BEFORE: From centerfolds and college-age sorority sisters, I move to a story of a younger girl. I feel like I really should know more about this Stanley Kubrick film, or the novel it's based on, and not just its mention in that Police song.
Linking from last night's film is tricky, but not impossible - Beverly D'Angelo was also in "Christmas Vacation" with Juliette Lewis, who was in "Husbands and Wives" with Woody Allen, who was in "What's New, Pussycat?" with Peter Sellers.
THE PLOT: A middle-aged college professor becomes infatuated with a 14-year-old nymphet.
AFTER: This was scandalous subject matter back in 1962, and it still is (and should be). How Kubrick got away with making a film that's essentially about a man having sex with his stepdaughter is mind-boggling. In the original novel Lolita is 12, and notably her age is never given in the film.
There's a score by Nelson Riddle that sounds upbeat, almost cartoonish sometimes, which I guess was supposed to make the situation less creepy, but I don't think it helped very much. There's a lot of suggestive wordplay - like Lolita's summer camp is named "Camp Climax" - and visual puns as well (is that a stuffed beaver in the foreground? Inspiration for the gag in "The Naked Gun"?)
Kubrick moved the novel's ending to the beginning of the film - and I've just learned the proper name for this technique that usually drives me crazy, it's "in media res", Latin for "in the middle of things". But Kubrick used it well, showing just enough in the beginning to spark interest in the story that follows. Umm...I mean precedes.
James Mason (last seen in "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea") plays Humbert Humbert, who develops an unnatural attraction to his step-daughter, and Peter Sellers plays a writer who seems to be living a depraved lifestyle of his own - like Humbert, he seems to have an interest in Lolita. But it also seems like he's got more of a Bohemian thing going on, something like a swinging single life in the art community.
This gives Sellers the opportunity to stalk the pair, using a number of accents and disguises to get closer to the young girl, which actually makes him the creepier of the two men. I find it hard to believe that a famous writer turned up in both the small town in New England that Humbert was visiting, AND the small town in Ohio where he was hired to teach. Seems like a little too much of a coincidence.
What's the take-away here? Don't sleep with your step-daughter? Kinda knew that one already... Don't fall for a 12-year old? Good advice, to be sure. It's a short leap from pedophilia to murder? Not sure about that one.
Also starring Shelley Winters (last seen in "Jury Duty"), Sue Lyon.
RATING: 6 out of 10 painted toenails
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