Stuff

It’s another war film, a Cold War comedy about a possibly mad and definitely sex obsessed USA Brigadier General who manages to launch an attack on the USSR.

There’s a typical narration, a Kubrick favourite bathroom scene or two and some fine performances by George C Scott and Slim Pickens.

Peter Sellers is here again, doing the silly voices and strange characters, but they are in keeping with the mood of the film. The original ending, the pie fight, was cut before the film was released.

It’s a film that bears repeat watching. Parts are laugh out loud funny, at least the first time you see them.

A recent stage presentation highlighted just how good Sellers was here. It may seem a bit dated, but, the state of the world being as it is right now, perhaps not.

A classic.

Kubrick was intrigued by war and made many films on the subject.

Paths Of Glory is sometimes described as “anti-war”, but it’s hard to say that any Kubrick war films are explicitly anti.

Paths Of Glory highlights a true (ish) story from World War I. Having reached a stalemate on the front line, the generals order an attack that is doomed to failure. In the aftermath, when no progress has been made and lives have been lost, three soldiers are chosen to be executed as an incentive for the rest to, er, try harder in the future.

There’s more to the story, of course, but we just don’t want any spoilers.

Kirk Douglas plays Dax, who volunteers to defend the three men, even though he knows it is a lost cause.

Douglas is Douglas. There are some other familiar faces in the cast, and some memorable scenes. We always think that Kubrick would have loved a Steadicam as he took his camera through the trenches.

Have you ever read Nabokov’s book? Don’t be put off by the subject matter. It’s a great book.

How did they ever make a movie of Lolita? the posters ask. Well, easily actually.

Remove even the vaguest suggestions of any kind of sexual encounter. Tone it all down and make it a farce.

Sue Lyons, as Lolita, looks much older than the book suggests. She’s apparently a late teen. A relationship between a middle aged Humbert and her would be possible, if unlikely, even in those times.

She’s a late 1950s early 1960s American gum chewing spoilt brat from a single parent home, and it’s hard to imagine any chemistry between her and Humbert. Of course there isn’t, it’s just his infatuation.

James Mason is great, of course. He’s educated, polite, quiet and considered, a far cry from the Haze people.

The beginning of the film, set in Ramsdale, is a great study of American small town life. This is Trump country. But, when the road trip begins, it gets boring rapidly and outstays its welcome.

But what really spoils the picture is Peter Sellers who plays the role of Quilty as a Goon Show character, with silly voices and stupid disguises to match.

The film has its moments, but read the book.

The newer version, with Dominique Swain and Jeremy Irons, is more faithful to the book, but it’s still a bore.