Sons and Lovers (film)

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.

• Trevor Howard as Walter Morel
• Dean Stockwell as Paul Morel
• Wendy Hiller as Gertrude Morel
• Mary Ure as Clara Dawes
• Heather Sears as Miriam Leivers
• William Lucas as William Morel
• Conrad Phillips as Baxter Dawes
• Ernest Thesiger as Henry Hadlock
• Donald Pleasence as Mr. Pappleworth
• Rosalie Crutchley as Mrs. Leivers
• Sean Barrett as Arthur Morel
• Elizabeth Begley as Mrs. Radford
• Edna Morris as Mrs. Anthony
• Ruth Kettlewell as Mrs. Bonner
• Anne Sheppard as Rose
• Dorothy Gordon as Fanny

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]

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]

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• Sons and Lovers at IMDb
• FilmFour
• Sons and Lovers at Turner Classic Movies