Lolita (1962)

  I've never read the source novel for Lolita, nor have I ever seen either of the adaptations previously.  I chose this, the Stanley Kubrick feature, over the one starring Jeremy Irons for the director's cachet.  I felt like it was something that I should watch, if for no other reason than the title character being a pop culture reference.

Professor Humbert Humbert (James Mason) moves to a small New England town for a summer before he begins lecturing at a college in Ohio.  He rents a room from a ditzy widow (Shelley Winters) because he finds himself completely enthralled by her jailbait teenaged daughter, Lolita (Sue Lyons).  After a hasty marriage and an accidental death, Humbert winds up Lolita's legal guardian and uses the opportunity to express his affections.  But he finds himself growing ever more possessive and paranoid, especially since there seems to be someone out to get him.

Probably because I associate Russian literature with the 19th century, I assumed the book was written in the late 1800's, but I just checked and it was published in 1958.  This is an important bit because I was going to compare it to Tennessee Williams' Baby Doll for subject matter and I incorrectly, as it turns out, thought Baby Doll was a reference to Lolita.  It actually came out two years prior to Nabokov's novel.  Also, the eponymous Baby Doll was supposed to be 19 and Lolita is 12.  One of those things is a lot more okay than the other.  People protested Baby Doll.  I can only imagine the firestorm that happened with Lolita.

Anyway, movie.  They don't actually show anything untoward happening between Humbert and his very underaged ward.  Which means everything you don't see is conveyed by James Mason's sweaty, disheveled, unbelievably guilty performance.  The man was a masterful actor.  And yet, he is completely overshadowed by Peter Sellers.  It's like Salieri and Mozart all over again.

I meant to have this bonus post for the holiday up earlier but I had homework to do.  I've already lost power once tonight as I type this (thank God for auto-save!) because of thunderstorms in the area so this will just have to do.