Stanley Kubrick's eerie film of Vladimir Nabokov's notorious novel about the middle-aged professor Humbert Humbert who falls for the teenaged Lolita has stood the test of time. It should hardly work at all, with its musty theatrical atmosphere, British studio re-created America, overlong running time and a talky, too-reverential screenplay by the author. But Kubrick turns it into a subtle masterwork thanks to the ideal casting of James Mason as Humbert, Shelley Winters - hardly ever better - as Lolita's blowsy mom, Peter Sellers as the sinister Quilty and Sue Lyon as the nymphet herself. Not very erotic or shocking, and about as far from the Jeremy Irons version as it's possible to imagine.

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