Lolita (Stanley Kubrick; US, 1962)

Vladimir Nabokov’s literary lovechild Lolita was bound to make a sensational film, in both senses of the word. A mere stutter of a man, Humbert Humbert (James Mason) is feloniously fixated on “nymphets,” young girls hovering around the fragile age of fourteen. He meets just such an alarming siren, the fondly labeled Lolita, played by Sue Lyons, notoriously too young to see the film when first released. Yet this noxious nymphet has a second suitor, the strangely disguised Quilty, a masquerade of roles by Peter Sellers. Upon returning from Camp Climax for Girls, Lolita seduces the helpless Humbert and the rest is his story and his downfall. Kubrick's adaptation replicates the Russian writer's black humor with unblinking cool. But some of that cool is the consequence of heavy-handed censorship requiring that the more overt ogling be kept zipped. The censorship may have proved to be the film’s savior as both Humbert and the viewer must relish restraint (rather than unfettered fulfillment) in this two-and-a-half-hour teaser. Still that iconic image of Lolita peering from behind her heart-shaped sunglasses is worth the price of submission.

• Written by Vladimir Nabokov, based on his novel. Photographed by Oswald Morris. With James Mason, Shelley Winters, Peter Sellers, Sue Lyon. (152 mins, B&W, DCP, From Warner Bros.)