Lolita

 A completely different movie from the novel, "Lolita" incited outrage back in it's heyday when censorship was up the butt of filmmakers in Hollywood. This was in the early 60's, near the end of the studio era and "New Hollywood" would not revolutionize the industry until the late 60's.  Stanley Kubrick would be one of the few directors who would try to break the convention but do it in his own way. This controversial film was made after the success of "Spartacus", from what I heard Kubrick was in the process of filming "One Eyed Jacks" but backed out possibly because of the difficulty working with the star of the film Marlon Brando.

I thought it would have been interesting for Kubrick to try his hand on a western but "Lolita" was a better choice if he did not proceed with the other.

The film is set in the 50's told through the eyes of a middle aged man named Humbert Humbert barging in on a big house waving his pistol, his rage is directed at a man named Quilty (Peter Sellers) whom he shoots to avenge himself and the love he lost. 

The film then travels back 4 years earlier in Ramsdale, New Hampshire where Humbert arrives intending to spend the summer before his professorship at Beardsley College.  He finds a room for rent and meets an overbearing sexually frustrated widow named Charlotte Haze (Shelley Winters), he found the house unappealing but soon changed his mind after meeting Charlotte's daughter Dolores (Sue Lyon) affectionately called Lolita.

He sees her sunbathing in the garden listening to her radio and sipping on a soda pop, he immediately falls for Lolita and accepts the offer to become a lodger get close to her. Humbert is not so much portrayed as a sleazy pedophile, what Kubrick does is make his desire look  acceptable to the audience. Humbert's desire for the young "nymphet" is not explained unlike in the book, this film instead jumps right into Humbert's desire.

Sue Lyon''s performance was subtle but she's able to let her inner devil loose in playing the childish vixen in certain scenes if needed, Shelley Winter's is  as good as ever in playing the tragic suffering widow echoing her other great performances in films like "The Night of the Hunter" and  "The Diary of Anne Frank". The key character of course was Quilty played by Peter Sellers who was magnificent making the most of his limited screen time, he was able to change his character into every scene he was in like a chameleon.

You could see Sellers dissapear in the role of Quilty, the curious cop and the pushy Dr. Zempf who was the shadowy presence stalking Humbert and Lolita and he completely stole the show from Mason in most scenes particularly the Dr. Zempf encounter which I thought was electrifying. Kubrick made the struggle between 2 pedophiles for the control of a not so innocent little girl  look like a fairy tale, being the maestro of breaking the conventions of film making he was able to make us think of it as the battle between good and evil but the film itself were full of monsters even Lolita who seemed to relish the perverse circumstances her life has taken.

The moral values of the time was also challenged by the director, it seemed almost perfectly acceptable for Lolita to end up with Humbert when he visits her and we end up feeling sorry for him after she refuses his offer to run away with him. The great thing about Kubrick is he is able to focus his films on monsters like Humbert and makes us sympathize with them, the tragedy of Humbert is not knowing what's right or wrong but falling in love in the wrong circumstances.

I once read that Lolita was the one true love story of the 20th century, a man going through all hardships and heartaches to be with a girl whom he cannot be with is not only disturbing but also fascinating.

 Grade: A-