Lolita (1962) - If You Love Me Scene (4/10) | Movieclips

CLIP DESCRIPTION:
Humbert (James Mason) reads the note Charlotte (Shelley Winters) left for him, professing her love for him.

FILM DESCRIPTION:
"How did they make a movie out of Lolita?" teased the print ads of this Stanley Kubrick production. The answer: by adding three years to the title character's age. The original Vladimir Nabokov novel caused no end of scandal by detailing the romance between a middle-aged intellectual and a 12-year-old nymphet. The affair is "cleansed" ever so slightly in the film by making Lolita a 15-year-old (portrayed by 16-year-old Sue Lyon). In adapting his novel to film, Nabokov downplayed the wicked satire and sensuality of the material, concentrating instead on the story's farcical aspects. James Mason plays professor Humbert Humbert, who while waiting to begin a teaching post in the United States rents a room from blowzy Shelley Winters. Winters immediately falls for the worldly Humbert, but he only has eyes for his landlady's nubile daughter Lolita. The professor goes so far as to marry Winters so that he can remain near to the object of his ardor. Turning up like a bad penny at every opportunity is smarmy TV writer Quilty (Peter Sellers), who seems inordinately interested in Humbert's behavior. When Winters happens to read Humbert's diary, she is so revolted by his lustful thoughts that she runs blindly into the street, where she is struck and killed by a car. Without telling Lolita that her mother is dead, Humbert packs her into the car and goes on a cross-country trip, dogged every inch of the way by a mysterious pursuer. Once she gets over the shock of her mother's death, Lolita is agreeable to inaugurating an affair with her stepfather (this is handled very, very discreetly, despite the slavering critical assessments of 1962). But when the girl begins discovering boys her own age, she drifts away from Humbert. One day, she leaves without warning. This is humiliation enough for Humbert; but when he discovers who her secret lover really is, the results are fatal.

CREDITS:
TM & © Warner Bros. (1962)
Cast: James Mason
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Producers: James B. Harris, Eliot Hyman
Screenwriters: Vladimir Nabokov, Stanley Kubrick

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[thenameaintjim]

wow that laugh seemed so genuine! good actor!

[JustSomeCanadianGuy]

So disturbing.

He’s chuckling like his plans for a bank robbery were foiled and yet someone just gave him the keys to the vault.

[isabeamon]

I love this film! It kept my attention the entire time. The story, the acting, the dark comedy. Lolita is a unique work of art.

[insanetacocat]

I know he laughed because he found a way to casually creep on his step daughter

[jonnyqwst]

Never seen James mason laugh maniacally anywhere else

[charlottemae]

He fabricated a whole love story in his mind ( a fantasy) of the youth of Lolita he romanticised everything she did . He loved her charm-ability, her beauty and most of all the fact she was forbiddingly unattainable to an older man such as himself so getting the ultimate chance to break that line was something he took so much pleasure in, he loved the idea of Lolita but he didn’t love her .

[vegetasolo]

Humbert uses the term "nymphet" to describe Lolita, which he explains and uses in the novel; it appears twice in the movie and its meaning is left undefined. In a voice-over on the morning after the Ramsdale High School dance, Humbert confides in his diary, "What drives me insane is the twofold nature of this nymphet, of every nymphet perhaps, this mixture in my Lolita of tender, dreamy childishness and a kind of eerie vulgarity. I know it is madness to keep this journal, but it gives me a strange thrill to do so. And only a loving wife could decipher my microscopic script."

[KroMagnum]

James Mason one of the top 3 best actors of all time!

[thegreatestman]

Powerful moment. He can be anything James Mason and his performances as a villain are unforgettable

[safado]

I still grin from ear to ear when James Mason is laughing at the letter that Shelley Winters writes to him. His laughter always gets me.

[howdy]

disturbingly hilarious in such a manipulative way

[JuneLynn]

One of my favorite scenes from Adored James Mason....love his laugh In Peace James💜 and Sue Lyon : (

[stefanijoanneangelinagerma]

His laugh and voice are delicious and wonderful.

[mrs.greene]

When she asked if he loved her, he lied to Lolita and would say anything even bribe her to stay with him forever.

[kathylundgren]

James Mason is brilliant! Great movie!

[hebneh]

The pan to the fake magazine ad on the wall showing Clare Quilty foreshadows what's going to happen to Humbert's fantasy love affair with Lolita. At the moment he's guffawing with delight that he can marry Lolita's mother and thus get access to Lolita, but there will end up being a glitch in this plan.

[GizmoMaltese]

Yiykes, imagine pouring your heart out in a letter to your crush and this is their reaction when they read it. This scene clearly defines him as an awful person.

[carlos]

One of the many scenes that are infinitely better here than in the 1997 version. In the 97 version the letter is much shorter and he doesn't read it out loud, instead we just have an audio of a lousy narration from Melanie Griffith. It is awful and just unremarkable, accompanied by the fact that Charlotte in that version is given little to no development.

However here, how he reads it out loud laughing It's pure perfection. That last sentence "pray for me... If you ever pray" incredible writing and acting. This scene is given in this version the importance it deserves. There are many memorable scenes in the kubrick version that In Lyne's are just unremarkable.

Like this one, when Charlotte discovers Humbert's diary, the scene with Dr Zemph, that in the 97 version is simply a short scene with the school principal or whatever.

[Emanistan]

Definitely brings to mind scenes of Jack Nicholson's character in the Shining. The bear in the background is another interesting detail: both films dealt with child abuse themes, and bears were often used in the background of the Shining, often interpreted by cinephiles as symbols having to do with child abuse.

[adamquiles]

Good movie but man oh man it was dark and sad