Review of Lolita (1962) by Matt D — 04 Mar 2010

Surehanded, subtly masterful direction of lurid material with excellent performances. Mason plays a genteel English professor Humbert Humbert with a creepy, immoral, possessive fixation on a teenage girl, Sellers shines as the even more deviously smarmy playright Clare Quilty, and Sue Lyon ideal as the not-quite-so-innocent object of obsession. While this 'Lolita' was obviously scrubbed for public appearance by the studio, Kubrick still manages to imply the unseemly in several scenes with verbal and nonverbal cues ("cherry pie," oh my.) I believe this works better for the film as we can focus more on the unfolding of the involving story rather than on two or three controversial scenes, as the tone of the film often drifts towards black humor. Kubrick does not condone the actions of his characters but allows them to follow their paths of folly, which ultimately end unhappily for most.

Great in-joke: Sellers rising with a sheet around him declaring "I am Spartacus," a nod to Kubrick's previous movie.