Sons and Lovers is a 1960 film directed by Jack Cardiff.
It is an adaptation of the novel Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence. The setting is an English coal-mining village sometime in the early 20th century (the novel was published in 1913), and it centers on a coal-mining family, the Morels. Walter and Gertrude Morel (Trevor Howard and Wendy Hiller) were once happy together, but she's grown weary of being married to a poor, alcoholic coal miner, and Walter is just generally a drunken lout although he can have his moments of tenderness.
Gertrude has basically given up on her husband, and given up on having anything in life for himself, but has instead focused all her hopes on her second son Paul (Dean Stockwell). Paul is a talented artist and an intellectual sort who sometimes veers into pretentiousness, like when he sees a pig and says the pig must be "the dark lady from the sonnets." He is in love with Miriam, a village girl, but Mom disapproves. In fact, Gertrude has a pretty unhealthy attitude about her son dating and doesn't want him to see any young ladies at all.
One of Paul's paintings is sold at an art gallery, which is why he meets a rich art snob who offers to send him off to art school in London. However, tragedy intervenes and Paul elects to stay closer to home, getting a job with a clothing business in Nottingham. Paul's romance with Miriam goes sour, which is why he focuses his attention on Clara, a feisty worker at the clothing business—who happens to be married.
A young Donald Pleasence appears briefly as Pappleworth, Paul's boss.
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: Walter, who routinely comes home drunk every night, blowing what little money the family has.
- Apron Matron: Gertrude, who has a slightly creepy possessiveness about Paul, wanting him all to herself and constantly carping with disapproval whenever Paul goes out with Miriam.
- Arcadia: Subverted. The first shot shows a perfect English Arcadia: rolling hills, a picket fence, and sheep grazing. Then the camera pans left and shows the mine.
- Betty and Veronica: Paul has two love interests, Miriam the sweet, affectionate Christian girl, and Clara the fiery suffragette who also is apparently a wildcat in the sack.
- The Cancan Song: Paul and Clara go to a vaudeville show where a line of chorus girls is high-kicking to "The Can-Can Song." One of the chorus girls is surprisingly hefty, and she falls and rips her dress.
- Cut Himself Shaving: Paul claims he fell off his bicycle after coming home with a messed-up face. Actually, he got in a fight with Baxter, Clara's husband.
- Death by Adaptation: In the book Arthur is sent off to the army and disappears from the narrative. In this film, he's killed in an accident at the mine.
- Disturbed Doves: The grinding squeal of the mine's wheel as it starts up causes a flock of pigeons to take flight.
- Downer Beginning: Paul's little brother Arthur is killed in a mine accident barely ten minutes into the movie. Gertrude blames Walter for letting Arthur go down in the mines in the first place.
- Establishing Character Moment: They come in a flurry in the opening scene. Paul is an artsy type who has made an intricate sketch of his mother. Gertrude loves the sketch but scolds and guilt-trips him when he goes out to see Miriam. Then after Paul leaves, Walter comes in drunk, and accidentally, or maybe not so accidentally, ruins the sketch.
- It Always Rains at Funerals: It's raining for Arthur's melancholy funeral procession after he's killed in the mine.
- Momma's Boy: Paul, who is so broken-hearted after his mother's death that he decides he can't ever be with any woman.
- Mommy Issues: Paul and Mrs. Morel have some serious issues with letting each other live their own lives. Mrs. Morel sees fit to judge his relationships, and Paul lives by her conclusions even if he disagrees.
- My Beloved Smother: Gertrude, and how she can't stop interfering with her sons, especially Paul. Walter is usually an obnoxious drunk but he hits the nail on the head when he says Paul is gallivanting around with a married woman because he was never free to court girls in the normal way while he was under Gertrude's thumb.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Arthur is killed in a mining accident. Gertrude blames Walter.
- Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality: Miriam. Her mother is a crazed religious zealot who thinks that Sex Is Evil and intercourse should only be allowed for the specific purpose of making babies. Her nonstop hectoring of Miriam has left Miriam terrified of sex. She's reluctant to have sex with Paul, much to his frustration, and when she finally does put out she's terrible at it, closing her eyes and clenching her fists. Paul is so disappointed that he breaks up with her immediately.
- Picked Flowers Are Dead: Clara takes this attitude when Paul wants to pick her some flowers that are growing by the riverbank. Of course as she makes clear what she's really thinking about is how Paul had sex with Miriam and tossed her aside like a plucked flower.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: Paul catches Clara by the fire, having shed her dress and dressed only in her underclothes. He kisses her passionately, and the camera pans up and the scene cuts away.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In the novel William dies of pneumonia, but in the book he's apparently enjoying a happy life with his hot new wife.
- Swing Low, Sweet Harriet: Miriam's innocence and purity—too innocent and pure for Paul, as it turns out—is emphasized by having her swing on a swing at the family farm.
- Train-Station Goodbye: William reaches out from the window of the train and hands Paul a picture of William's good-looking fiancée Louisa. Gertrude does not approve, because she never approves of her sons having girlfriends.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: Dean Stockwell, an American, plays a youth from a small Nottinghamshire mining town. He fails utterly at the accent.
