To say that when it was first published in English in 1958, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita caused a sensation is putting things mildly. The subject of a middle aged man's sexual fascination with a precocious twelve year old girl elevated 'kink' to a whole new level, gripping readers with an air of the tawdry and the ultra perverse. In re-envisioning the novel for the big screen director Stanley Kubrick's Lolita (1962) has a monumental hurdle to overcome; mainly to suggest the crippling sexual addition of its 40ish protagonist without actually being able to show their libidinous relationship in any detail. Circumventing the production code and still maintaining the potency of the piece seems to have been a balancing act at best, one that does not entirely achieve a successful outcome.
The screenplay by Nabokov, Kubrick and screenwriter James Harris skips over our hero's predilection for very young girls in Switzerland as well as his failed marriage to a Polish girl. Instead, the narrative begins in medias res with a confrontation between middle aged Beardsley professor Humbert Humbert (James Mason) and successful playwright Clare Quilty (Peter Sellers) - a chameleon who currently has adopted the facade of a wanton playboy. After a brief verbal altercation Humbert shoots Quilty dead.
We now regress by four years to the time when Humbert first arrived in Ramsdale, New Hampshire and took up residence by renting a room from Charlotte Haze (Shelley Winters) - a blousy sexually frustrated widow. From the start, Charlotte has her eye on Humbert for her next conquest. But Humbert has his sights fixed on Charlotte's sixteen year old daughter, Dolores (Sue Lyons); a crass, soda-guzzling, gum-chewing vixen who is promiscuous well beyond her years.
Nicknamed Lolita, Dolores toys with Humbert's affections, writing him mash notes and eventually becoming his lover. Knowing full well what her daughter is capable of, Charlotte sends Lolita to summer camp in order to have Humbert all to herself. Charlotte and Humbert are married and shortly thereafter Charlotte informs her new husband that she intends to send Lolita away to a private school for the remainder of her education.
Trapped in a loveless triangle, Humbert grows more solemn and aloof while writing lurid odes to Lolita in his diary. These are discovered by Charlotte who, in a paralytic fit of disbelief wanders into the street during a rainstorm and throws herself under the wheels of an oncoming car.
Seizing the opportunity to have Lolita for himself, Humbert takes her away from her summer camp but does not yet inform her that her mother has died. For several days he toys with the idea of launching into a seduction of the child but is unable to bring himself to take advantage of her. Eventually, Humbert reveals the truth about Charlotte to Lolita who becomes hysterical and grief stricken. She agrees to stay with Humbert.
At every turn, Humbert and Lolita are pursued by strange 'men' who suggest that a sexual relationship is going on between Humbert and 'his daughter'. The first of these occurs between Humbert and a total stranger (Peter Sellers) in the lobby of the hotel he and Lolita are staying at. The second confrontation is between Humbert and Dr. Zemph (also Peter Sellers), a psychologist who encourages Humbert to have a talk with his daughter about 'the facts of life'.
Concerned that his attachment to Lolita has become too obvious, Humbert quits Beardsley and takes Lolita on the open road once more. The two are pursued by a mysterious car that never quite catches up to them. By now, Lolita has begun to tire of Humbert's constant need to control her. She contracts the flu, becomes severely ill and has to be hospitalized.
Humbert comes to visit her every day while she recuperates. But after a cryptic phone call to his hotel room suggests that yet another stranger knows of Humbert's intensions toward the girl he races back to the hospital only to discover that Lolita has been discharged earlier that day and in the care of someone claiming to be her uncle. An irrational Humbert attacks the nurse in charge (Lois Maxwell) and is nearly institutionalized.
Several years pass. Then, out of the blue Humbert receives a letter from Lolita. She has married Richard Schiller (Gary Cockrell), a boy of her years. She is pregnant by him and living in squalor not very far away. Begging Humbert for money, Lolita reveals to her stepfather that Clare Quilty took her from the hospital with promises of a life of glamour. Instead, he took advantage of her youth and forced her to be in his depraved 'art' movies. Lolita further reveals to Humbert that Clare and her mother Charlotte were once lovers, prompting his infatuation with her the same way that Humbert developed his obsession toward her.
Realizing what a fool he has been, Humbert gives Lolita $13,000 from the sale of her mother's house and departs on route to the murderous rendezvous at Clare Quilty's that began at the start of the film. An epilogue explains that Humbert later died of coronary thrombosis while awaiting trial for Quilty's murder.
Lolita is an odd film to say the least. The true depth of moral depravity so meticulously described in the novel has been distilled into mere snippets of suggestiveness for the film. As such, the 'kink' factor is really more curiously speculated than implied. James Mason adds another variation of playing morally fragile and socially troubled men to his repertoire. But in this case, he isn't quite as accessible or even as engaging. Instead he simpers and struggles with wild eyed ineptitude and fits of crying madness. One wonders why Lolita would ever agree to remain in Humbert's care for as long as she does.
As for Sue Lyons, she occasionally scales the heights of the gritty calculating viper described in Nobokov's novel but on the whole comes across as more of an emotionless manipulator than hot blooded vixen. Peter Sellers has the real plum part (or parts as the case may be) and his zeal for impersonation is working overtime herein. He is perhaps at his most oily suggestive and unsettlingly seamy as Dr. Zemph, the psychologist. As Clare Quilty, Sellers is a tad less effective, moreover by being hampered by the production code that forces both him and the audience to imagine rather than live out Quilty's peccadilloes.
As a time capsule of eroticism, Lolita falls short of expectations. It's forced ambiguity is the main culprit for the film's overall lack of impact. Kubrick does his best to hint at moral impropriety where ever possible (and I must admit that the toenail polishing sequence still carries a slightly unnerving perversity about it) but at the end of the experience the film remains a sort of obtuse titillation - a coming attraction that falls short of all the sexual corruption promised.
Falling short is a good way to describe Warner Home Video's Blu-ray transfer. The B&W image seems less refined than expected. The opening credits are slightly blurry and unstable. Some scenes appear sharp. But others have a distinctly soft and slightly out of focus look to them. The overall image appears to have had its contrast levels slightly boosted too. As such, the mid-register of the gray scale loses some of its fine detail throughout this presentation. Grain is often thick and curiously less film like than expected. There seems to be some discrepancy and debate about the proper aspect ratio for this film, although I must confess that the overall 1:66:1 framing on the Blu-ray looks about right to me. The audio is mono as originally recorded. There are no extra features!
FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)
3
VIDEO/AUDIO
3
EXTRAS
0
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