Sons and Lovers

"You'll never forget the young lovers in..."

1960 1h 43m EN

👍

6.5

SOLID

🍅

67%

FRESH

⭐

7.1

IMDB

★6.5TMDB · 40🍅67%Rotten Tomatoes★7.1IMDB · 1,818

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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.

“You'll never forget the young lovers in...”

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Cast

Mary Ure
Clara Dawes
Trevor Howard
Walter Morel
Dean Stockwell
Paul Morel
Wendy Hiller
Gertrude Morel
Heather Sears
Miriam Leivers
William Lucas
William Morel
Conrad Phillips
Baxter Dawes
Ernest Thesiger
Mr. Hadlock

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Jack Cardiff
Writers: Gavin Lambert, T. E. B. Clarke
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

66 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Jack Cardiff, shot by Freddie Francis. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Mario Nascimbene. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Gordon Pilkington shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Mary Ure and Trevor Howard and Dean Stockwell carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "You'll never forget the young lovers in...".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0054326 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

Only 40 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Jack Cardiff directs. Freddie Francis behind the camera. Mario Nascimbene scores. Gordon Pilkington cuts. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

166 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
2Directed by Jack Cardiff, shot by Freddie Francis. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Mario Nascimbene. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Gordon Pilkington shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Mary Ure and Trevor Howard and Dean Stockwell carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "You'll never forget the young lovers in...".
7IMDB entry: tt0054326 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Only 40 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
9Classified under 10 themes, including "based on novel or book", "heart attack", "family relationships", "nottingham".

The technical file

Cinematography: Freddie Francis
Original score: Mario Nascimbene
Editing: Gordon Pilkington
Runtime: 103 min · 1h 43m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Sons and Lovers (1960)
Rotten Tomatoes: 67% 🍅 Fresh
IMDB rating: 7.1/10 · 1,818 votes
MPAA: Approved

Awards

Won 1 Oscar. 8 wins & 16 nominations total

Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White
National Board of Review: Top Ten Films
National Board of Review Award for Best Film

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Jack Cardiff

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2022-04-04
★ 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.

Production companies