Sons and Lovers (film)

Sons and Lovers is a 1960 British black and white film adaptation of the D. H. Lawrence 1913 semi-autobiographic novel of the same name. It was adapted by T. E. B. Clarke and Gavin Lambert, directed by Jack Cardiff,[4] and stars Trevor Howard, Dean Stockwell, Wendy Hiller, Mary Ure, William Lucas and Donald Pleasence. Location shooting took place near Nottingham in the north of England, very close to where Lawrence himself grew up.

Sons and Lovers
film poster
Directed byJack Cardiff
Produced byJerry Wald
Written byT. E. B. Clarke
Gavin Lambert
StarringTrevor Howard
Dean Stockwell
Wendy Hiller
Mary Ure
Music byMario Nascimbene
CinematographyFreddie Francis
Edited byGordon Pilkington
Distributed byTwentieth Century Fox
Release date
May 1960
Running time
103 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$805,000[1]
Box office$1,500,000 (US/ Canada rentals)[2]
$800,000 (UK rental)[3]

Freddie Francis won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work using CinemaScope on Sons and Lovers and the film received nominations in six additional categories,[5] and was entered into the 1960 Cannes Film Festival.[6]

Plot

A young man with artistic talent who lives in a close-knit, English coal-mining town during the early 20th century finds himself inhibited by his emotionally manipulative, domineering mother — a literary, psychological interpretation of the Oedipus story.

Gertrude Morel (Wendy Hiller), miserable in her marriage, puts her hope into her son, Paul (Dean Stockwell), who has the talent and ambition to become an artist, a desire that is mocked by his father, Walter (Trevor Howard), a miner who drinks heavily and sometimes shows his bitterness in violent ways. Paul finds his own desires to escape to a different life sidetracked by his mother's possessiveness but also by local girl Miriam Leivers (Heather Sears), with whom he has an intellectual relationship that he desires to become physical. Miriam, though, suffers from her own mother's religious influence, viewing sex as sinful and dirty.

Paul's youngest brother, Arthur (Sean Barrett), dies in a mining accident, while older brother William (William Lucas) flees to London. When William later returns for a visit, he is accompanied by his new wife, a pretty and more affluent young lady who lacks the Mary's literate romanticism or Gertrude's passionate sense. When a sketch of Paul's is exhibited in Nottingham, a wealthy art patron (Ernest Thesiger) criticizes the work but later comes to the Morel house to offer support because he recognized Paul's potential as an artist. Paul's desires are frustrated again, though, when Miriam rejects his physical advances and a violent confrontation between his parents convinces him that he is needed for his mother's financial support.

Paul takes a job in a factory, where he becomes enchanted with self-actualized and "liberated" feminist co-worker, Mrs. Clara Dawes (Mary Ure), who is married, though separated. Nonetheless, he continues seeing Miriam, who finally agrees to have sex with him, which he comes to regret for making her do something that she so disliked. Paul and Clara, though, eventually begin a passionate affair, but it is now Paul who does not feel that he can totally commit himself to her, in large part due to his mother's emotional hold on him. Clara's husband threatens and later beats Paul, who returns home to his mother. She has slipped into a morose depression due to Paul's growing distance from her, and she later becomes seriously ill, something that has been hinted at in her behavior for some time. Clara rejects Paul for his lack of emotional connection to her, but she confirms her own continuing feelings for her husband when he suffers an accident and she returns to him.

Paul and his father come to a kind of reconciliation as Gertrude lies dying. After her death Walter tells his grieving son that he must find his own path in life. Meeting Miriam one last time, he tells her that he is leaving. She suggests that they marry so that she can support him, but Paul rejects her proposal of marriage, telling her that he intends to live the rest of his life without any serious relationship with another woman.

Cast

Production

Sons and Lovers was filmed on location in Nottingham, England and at the Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England. The musical theme by Mario Nascimbene was arranged for both piano and orchestra.

Dean Stockwell, whose performance was the most heavily criticized in reviews, was given the role of Paul at the insistence of producer Jerry Wald, who hoped that an American in the cast would increase the film's box-office appeal in the United States.[7]

Reception

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote: "Sons and Lovers is sensitively felt and photographed in Jerry Wald's British-made film version of (Lawrence's novel). ... Jack Cardiff, cameraman turned director, has filled it with picture poetry. ... The drabness of a north-of-England coal town, the warmth of a poor coal miner's home, the bleakness of the wintry English country near Eastwood, where Lawrence was born — all are caught and concentrated in this film, appropriately black-and-white, which puts forth the generalized Lawrence story in a stunning pictorial style. ... (T)he most dynamic and emotional character in the film is the discarded miner-father, played brilliantly by Trevor Howard. His frequent violent flare-ups of rebellion, his pitiful complaints of chagrin and his always underflowing indications of a sense of being not wanted and alone are perhaps the most clear articulations of the theme of frustration in the tale. Through him is expressed most intensely the realization of the mortality of young love."[8]

The film earned theatrical rentals of $1,500,000 in the US and Canada and $800,000 in the UK.[2][3]

Academy Awards
Award Nominee Result
Best Picture Jerry Wald (producer) Nominated
Best Actor in a Leading Role Trevor Howard Nominated
Best Actress in a Supporting Role Mary Ure Nominated
Best Director Jack Cardiff Nominated
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium T. E. B. Clarke, Gavin Lambert Nominated
Best Cinematography (Black and White) Freddie Francis Won
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White Thomas N. Morahan, Lionel Couch Nominated

[5]

References
  1. Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-8108-4244-1. p252
  2. "Rental Potentials of 1960". Variety. 4 January 1961. p. 47.
  3. "'Sons & Lovers' Does Well". Variety. New York. 2 August 1961. p. 2.
  4. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/1248193.stm Jack Cardiff
  5. "NY Times: Sons and Lovers". NY Times. Retrieved 23 December 2008.
  6. "Festival de Cannes: Sons and Lovers". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 19 February 2009.
  7. "Sons and Lovers (1960: Trivia". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  8. Bosley Crowther, "Tepid Passions: Lawrence's 'Sons and Lovers' Has Premiere" 3 August 1960 https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9503E7DD113EEF3ABC4B53DFBE66838B679EDE
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