Lolita (1962 film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Lolita is an influential 1962 film by Stanley Kubrick based on the classic novel of the same title by Vladimir Nabokov. The film stars James Mason as Humbert Humbert, Sue Lyon as Dolores Haze (Lolita) and Shelley Winters as Charlotte Haze.
Due to the MPAA's restrictions at the time, the film toned down the more perverse aspects of the novel, sometimes leaving much to the audience's imagination. The actress who played Lolita, Sue Lyon, was fourteen at the time of filming. Kubrick later commented that, had he realized how severe the censorship limitations were going to be, he probably never would have made the film.
Music
The music for the film was composed by Nelson Riddle (the main theme was by Bob Harris). The recurring dance number first heard on the radio when Humbert meets Lolita in the garden later became a hit single under the name "Lolita Ya Ya" with Sue Lyon credited with the singing on the single version. The flip side was a 60s-style light rock song called "Turn off the Moon" also sung by Sue Lyon. "Lolita Ya Ya" was later recorded by other bands; it was also a hit single for The Ventures, reaching 61 on Billboard and then being included on many of their compilation albums. In his biography of The Ventures, Del Halterman quotes an unnamed reviewer of the CD re-release of the original Lolita soundtrack as saying "The highlight is the most frivolous track, 'Lolita Ya Ya', a maddeningly vapid and catchy instrumental with nonsense vocals that comes across as a simultaneously vicious and good-humored parody of the kitschiest elements of early-sixties rock and roll."
