Sons and Lovers

Released Aug 2, 1960

1h 43m

Drama

List

67%

9 Reviews

Tomatometer

49%

250+ Ratings

Audience Score

In a small English coal town, aspiring artist Paul Morel (Dean Stockwell) sets out to break free of the difficult mining life that has hardened his father, Walter (Trevor Howard), and killed his brother. His wishes appear to come true when local art lover Henry Hadlock (Ernest Thesiger) offers to send him to art school in London. However, Paul's deep love for his kind but possessive mother, Gertrude (Wendy Hiller), threatens to keep him from abandoning his old life.

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steve d

Watered down and ineffective.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

ashley h

Sons and Lovers is a decent film. It is about a young man with artistic talent who lives in a close-knit, English coal-mining town during the early 20th century. Trevor Howard and Dean Stockwell give good performances. The screenplay is a little slow in places. Jack Cardiff did an alright job directing this movie. I liked this motion picture.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The movie seemed a bit overdramatic at times and at other times kinda vague. Also no subtitles, altho everyone has heavy Irish accents making it hard to hear what they're saying at times. The led actor looks a lot like James Dean. A depressing movie about a guy whose parents obvi have fallen out of love due somewhat to hard lives/drinking. Then he himself can't find love first with his childhood sweetheart due to her religious upbringing or his second due to him not being able to be fully present sexually (some of his heart belongs to his mom-weird kinda Bates like). By the end of the film he resolves to never fully commit to any woman, realizing his own faults and not wanting a passionless type of marriage with Miriam. The film moves fast and is interesting, but not sure I liked the message/plot enuff. The cinematography is really good/gritty.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/15/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Brilliant photography matches most all aspects of this timeless story

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/17/20

Full Review

Audience Member

Jack Cardiff's greatest achievements came as a cinematographer as he produced the timeless visuals present in Black Narcissus (1947) and The Red Shoes (1948). He doesn't have the abilities of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger as a director which hinders him in bringing D. H. Lawrence's classic novel of the same name to the screen. So much of the novel is the internal struggle of Paul Morel, better conveyed in writing than on screen, which means that it is harder to understand why this story is so captivating when on the surface so little happens. I didn't enjoy Ken Russell's Women in Love (1969) but I would call it superior to this film in that it is more willing to experiment and deviate from the text in what it portrays. Aspiring artist Paul Morel, Dean Stockwell, has an emotionally incestuous relationship with his mother Gertrude, Wendy Hiller, which is very different to the bond he shares with his abusive, alcoholic father Walter, Trevor Howard. He enters into a relationship with the sexually repressed Miriam Leivers, Heather Sears, that suffers under the weight of his unfulfilled sexual desires and the meddling of his jealous mother. Frustrated with Leivers, Morel begins sleeping with the sexually liberated feminist Clara Dawes, Mary Ure, who happens to be married. Dawes quickly recognizes the incestuous bond between Morel and his mother but has her own reservations about continuing the relationship due to the fact that she still loves her husband. When Gertrude falls ill Morel returns to her side and admits that he loves his mother more than he could love any other woman. After her death he resigns himself to a life of being a bachelor. The standout to come out of the film is Hiller who won an undeserved Academy Award for her performance in Separate Tables (1958) but proves she has real dramatic chops here. She delivers her comic, biting remarks intended to cut down the suitresses of her sons. There is a constant touch of sadness however as while she is able to exert control over her weak minded boys her husband proves harder to influence and the specter of physical and emotional abuse hangs over her character. Many of the characters are meant to believable as working class Britons and Hiller pulls of the accent and the manner better than anybody in the film as she reminded me of Edith Evans in Look Back in Anger (1959). Unfortunately the rest of the film is maudlin and mundane. Where the vivid emotions of Paul and his repressed desires are utterly compelling on the page it is difficult to understand why we should care so much about a young man who can't love two beautiful women because of his attachment to his mother the way this film tells it. I found myself bored by scenes that play out exhilaratingly in the book and while I looked forward to the scenes between Morel and Dawes I found myself let down. Stockwell and Ure give fine performances but both are forced to telegraph their emotions by a screenplay that prefers to tell instead of allowing the audience to be shown. The passion that Morel is transferring from his mother to this woman who is seemingly the complete opposite was never quite felt as there is little anger or desperation in this rendering of Morel and his tragic psyche is not very deeply explored. The lone Academy Award that this film won was for it's cinematography which I must recognize at being very good but when compared to Psycho (1960) and The Apartment (1960) it is hard to argue that it is deserving of this honor. We do get some beautiful images of Morel and Leivers frolicking in the evening light and the working class British atmosphere is captured nicely but nothing jumps out at you as being unique or special. Perhaps they wanted to acknowledge the film in some way as it was nominated for multiple major awards but I would have preferred to have seen Psycho (1960) or Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) nominated for Best Picture as they have both had longer lasting legacies and are far more engaging, entertaining pictures worthy of note.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

Audience Member

If this movie had been made a few years later a lot more could have been done with the Lawrence book on which it is based. (His Lady Chatterly's Lover was being un-banned in England the year the film was released). For a story depicting a young man's struggles to feel comfortable in a relationship, the movie is mostly passionless - and that is what weighs it down. I would have put the father more into the background too (where he largely belongs) even though Trevor Howard gives a strong performance. Dean Stockwell is also good as Paul, conveying the intelligence and confidence yet confusion of the main character. Listen out in the score for a strange use of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, when the husband brings his wife a cup of tea to her in bed the morning after one of their rows. Or did my ears deceive me?

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

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Jack Cardiff

Director

Trevor Howard

Walter Morel

Dean Stockwell

Paul Morel

Wendy Hiller

Mrs. Morel

Mary Ure

Clara Dawes

Heather Sears

Clara Dawes

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Stanley Kauffmann

The New Republic

The best one can promise those who like the book is that they will probably not be greatly disturbed by the adaptation and will see some elements capably dramatized.

Jun 16, 2016

Full Review

Variety Staff

Variety

Sons and Lovers is a well-made and conscientious adaptation of D. H. Lawrence's famed novel, smoothly directed by Jack Cardiff and superbly acted by a notable cast.

Jan 31, 2012

Full Review

Tom Milne

Time Out

A slack and superficial adaptation of Lawrence's novel.

Jan 31, 2012

Full Review

Dwight MacDonald

Esquire Magazine

It is a curiously aimless, unfocused film which will excite neither the art nor the commercial audience.

Jul 16, 2019

Full Review

TV Guide

The film's period details are excellent, and the direction by cinematographer-turned-director Cardiff is first rate.

Rated: 3.5/4

Jan 31, 2012

Full Review

Film4 Staff

Film4

An attractive, thoughtful adaptation of a difficult novel. Lawrence's sexual politics may have dated badly, but the cinematography and acting still exude quality.

Jan 31, 2012

Full Review

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Synopsis

In a small English coal town, aspiring artist Paul Morel (Dean Stockwell) sets out to break free of the difficult mining life that has hardened his father, Walter (Trevor Howard), and killed his brother. His wishes appear to come true when local art lover Henry Hadlock (Ernest Thesiger) offers to send him to art school in London. However, Paul's deep love for his kind but possessive mother, Gertrude (Wendy Hiller), threatens to keep him from abandoning his old life.

Director: Jack Cardiff
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 2, 1960, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 19, 2013
Runtime: 1h 43m

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