up 271 credits, according to IMDB).
by Anonymous | reply 75 | July 6, 2025 4:41 PM
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[quote]Shelley Winters had big bosoms
Not really, r73.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 76 | July 6, 2025 4:45 PM
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