Synopsis and Score Description for Lolita
At the opening of the film, we see a young girl’s feet and hear a lushly orchestrated version of Bob Harris’s love theme. While hands reach out to paint the toenails the theme is played by “piano and strings in a warmly romantic vein with more than a hint of the Rachmaninov used throughout Brief Encounter.”55 The choice of the visual for the opening is suggestive of the intimacy between Humbert and Lolita without being obvious. It also implies transformation and artifice and Humbert’s active role in Lolita’s transformation from child to “nymphet.”56 The music begins low in the orchestra and gradually moves up through an arpeggio—that travels seamlessly through the orchestra—until it blossoms into the theme, played on piano with string accompaniment. Lolita’s foot rests gently on Humbert’s hand—which wears a wedding ring. As we reach the end of the credit sequence, the music swells on Nabokov’s card and on James Harris’s as well. Kubrick’s card arrives just as the music resolves on its final cadence, and Humbert begins to paint the last toenail.
The credits and song end, and Humbert drives down a foggy road to Clare Quilty’s house. Upon entering, Quilty’s theme begins, a dissonant yet carousel-like tune on the organ and dulcimer (with tense strings in the background), to which Humbert adds a harp glissando (he sees a harp in the room and runs his fingers along it). The mansion is odd and disorienting to Humbert, who stumbles around in the mess, knocking over discarded bottles and glasses. The music, which is without a central home pitch, seems to represent both the disarray of the house and Humbert’s confusion. At Humbert’s call, Quilty appears from under a sheet. When asked if he is Quilty, he responds, “No, I’m Spartacus.” This is obviously an ad lib from the brilliant Peter Sellers, who plays Quilty. Perhaps because of Peter Sellers, or because Kubrick wanted to make Quilty’s involvement in the narrative more obvious in the film, Quilty’s role is much expanded from his part in the novel. James Mason’s Humbert Humbert is grief stricken, and confused enough to play a brief game of Ping-Pong with Quilty before pulling a gun. The underscore fades out and disappears for the rest of this scene, except for Quilty’s brief stint at the piano, in which he plays the opening of Chopin’s Polonaise op. 40, no. 1 (“Military”). He claims to have recently written the piece and suggests that Humbert help him come up with lyrics for it so that they might share in the profits if the song makes it to the hit parade. After suggesting some insipid lyrics about the moon being blue, Quilty throws a bottle at Humbert and attempts to run up the stairs.
Humbert shoots Quilty, at first in the leg but then fatally, after Quilty hides behind a painting. This has the practical purpose of saving the audience from seeing Quilty’s death (and certainly must have pleased the ratings board), but also allows Humbert to attack the artifice, to shoot the artificial image of Quilty who fooled and eluded him in the previous years.
The title card “Four Years Earlier” and the subsequent shot of a plane flying over New York are accompanied by jaunty traveling music. Once Humbert arrives in Ramsdale, New Hampshire, at the home of Charlotte Haze, the music disappears. The next cue features a pop song that was written by Riddle and Harris called “Lolita Ya-Ya.” This song, in various versions, forms the main theme for the first part of the narrative. Charlotte Haze has been trying to charm her potential lodger while showing him around the house. She seems to be oblivious to his discomfort and distaste for her, but he politely asks for her phone number (so that he might “think it over”) and reluctantly agrees to see the garden. It is there that Humbert and the audience first see Lolita. She is iconic in her bikini, large sun hat, and sunglasses. She sits on a blanket, reading a book, and when Humbert sees her, he seems entranced by her young beauty. “Lolita Ya-Ya” is sourced from the transistor radio that sits on the blanket beside her. Charlotte asks her to turn down the music, which she does, allowing Humbert and Charlotte to talk about the rent. Pulling off her sunglasses (not the heart-shaped glasses from the movie poster, but ones in a more cat-eye shape), Lolita wordlessly regards Humbert and Charlotte for the rest of the scene. This is the song that plays as Humbert begins his subtle seduction of Lolita.
“Lolita Ya-Ya” was recorded as a single, featuring Sue Lyon, the actress who played Lolita, on vocals. The catchy bubble gum pop song was likely meant as ironic counterpoint to Humbert’s high-class taste in art and literature.57 In Riddle’s biography, Levinson explains that the song “perfectly captured the humor of Humbert’s lust for the teenybopper” but also provided satirical commentary on the insipid simplicity of contemporary popular music.58 Despite the irony, “Lolita Ya-Ya” enjoyed some success as a single. Cash Box (a competitor to Billboard magazine) gave “Lolita Ya-Ya” a B+ calling it a “cute item from the upcoming ‘Lolita’ flick. . . . [It] is presented with an enjoyable sprightly rock-a-cha touch by the full ork and chanting chorus. Catchy cut.” Lyon also sang the B side of that 45 rpm record, “Turn Off the Moon,” which was composed by Harris with lyrics by Al Stillman (Stillman wrote lyrics for many hit songs, including “Chances Are,” made famous by Johnny Mathis). Cash Box gave it a B.59 The absurdity of the song might strike the older viewer—its only lyrics are “ya ya wo wo ya ya”—but this quality magnifies the improbability of Humbert’s having happened upon a house in Ramsdale in which a nymphet lives.60 Although it is not discussed or addressed in the film, the Humbert of the novel offers an explanation from his past as an excuse for his love of nymphets. He is not attracted to nymphets because of Lolita; she is merely the quintessential example of the elusive nymphet he first saw in his young love, Annabel Leigh.61 Nabokov took pains to include information about Annabel in the screenplay, using a few precious pages to describe the relationship between young Humbert and Annabel.62
A brief scene follows in which we see a sequence from the horror film The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) in which the monster tears off the bandages on his face, revealing the deformed visage underneath. (Perhaps Humbert is a monster in a mask?) Charlotte and Lolita flank Humbert in the front seat of the car at the drive-in. Each woman grabs one of Humbert’s hands during a scary moment, Humbert’s hand wriggling out of Charlotte’s grip to comfort Lolita. The moment turns even more awkward as Charlotte reaches out for Humbert and accidentally grabs Lolita’s hand instead. The film cue has its own music, which comes to a neat end at the close of the scene. The music for the clip was likely written by Riddle, although it matches very closely with James Bernard’s score from the original film. Riddle’s cue has louder stings and is in general more dynamic, a quality that helps suggest what is happening on the movie screen, since we are watching Charlotte, Lolita, and Humbert for most of the scene. “Lolita Ya-Ya” next appears a minute later as Charlotte and Humbert play chess. Lolita kisses Humbert goodnight, and Charlotte seems to like playing house with him. The song continues through the next scene as Lolita is hula-hooping, Humbert surreptitiously peering over his book at her.
When the ersatz family of Charlotte, Humbert, and Lolita attends the summer dance, the music is sourced on-screen with a live band. Lolita dances with a boy named Kenny to Nelson Riddle’s song “There’s No You.” Charlotte tells Humbert that Lolita and Kenny might begin going steady that evening, to Humbert’s dismay. Charlotte’s friends Jean and John Farlow arrive and say hello. The band’s next song is a more up-tempo number called on the soundtrack “Quilty’s Caper.” Charlotte spots Quilty dancing with a sour-faced dark haired woman and cuts in. Despite having had a brief fling with Charlotte, Quilty must be reminded who she is, but then remembers that she has a daughter with a “lovely, lyrical, lilting name.” In his screenplay, Nabokov describes Quilty as “a tremendously successful phony.”63 Quilty, Charlotte reminds us, is an artist. He is able to see pretense, because pretense and artifice are the currency of the artist.64
After her awkward exchange with Quilty, Charlotte, who has conspired with the Farlows to get Lolita out of the house for the evening, attempts to get Humbert alone. Riddle’s song “Put Your Dreams Away” plays i
n the background as Charlotte convinces Humbert to return home without Lolita, who has been invited to the Farlows’. At the Haze house, Charlotte turns on some music, a cue on the soundtrack called “Shelly Winters Cha Cha,” so that she might dance with Humbert. (Nabokov had specifically mentioned a cha-cha in his screenplay; it is one of the few details that Kubrick retained.) Her attempts to seduce him are made in earnest but seem ridiculous, especially in the presence of the music. The final “cha cha cha” of the song happens just as Lolita arrives back unexpectedly. This spoils Charlotte’s plan, and she and Lolita argue. When Lolita finally goes to bed, Humbert quickly decides to go to bed as well, to Charlotte’s bitter disappointment.
For a scene in which Humbert and Charlotte eat dinner, and in which she explains that Lolita will be attending camp for the rest of the summer, Riddle has provided subtle and quiet “Music to Eat By.” The following morning, Lolita, who is about to leave for camp, runs into Humbert’s arms to the surging music of the love theme. This is its first appearance since the opening credits. It continues after her departure (she tells him, “Don’t forget me,” just as she runs off) as Humbert goes into Lolita’s room and sits on her bed. The maid delivers a note from Charlotte, which Humbert reads aloud. It is her confession of love for him. He laughs at it, and the music is again the ironic counterpoint; the love theme does not play for Humbert and Charlotte. It is meant for Humbert and Lolita. He will do anything to be with Lolita, even marry her mother. In the next scene, some time has passed and Charlotte and Humbert have already returned from their honeymoon. On this particular morning, they argue, and Charlotte reads Humbert’s diary, in which he has detailed his feelings about Lolita. He tries to calm Charlotte down with a drink, with Riddle’s subtle ominous underscore underneath. The cue is called, appropriately, “The Last Martini,” because the phone rings, informing Humbert that Charlotte, who has run out of the house, has been hit by a car and killed.
As Humbert lounges in the bathtub with a drink some time later, “Lolita Ya-Ya” re-appears. It plays through the scene as the Farlows come to offer their condolences. They are very upset, and become even more so when they see a loaded gun (which had belonged to Charlotte) in the bathroom. Thinking he is contemplating suicide, they tell him he must go on for Lolita’s sake. The music, going through various, ever-higher modulations, glosses over the funeral and brings us right to the moment in which Humbert picks up Lolita from Camp Climax. It fades out for a moment, to allow the dialogue between Humbert and Charlie (with whom Lolita confesses to have been “revoltingly unfaithful”), but begins again soon, and continues playing as they drive in the car as if the song were on the radio. The atmosphere remains light because Humbert tells Lolita only that Charlotte isn’t well, not that she has died.
When the scene changes, Quilty’s theme appears briefly, as does Quilty himself. Bernd Schultheis suggests that his theme “creates an atmosphere known from crime stories.”65 Quilty speaks to the manager of the Enchanted Hunters Hotel, Mr. Swine, but walks off when Lolita and Humbert enter to the strains of “Lolita Ya-Ya.” Quilty recognizes Lolita and listens to the conversation between Humbert and Mr. Swine. The song continues as they go to their room with its single bed. Humbert explains that they may have to share lodgings while they travel and then leaves her alone in the room and goes downstairs for a drink. Music, a jaunty little upbeat number, which sounds like it’s coming from a room off the lobby, continues under a scene in which Humbert has a conversation with Quilty. Quilty, who keeps his face averted, tells Humbert he’s a policeman and elicits details about Humbert and Lolita’s travels.
The scenes in the hotel room following the meeting with Quilty unfold with no underscore. There is a comical interlude in which Humbert and a bellhop try to put up a cot in the room without waking Lolita. In the morning, Lolita asks Humbert if he’d like to play a game. Not being sure what she means, he plays dumb until she explains (she whispers in his ear). In the car later that day, presumably after the physical relationship between Lolita and Humbert has begun, he tells her that Charlotte has died. The news is not accompanied by any music. But when Humbert comforts her and tells her they will go to Beardsley College and live there, a quiet version of the love theme plays, the melody in the high woodwinds.
A brief musical cue provides the transition from the road to Beardsley in Ohio. Humbert tells us in voiceover that “six months have passed” and that Lolita is now attending a good school. In Lolita’s bedroom, Humbert is at the foot of the bed, painting her toenails (an echo of the opening of the film, although there is no music this time). They argue about her friends and her after-school activities. The next cue appears in the next scene; it is the brief opening of Quilty’s theme as Humbert arrives home to find Dr. Zempf (Quilty in disguise) waiting there for him. During the course of the scene, in which Dr. Zempf convinces Humbert to let Lolita participate in the school play, there is no underscore.
The next scene takes place at Lolita’s school, at the performance of Quilty’s play “The Hunted Enchanters” (a reversal of the name of the hotel, the Enchanted Hunters Hotel, where Quilty by chance met up with Humbert). Again, there is another bit of Quilty’s theme, as we see him, undisguised, exchanging a glance with Lolita before her last entrance on-stage. The end of the play and the ensuing argument between Lolita and Humbert has no underscore.
A lively cue transitions from Beardsley to the road, as Lolita and Humbert take off on a trip. The cue becomes more sinister and minor as Humbert’s voiceover reveals that they are being followed. The music becomes tense as Humbert sees Lolita talking to a person in a strange car. The music is in a minor key, with pizzicato strings and tremolos. Gerrit Bodde describes the cue as “bumpy,” suddenly changing pace from the lively music of the road trip.66
Lolita becomes ill and Humbert takes her to a hospital. Humbert, who soon falls ill himself, receives a mysterious phone call (from Quilty), which prompts Quilty to pick her up from the hospital in the night. Upon finding out that she has left earlier in the evening with an uncle, Humbert becomes belligerent. The love theme appears low in the orchestra, creeping up, as Humbert realizes that he has lost Lolita. As he leaves the hospital, dejected, the music gains prominence, the piano solo taking over. The cue ends on an unresolved cadence, as if to reflect that things are up in the air.
A few years have passed, and Lolita—now married and pregnant—types up a letter to Humbert, asking for money. The next scene begins with a determined cue for muted brass, percussion, and string tremolos, which accompanies exteriors of the car driving to Lolita’s house. When he parks, Humbert takes a gun out of the glove compartment. It is a tense, repetitive cue, echoing Humbert’s sense of purpose. Humbert presses Lolita for answers about how and why she disappeared, and a slow, dreamy version of the love theme accompanies her explanation about her affair with Quilty. The music ends as Lolita’s husband, Dick, comes in from the backyard. But the love theme begins again when Humbert asks Lolita to come with him. She refuses, and as he runs from the house, the theme surges louder on the soundtrack, and suddenly we see the misty foggy road from the opening of the film. The cue, which becomes thornier and more dissonant as Humbert walks through the mess of Quilty’s house, ends as Humbert calls out for Quilty. The dissonant version of the cue continues over the epilogue, which states that Humbert died in prison awaiting trial. The theme ends in a minor key, reflecting the tragic ending. The epilogue says nothing about what happens to Lolita. In the film, we must imagine that she and Dick have paid off their debts (with the money Humbert provided) and moved to Alaska. In the novel, however, we are told in the foreword by the fictional John Ray, Jr., Ph.D., that Humbert dies awaiting trial and that Lolita died giving birth to a stillborn child just a few months after Humbert’s visit.
The soundtrack to Lolita performs a number of dramatic tasks. The two recurring musical ideas—“Lolita Ya-Ya” and the love theme—illustrate the natures of the two protagonists. “Lolita Ya-Ya” is the musical representation of Lolita
the character—at least as she is at the beginning of the film. It is simple, repetitive, and there’s not much to it. However, it can also be viewed as a symbol of her youth, her girlhood. Tellingly, it pauses just as Charlie enters at Camp Climax; he is the young man to whom Lolita has lost her virginity. If “Lolita Ya-Ya” is a symbol of her purity, it retreats when Charlie appears. Once the physical relationship is consummated between Humbert and Lolita, the song is not heard again, because Lolita’s girlhood is gone. By contrast, Bob Harris’s love theme is Humbert’s idealization of Lolita. It is the sound of a grand love story written in the stars. It is Humbert’s fantasy, and as he sees this fantasy crumble and his last hope gone, the love theme collapses into dissonance.
Kubrick understood the power of music to elicit emotion from the audience, and he also knew that music could help his actors. Just as he played music for Woody Strode and Kirk Douglas on the set of Spartacus (and would later play Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring for the young actor in The Shining), Kubrick also played music on set for Sue Lyon in Lolita. A blurb in the Journal-American explains that the director played Sinatra albums during rehearsals to help Lyon get into the proper emotional mood for certain scenes.67
The soundtrack to Lolita offered Kubrick his first opportunity to financially capitalize on the music from a film. Bob Harris’s “Love Theme for Lolita” entered the charts in a couple of versions, and it was such a hit that the New York Post reported that legendary classical pianist Van Cliburn was going to record a piano version of it: his first “popular” recording.68 At some press screenings (and even some public premieres) paper disks of songs from the soundtrack were given to attendees. An ad for the film in a Philadelphia paper touted, “To the first 500 patrons, souvenir recordings of the smash hit ‘Lolita Ya-Ya.’” Kubrick’s view of music in his films was changing, and Lolita was an important step on this musical journey.
Listening to Stanley Kubrick Page 8