Lolita

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Lolita

Released Jun 13, 1962

2h 32m

Comedy

Drama

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Popcornmeter

91%

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45 Reviews

84%

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25,000+ Ratings

With a screenplay penned by the author himself, Stanley Kubrick brings Vladimir Nabokov's controversial tale of forbidden love to the screen. Humbert Humbert (James Mason) is a European professor who relocates to an American suburb, renting a room from lonely widow Charlotte Haze (Shelley Winters). Humbert marries Charlotte, but only to nurture his obsession with her comely teenage daughter, Lolita (Sue Lyon). After Charlotte's sudden death, Humbert has Lolita all to himself -- or does he?

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Critics Consensus

Kubrick's Lolita adapts its seemingly unadaptable source material with a sly comedic touch and a sterling performance by James Mason that transforms the controversial novel into something refreshingly new without sacrificing its essential edge.

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Variety Staff

Variety

An occasionally amusing but shapeless film.

Mar 26, 2009

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Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

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.

May 8, 2007

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Geoff Andrew

Time Out

Far more satisfying than his later works (one hesitates to call them mere movies).

Jun 24, 2006

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Pauline Kael

Partisan Review

The surprise of Lolita is how enjoyable it is: it’s the first new American comedy since those great days in the 1940’s when Preston Sturges recreated comedy with verbal slapstick.

Sep 11, 2023

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Rob Gonsalves

Rob's Movie Vault

Essentially, Kubrick uses Nabokov’s story, and sexual fixation in general, for a meditation on people driven mad by what they can’t have.

Rated: A

Aug 30, 2022

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Dwight MacDonald

Esquire Magazine

Lolita is a disappointment because we have a right to expect more from Kubrick (he may come through with his next, which I am told is to be a satirical treatment of the nuclear "defense" problem).

May 6, 2019

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Stephen C

LOL, 2 hours and 32 minutes of comedy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

05/23/25

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Makemake P

Truly horrifying. Captures raw human depravity.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

05/14/25

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William M

I am a big Nabokov fan. Lolita was the first of his novels that I read, shortly after it came out, and was blown away. I was also big Stanley Kubrick fan; beginning with Paths of Glory. But when I heard Kubrick was making a movie based on Nabokov's novel I thought it was doomed to fail. Lolita is not the least bit cinematic - it has virtually no plot and the subject matter is disgusting. What saves it from being pure trash is the hilarious and utterly original first-person narration. So when I went to see the movie my expectations were pretty low. But, as it turned out, not low enough. I had to force myself to sit though it. The opening five or ten minutes (that seem like an hour) is almost unwatchable. A long drawn-out unfunny Peter Seller's "shtick" (which was probably largely improvised] that gives the rest of the movie (shown in flashback) away. But that was decades ago. Less than half an hour ago, I re-watched this opening sequence on TCM. It was even worse than I remembered. BTW James Mason, who has absolutely no comic chops, is horribly miscast. This was the teenage Sue Lyons (who played Lolita) movie debut and the critics went crazy over her. If the name doesn't ring a bell the fault is not yours. Her promising movie career went exactly where I thought it would go - straight down the toilet.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/25/25

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Audience Member

sometimes books should stay books.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/22/25

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D. Hunter P

It was an interesting and different adaptation from the book. The beats are still there and the acting is very, I think, intentionally over the top. I do have to agree just a little that showing part of the end of the book at the beginning did ruin a little bit of the suspense.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/09/25

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thiago s

filme mais ou menos, o roteiro é mais ou menos, o filme temmuito dialogo para porra nenhuma, erolou muito para nada, no final o maluco queria fugir com lolita e não consegui nada, o filme é praticamente doentio, o cara quer ficar com uma menor de idade, que porra é essa.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

11/24/24

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Stanley Kubrick

Director

James Mason

Prof. Humbert Humbert

Shelley Winters

Charlotte Haze

Sue Lyon

Lolita

Peter Sellers

Clare Quilty

Marianne Stone

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Synopsis

With a screenplay penned by the author himself, Stanley Kubrick brings Vladimir Nabokov's controversial tale of forbidden love to the screen. Humbert Humbert (James Mason) is a European professor who relocates to an American suburb, renting a room from lonely widow Charlotte Haze (Shelley Winters). Humbert marries Charlotte, but only to nurture his obsession with her comely teenage daughter, Lolita (Sue Lyon). After Charlotte's sudden death, Humbert has Lolita all to himself -- or does he?

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Producer: James B. Harris
Screenwriter: Vladimir Nabokov
Distributor: MGM/UA Home Entertainment Inc., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Criterion Collection, Warner Home Vídeo
Production Co: Harris-Kubrick Productions, Anya, Seven Arts Productions, Transwood
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 13, 1962, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 31, 2008
Runtime: 2h 32m

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