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Lost in Translation: How Hollywood Failed "Lolita"

Art & Literature

October 19, 2024

Since its release in 1955, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov has been the subject of controversy due to the media’s consistent mischaracterization of its sensitive content.

Lolita opens with Humbert, a European professor, who recounts the story of meeting 12-year-old Dolores and the events that follow up to his arrest for the murder of playwright Claire Quilty.

Humbert, then 37, marries Charlotte Haze to get closer to her daughter, Dolores. Upon finding his secret journal, Charlotte is so distraught that she runs into the road and is hit and killed by a car. Humbert then takes Dolores across the country and abuses her for two years until she runs away with Mr.

Quilty when she’s 14. When Humbert sees Dolores again, she’s 17, married to another man, pregnant, and living in poverty. They have a brief meeting and Humbert later finds out that she died after giving birth to a stillborn daughter. Humbert kills Claire Quilty and is put on trial. The book, told with unreliable narration is meant to be Humbert’s attempt at proving his innocence to the jury.

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Lolita: The Beginning

In 1948, Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov and his wife Véra traveled around the United States when he got the idea for Lolita. It took five years for him to finish the manuscript and an additional two years to convince publishing companies to publish it.

In September 1955, Olympia Press released the novel, and Nabokov insisted that the cover shouldn’t feature a girl, since it was a story about abuse. Initially, the book received little attention. However, as it gained readership it gained controversy, and in 1956 it was banned in both the UK and France, though France reversed this decision in 1958.

When Lolita reached American audiences in 1958, it sold 100,000 copies in 3 weeks; the first book to do so since Gone with the Wind. While some called for it to be banned, others, such as American critic and writer Lionel Trilling, described it as “...the greatest love story of our time.”

Critics described Humbert as a sympathetic man who’d been seduced by a “teenage temptress.” One review asserts that the novel represents the worst people in American society, referring to teenage girls.

Despite Nabokov’s wishes, young girls soon appeared on the cover. The first was a drawing of a girl clad in a bikini who looks up at a man, and these covers grew progressively worse.

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“How did they ever make a movie of Lolita?”

This was the actual catchphrase for the 1962 movie adaptation, repeated in the film’s trailer and all promotional material.

Stanley Kubrick, often regarded as one of the best directors of all time, was fascinated by Lolita and compared it to Romeo and Juliet. However, turning the book into a film was nearly impossible due to strict censorship codes and studios deeming the “relationship” too debaucherous to depict. The project was nearly derailed, and Nabokov’s initial screenplay was rewritten by Kubrick and producer James Harris.

Much of the book’s plot is removed to adhere to censorship codes, and Clara Quilty’s role is expanded. The movie completely omits Humbert’s obsession with “nymphets;” girls that are between the ages of 9 and 14 who are mischievous and charming, only being recognizable to artists and madmen.

When it came to casting Dolores, Kubrick and Harris were looking for a girl who appeared older than her age. Out of 800 young actresses who auditioned, 14-year-old Sue Lyon, a model with two TV acting credits, was cast. Kubrick and Harris predicted that she was Hollywood’s next biggest star, while Nabokov called her the “perfect nymphet.”

The Exploitation of Sue Lyon

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Image Credit: Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer via Wikimedia

James Harris explained that to make the audience sympathetic to Humbert, Sue had to be turned into an object, “...where everyone in the audience could understand why everyone would want to jump on her.” To make her appear older Sue was dressed in mature clothes with high heels and was heavily made up with fake lashes and dyed hair.

Photographer Bert Stern captured one of the most infamous photos of “Lolita” for movie promotion. Sue, dressed in a bikini and heart-shaped sunglasses, looks up while she sucks on a heart-shaped lollipop. This image was used on all movie posters and replicated on book covers, defining the media’s perception of Lolita.

Sue later recalled her time on set as being positive, saying that everyone on set had been kind to her and took care of her. She said the experience was so nice that it gave her a false impression of what Hollywood was like.

Before the movie’s release, Sue hadn’t been able to give interviews to create intrigue. Harris and Kubrick also explained that if she’d given interviews it would’ve made the public realize she was so different from her character, and instead they wanted her to be associated with Dolores.

Kubrick’s Lolita was nominated for five Golden Globes with Sue Lyon winning the “Most Promising Newcomer” category.

The media described Sue as scandalous and associated her with the character who was being described as a “deceitful child-woman.” In one interview after the death of her brother, Sue was asked if he’d committed suicide because she’d played Lolita. Other critics like Daniel De Vries objectified the girl, stating that the 14-year-old appeared “...to be a well-developed 17, and Humber’s desire for her comes off as ordinary.” Sue was no longer being treated like an ordinary teenage girl, instead, she was being objectified with inappropriate comments about her body and constant speculation about her relationships.

Sue was typecasted and spent the rest of her career in low-budget movies before retiring in 1980. Her private life was chaotic with five marriages, the first of which was when she was 17 and married 25-year-old Hampton Fancher. One marriage was to a man convicted of murder and took place in a prison.

Later in life, Sue gave birth to a daughter whom she had an estranged relationship with and eventually abandoned. She suffered from depression and bipolar disorder, often laying in bed for months on end and giving up on her goals.

In 2020, childhood friend Michelle Philips publicly accused James Harris of having abused Sue when she was 14 and he was 32. This story is corroborated by Sue’s first husband who recalled hearing similar stories from his wife, and also connects to rumors from the 1960s that Harris wanted to marry Sue. Harris never responded to the allegations.

“My destruction as a person dates from that movie. Lolita exposed me to temptations no girl of that age should undergo. I defy any pretty girl who is rocketed to stardom at 14 in a [...] nymphet role to stay on a level path thereafter.” - Sue Lyon.

1997 Adaptation

In 1995, journalist Stephen Schiff was asked to write his first screenplay, an adaptation of Lolita. Schiff said his intention wasn’t to remake the 1962 version and heavily criticized Kubrick’s take on the story while dismissing Sue as looking too old as Dolores.

His writing process took only four months, and the film was described by the director Adrian Lyne as a strange and awful love story, but ultimately a love story nonetheless.

After disappearing from the public eye, Sue Lyon made a rare statement in 1996, opposing the movie and stating that she was appalled that someone should remake the film that caused her harm.

From the 2,500 girls who auditioned to play Dolores, 15-year-old Dominique Swain was cast. With the updated film codes, the 1997 adaptation was able to stay truer to its source. While there were steps taken to protect Dominique from harm, she still had to kiss her 49-year-old costar Jeremy Irons for the movie.

Unlike Kubrick’s adaptation, the movie was met with controversy but mainly ignored. With a budget of $62 million, it only made $1.1 million at the box office.

Similar to Sue Lyon, Dominique Swain’s career never took off, something she attributed to typecasting. Today, she’s been in over one hundred independent films. However, she’s still remembered as Dolores Haze. Her Instagram comments are filled with men who refer to her as “Lolita” and compare her to her teenage self.

The 1997 adaptation is often romanticized more than the 1962 adaptation due to its distinct visual style, and on some corners of social media young girls post screenshots from the movie and imitate the outfits and hairstyles adorned by Swain in the film. Since these girls are young it’s not entirely their fault that they don’t understand the damage romanticizing Lolita causes, but it displays how the media mischaracterized the story so badly that some girls view it as an aesthetic and endanger themselves online.

Final Thoughts

Years later, Nabokov stated that Catherine Demongeot was his ideal choice to play Dolores. With her bobbed hair and tomboyish looks, she is the opposite of the image of Sue Lyon and Dominique Swain. Nabokov and the media’s idea of Dolores are staunchly different, he viewed her as a child, not a “temptress” or “femme fatale.”

The inherent misogyny of the media was used to mischaracterize a story about the abuse of a 12-year-old girl into a “modern” love story. As a result, Dolores is objectified, at times villainized, but always blamed for her abuse.

Sue Lyon was only 14 when she was objectified by the media and preyed upon by adults. Dominique Swain was only 14 when she had to kiss her 49-year-old costar in what the director deemed a “love story.” The media’s view of the story, along with these movie adaptations turned an anti-exploitation novel into a vehicle to exploit real girls. The abuse described within the book mirrors the story of Sue Lyon, and the effects of the movie ended the careers of her and Dominique Swain.

“Lolita isn’t a perverse young girl. She’s a poor child who’s been debauched…. It is equally interesting to dwell [...] on the problem of the inept degradation that the character [...] had undergone in the mind of the broad public.” - Vladimir Nabokov

Catherine Demongeot: Nabokov's Version of Dolores Haze

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Image Credit: Kinema Jumpo via Wikimedia

Objectified Sue Lyon: The Media's Version of Dolores Haze

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Image Credit: Movie Pictorial (Eiga Joho) from Wikimedia

Amy Guerin
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Writer since Jul, 2024 · 13 published articles

Amy is a high school junior who writes for her school newspaper and plays varsity water polo. In her free time she enjoys spending time with her friends, reading, and sewing. Her interests include history, fashion, and vintage pop culture.

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