MAGNET contributing writer Jud Cost is sharing some of the wealth of classic films he’s been lucky enough to see over the past 40 years. Trolling the backwaters of cinema, he has worked up a list of more than 100 titles—from the ’20s through the ’80s—that you may have missed. A new selection, all currently available on DVD, appears every week.
Lolita (1962, 153 minutes)
A distraught Humbert Humbert opens the door to playwright Clare Quilty’s sprawling mansion, littered with dozens of empty liquor bottles, overloaded ashtrays and half-full wine glasses from last night’s bacchanal. “Quilty!” shouts Humbert as someone seated in an overstuffed chair covered by a sheet starts to move. “Are you Quilty?” asks Humbert (James Mason) of the man stumbling toward him with the sheet draped over his shoulder like a toga. “No, I’m Spartacus. Have you come to free the slaves?” says Quilty in a New Jersey gangster’s accent.
“Listen, let’s have a civilized game of Roman ping-pong like two Roman senators,” suggests Quilty (Peter Sellers) as he grabs a paddle from the nearby ping-pong table. “Roman ping,” he says as the ball he’s served ricochets off a martini glass and bounces into Humbert’s overcoat. “You’re supposed to say, ‘Roman pong.'”
“You’re a sorta bad loser, captain,” says Quilty as Humbert pulls a snub-nosed revolver from his pocket and points it directly at him. “Do you recall a girl called Dolores Haze … Lolita?” demands Humbert. Now aware of his predicament, Quilty tries to bluff, “Listen, mac, this pistol-packing farce is becoming a nuisance!” He starts to run, and Humbert empties the pistol at him, hitting him in the thigh just before he reaches the top of the stairs—then calmly reloads and finishes him off.
Four years earlier, Professor Humbert is looking for summer lodging in Ramsdale, N.H., before taking a college lecture-ship in Ohio. “I can assure you, you couldn’t get more peace anywhere,” says Charlotte Haze (Shelley Winters) showing the middle-aged English gentleman her room for rent. “And we still have that quaint, old-fashioned plumbing,” she bubbles, pulling the flush-cord from an overhead water tank. “You must see the collection of reproductions I have in my bedroom.”
“I’ve told Lolita to keep that in her room,” snaps Haze as Humbert bumps into an oversized Mexican painting in the hallway. “You have a live-in maid?” he inquires politely. “Monsieur, Ramsdale is not Paris. We have a colored girl three times a week.” About to make a hasty exit, Humbert says, “Perhaps if you give me your telephone number, it would give me a chance to think it over.”
“Oh, you must see the garden before you go,” says Haze. And there, on the back lawn, is Lolita (Sue Lyon), a lovely Ramsdale High teenager in a skimpy floral bikini and sunglasses, listening to a transistor radio. “Voila! My yellow roses … my daughter,” says Haze. “I can offer you a congenial atmosphere and my cherry pies.” Changing his mind immediately, Humbert asks, “When would it be convenient for me to move in?” She answers excitedly, “Well, right now. What was the decisive factor, my garden?” As Lolita removes her shades and stares at him, Humbert answers, “Your cherry pie.”
