United Kingdom, United States · 1962
2h 34m
Director Stanley Kubrick
Starring James Mason, Shelley Winters, Sue Lyon, Gary Cockrell
Genre Crime, Drama, Romance
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When middle-aged college professor Humbert leaves Europe for America, he rents a room from desperate widow Charlotte. He becomes obsessed with her 14-year-old daughter Dolores, nicknamed “Lolita.” Humbert schemes to be near Lolita, but it turns out that her mother is not all that stands in his way…
Vladimir Nabokov's witty, grotesque novel is, in its film version, like a bee from which the stinger has been removed. It still buzzes with a sort of promising irreverence, but it lacks the power to shock and, eventually, makes very little point either as comedy or satire.
Village Voice by Andrew Sarris
Kubrick goes through the motions with a hula hoop and the munching of potato chips, but there is nothing intuitive or abandoned about the man-nymphet relationship. The Director's heart is apparently elsewhere. [05 Jul 1962, p.11]
The New York Times by Bosley Crowther
This is not the novel Lolita, but it is a provocative sort of film.
Where Nabokov was witty, Kubrick is sometimes merely snide, but fine performances (particularly from Peter Sellers, as the ominous Clare Quilty) cover most of the rough spots.
Austin Chronicle by Marjorie Baumgarten
Nabokov’s satire is sensationally cast, with Winters and Sellers delivering some of their best work ever.
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
Brilliant adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's 20th Century comic-erotic classic. [08 Jul 2005, p.C2]
The New Yorker by Pauline Kael
Wild, marvelously enjoyable comedy, adapted from Nabokov's novel.
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