"How did they make a movie out of Lolita?" teased the print ads of this Stanley Kubrick production. The answer: by adding three years to the title character's age. The original Vladimir Nabokov novel caused no end of scandal by detailing the romance between a middle-aged intellectual and a 12-year-old nymphet. The affair is "cleansed" ever so slightly in the film by making Lolita a 15-year-old (portrayed by 16-year-old Sue Lyon). In adapting his novel to film, Nabokov downplayed the wicked satire and sensuality of the ...
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"How did they make a movie out of Lolita?" teased the print ads of this Stanley Kubrick production. The answer: by adding three years to the title character's age. The original Vladimir Nabokov novel caused no end of scandal by detailing the romance between a middle-aged intellectual and a 12-year-old nymphet. The affair is "cleansed" ever so slightly in the film by making Lolita a 15-year-old (portrayed by 16-year-old Sue Lyon). In adapting his novel to film, Nabokov downplayed the wicked satire and sensuality of the material, concentrating instead on the story's farcical aspects. James Mason plays professor Humbert Humbert, who while waiting to begin a teaching post in the United States rents a room from blowzy Shelley Winters. Winters immediately falls for the worldly Humbert, but he only has eyes for his landlady's nubile daughter Lolita. The professor goes so far as to marry Winters so that he can remain near to the object of his ardor. Turning up like a bad penny at every opportunity is smarmy TV writer Quilty (Peter Sellers), who seems inordinately interested in Humbert's behavior. When Winters happens to read Humbert's diary, she is so revolted by his lustful thoughts that she runs blindly into the street, where she is struck and killed by a car. Without telling Lolita that her mother is dead, Humbert packs her into the car and goes on a cross-country trip, dogged every inch of the way by a mysterious pursuer. Once she gets over the shock of her mother's death, Lolita is agreeable to inaugurating an affair with her stepfather (this is handled very, very discreetly, despite the slavering critical assessments of 1962). But when the girl begins discovering boys her own age, she drifts away from Humbert. One day, she leaves without warning. This is humiliation enough for Humbert; but when he discovers who her secret lover really is, the results are fatal. We are prepared for the ending because the film has been framed as a flashback; what we are not prepared for is Stanley Kubrick's adroit manipulation of our sympathies and expectations. An incredibly long film considering its subject matter, Lolita is never dull, nor does it ever stoop to the sensationalism prevalent in the film's ad campaign. Hal Erickson, Rovi
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Add this copy of Lolita to cart. $1.01, good condition, Sold by Seattle Goodwill rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Seattle, WA, UNITED STATES, published 2001.
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Add this copy of Lolita [Dvd] to cart. $5.23, good condition, Sold by Goodwill Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hillsboro, OR, UNITED STATES, published 1999.
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Add this copy of Lolita [Dvd] to cart. $5.59, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Movies rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1999 by Turner Home Ent.
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Jerry Stovin, Bill Greene, Sue Lyon, James Mason, Cec Linder, Shirley Douglas, Diana Decker, Lois Maxwell, Gary Cockrell,... Very good. 1975 Run time: 152. Providing great media since 1972. All used discs are inspected and guaranteed. Digital copy/codes may be expired or not included. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
Add this copy of Lolita [Dvd] to cart. $5.85, good condition, Sold by Goodwill Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hillsboro, OR, UNITED STATES, published 2001.
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Add this copy of Lolita [Dvd] to cart. $7.99, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Movies rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2001 by Warner Home Video.
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James Mason, Shelley Winters, Sue Lyon, Gary Cockrell, Jerry Stovin, Diana Decker, Lois Maxwell, Cec Linder, Bill Greene,... Very good. 1999 Run time: 152. Providing great media since 1972. All used discs are inspected and guaranteed. Digital copy/codes may be expired or not included. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!
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James Mason, Shelley Winters, Sue. Good. 1962 Run time: 153. Connecting viewers with great movies since 1972. All used discs are inspected and guaranteed. Used discs may not include digital content. Customer service is our top priority!
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TITLE: Lolita
GENRE: Romatic Comedy with some tragedy stressed
CAST: Sue Lyon, James Mason, Shelley Winters and Peter Sellers
PLOT: A middle aged literature professor falls in love with a (jail bait) teen girl, the daughter of a woman he marries just to be near the teen. The mother keeps him and the girl apart which only serves to stress his fantasies about the daughter. So much so, that when the time and circumstances arrive that they can be together, he has overdwelt on the jail bait angle and becomes paranoid at any other relation the girl develops. He takes steps to keep her to himself which fail and he finally snaps and kills one of her former lovers who he's jealous of.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT:8.5 of 10; The story is presented in B&W which puts the viewer into a false sense of 'earlier times'.quite effectively. Though Stanley Kubrick, the Director, is one of the greatest at his profession, he chops the character development here for some unknown reason. But each actor does the roles he gives them expertly, saving the day. Shelly Winters is perfectly cast as the obsessive mother.
DVD BONUS: Nothing but a theatrical trailer which is strange because this movie was never promoted by the distributers in its lifetime due to its taboo subject matter (Ephebophilia is the love of post pubescent teens and their ability to engage in sexual activity)
ADDED NOTES: This is yet another shinning example of why Peter Sellers has to be considered one of the top comedic actors. His definition of the Quilty character in the beginning is of the highest order of inanity and lets the viewer know that a farce is being presented, not the tragedy we are apparently seeing. Brilliant!
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