A young girl recognizes the influence she has over men and uses it. A professor of French literature (James Mason) rents a room from a woman in New Hampshire for the summer and finds himself drawn to her 14-year-old daughter (Sue Lyon). This attraction threatens trouble if he can’t control it. Stanley Kubrick directed this black-and-white comedy-drama, adapted from Vladimir Nabokov's novel "Lolita" (1962), which caused a stir when it was released and remains so; the physical nature of the relationship between an adult and a minor is only suggested. Sue Lyon was 15 during filming and delivers a surprisingly strong performance for someone so young. The film doesn’t dwell on her appearance, aside from one early scene where she appears in a swimsuit. The character of Quilty has less significance than he does in the book and seems realistic. He's essentially a dark reflection of Humbert, embodying similar desires. However, Kubrick gave Peter Sellers too much freedom with the part, which detracts from both the character and the film. While Sellers is undeniably charismatic even here, many of his scenes as Quilty are illogical or unbelievable. Two particularly bad instances include when he arrives at a hotel and has an improvised, silly conversation on the porch while facing away from Humbert. Later, he appears at Humbert’s house posing as a school psychiatrist, threatening to bring in a group of therapists to observe Lolita's home life unless she stars in his play. Of course, Humbert goes along with both without any hesitation. Despite feeling about half an hour too long and showing its age, the cast is strong, and the drama is often engaging and occasionally funny. The film has a running time of 2 hours and 32 minutes and was filmed in both America and England. GRADE: B-

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