The Butterfly Collector {Stanley Kubrick

Not having seen the film before, I was quite surprised with the opening scene, resembling as it did what Charlie Sheen's apartment might have looked like the morning after. Peter Sellers is maddeningly brilliant as the elitist Quilty, and by the time the picture has run it's course, you might get the idea that he had it coming to him.

With almost a half century of hindsight, the viewer today might wonder what all the fuss was about back in 1962. This one made headlines with it's controversial theme, but even watching it back then, one would have noted that there was more in the way of suggestion than in actual on-screen titillation. In fact, it's not till nearly the end of the film when Lolita (Sue Lyon) confesses to Humbert (James Mason) that she 'cheated' on him because she had to. Which is the picture's way of confirming that they had their own thing going on, even when you weren't quite sure if Humbert was the creep he was made out to be.

Now Shelley Winters - how good was she as Charlotte Haze? She runs the gamut here from a seven year repressed sexuality to a raging hostility upon discovering the diary. When she broke down that first time Humbert spurned her, she showed all the pathos of a woman dreading the remainder of a life left unloved.

You know what was pretty slick? In Lolita's bedroom, she had that commercial ad of Quilty on her wall where he was hawking Drome cigarettes. Later on in the picture, impersonating the school psychologist, Quilty offers Humbert a Drome, then gives him the pack. That was pretty clever I thought.

Besides the story, one might also take away some appreciation for the depiction of the era back in the Sixties. State roads didn't have that huge interstate highway feel to them yet, and you have a rare look at some of the leading commercial brands of the day. There's that Cott Beverage truck at an intersection, and at various points along the way you have gas stations featuring Esso, Standard Oil and Mobilgas, curiously depicting the Texaco flying horse.

What I found intriguing after viewing the picture was taking a look at the theatrical trailer. It promotes the picture with scenes that make the movie seem a comedy rather than dealing with the mature and serious subject matter that it does. It leads me to consider how viewers back in the early Sixties might have felt having seen the picture based on it's ad. Of course today, this picture is rather mild compared to the original hype, and would hardly raise a brow.