Sons and Lovers

1960

1h 43m

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

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Drama

The son of a working-class British mining family has dreams of pursuing an art career, but when he strikes up an affair with an older, married woman from the town it enrages his kind but possessive mother.

Directors

Jack Cardiff

Writers

D. H. Lawrence(novel by)

Gavin Lambert(screenplay by)

T. E. B. Clarke(screenplay by)

Stars

Mary Ure

Trevor Howard

Dean Stockwell

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Watch "Sons and Lovers" and "Spartacus" winning Cinematography Oscars®

Photos6

Top cast

Clara Dawes

Walter Morel

Paul Morel

Gertrude Morel

Miriam Leivers

William Morel

Baxter Dawes

Mr. Hadlock

Mr. Pappleworth

Mrs. Leivers

Arthur Morel

Mrs. Radford

Mrs Anthony

Mrs Bonner

Rose

Betty

Louisa

Fanny

Directors

Jack Cardiff

Writers

D. H. Lawrence(novel by)

Gavin Lambert(screenplay by)

T. E. B. Clarke(screenplay by)

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Review

Featured review

7/10

Dean Stockwell is on good form here, as the artistically talented "Paul" who lives with his miner father "Walter" (Trevor Howard) and mother (Wendy Hiller). When tragedy strikes their local mine, she is even more determined to ensure that this son does not go down the pit - and when "Hadlock" (Ernest Thesiger) offers him an opportunity to come to London and work - it looks like he might escape this dead-end existence. His dad, however, comes home drunk and he and his wife have an altercation that makes "Paul" stay put. Is he staying to protect her, or because he is really too afraid to cut the apron strings? Jack Cardiff really does lay the foundations for this story well; a good solid cast deliver a story with plenty of simultaneously running themes. The tightly-knit family with their individual demons, trapped in an economic bubble of low income, minimal opportunities, and other people's wives. Hiller is superbly understated as the inadvertently domineering, but well meaning matriarch and though Howard features but sparingly, his presence in each scene has purpose. The title is a bit misleading - one assumes it is a romance, or some sort of Jane Austen style of story; but D.H. Lawrence has imbued these characters with a plausibility that engenders sympathy, fury and frustration from the audience. Sixty years on, this is still a potent social commentary that many families and communities may well continue to relate to.

Geronimo196704 Apr, 2022