There are some desires which are viewed by society as taboo for a very good reason, as Humbert Humbert discovers for himself in Stanley Kubrick's provocative adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel, Lolita. James Mason takes the role of the aforementioned Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged professor who moves into the home of Charlotte Haze (Shelley Winters) after seeing her nubile 15 year-old daughter, Delores "Lolita" Haze (Sue Lyon). It doesn't take long before her adolescent flirtations towards Humbert lead him towards a lustful infatuation and then "love", an obsession which becomes so all-consuming that he marries Charlotte just to be close to Lolita, with whom he soon enters into a sexual relationship. Clearly a controversial topic to this day, Kubrick had to considerably tone down some of the aspects of the original novel upon which is it based, not least in raising the age of Lolita from 12 to 15. The sensuality of the book is also lacking (which would've made for some very uncomfortable Valentine's Day viewing) and instead Kubrick focuses on the darkly satirical side to the tale. While far from being Kubrick's best work and in spite of the many compromises Kubrick made from the source material, Lolita remains a film which leaves you questioning how it got made in the first place. Mason's central performance is a career high, delivering the lines with a slimy arrogance which becomes increasingly desperate and fraught as his perceived hold over the girl with the "lovely, lyrical, lilting name" begins to slip (although there's some ambiguity as to whether or not it is actually Lolita pulling the strings). Perhaps no Kubrick masterpiece, but still infinitely superior to the 90s adaptation starring Jeremy Irons.
