James B. Harris will discuss his work as a producer for the films of Stanley Kubrick, including Lolita as well as The Killing and Paths of Glory (see Saturday, August 13).

Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's classic novel captures the author's black humor with ghoulish understatement. James Mason is deliciously cast as Humbert Humbert, the college professor who marries a lonely widow (Shelley Winters) purely out of lust for her adolescent daughter (Sue Lyon). Humbert Humbert's prurient passion is fed by its fetters--and Lolita's pubescent sexuality is aptly intimated (through the painting of toenails, and those famous sunglasses) rather than made explicit (this hilarious film would only suffer from a contemporary remake). Peter Sellers as Humbert's foil, Quilty, plays several characters in one--all delightfully sinister. Nabokov wrote the screenplay for this film that only grows better with time, and that, as an American satire, is as profound as the novel's unforgettable cross-country motel tour-de-farce. (JB)