Blank Check — Patreon: Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free)

Published 2022-09-04; 2:22:50 by the feed.

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

The extraction calls the show “Blank Check with Griffin & David (Patreon)” and the episode “Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free)”.

Hosts: Griffin Newman, David Sims, Ben Hosley. Guests: Fran Hoepfner.

Subject films: Lolita (1962).

On the transcript: No speaker labels and heavy overlap, so speaker attributions are mostly unknown; the dossier reader is not identifiable with confidence. The opening minute is garbled, and the ad-read gap is not marked.

Films that came up

Claims (59)

unmapped (star type): James Mason → Katharine Hepburn. Mason is described as having a little male Katharine Hepburn in him.
“there's a little bit of like male Catherine Hepburn in it.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:02:55 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
unmapped (star type): James Mason → Humphrey Bogart. Mason, like Bogart, became a star by being unique rather than conventionally handsome.
“Bogart's like the perfect example of that”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:03:36 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
industry (married-couple franchise): Len Wiseman → Kate Beckinsale. Wiseman and Beckinsale, and Paul W.S. Anderson in the Resident Evil films, are likened as married-couple franchises.
“But it was just like the married couple franchises.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:06:33 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
unmapped (prequel): Underworld → Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. Rise of the Lycans is the prequel to Underworld.
“That's the prequel.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:06:54 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
theme (plot basis): Romeo and Juliet → Underworld. The speaker says Underworld's whole premise is Romeo and Juliet with vampires and werewolves.
“Because the whole thing is that it's Romeo and Juliet.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:07:06 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
career (career context): Spartacus → Lolita. Spartacus, Kubrick's biggest hit, is offered as one reason he got to make Lolita.
“So that's one reason he probably gets to make a lead.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:11:47 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
unmapped (censorship): Lolita → Will Hays. The poster tagline boasts that the film got through the Hays Code.
“And so that tagline is like, can you believe we got it through the code?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:14:15 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
unmapped (answer film): Lolita → Lolita (Adrian Lyne version). Lyne's voiceover lifts the novel's language, described as the move if you want to do the anti-Kubrick Lolita 30 years later.
“which feels like the smart move to do if you're trying to do the anti-Kubric Lolita, like 30 years later.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:21:00 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
craft (same role, different effect): James Mason → Jeremy Irons. Jeremy Irons reciting Humbert's lines is unbearably sad, where Mason is tragic and funny.
“The 2nd you have him reciting that dialogue, you're just like, this is unbearably sad.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:21:11 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
unmapped (cursed-men roles): Jeremy Irons → Dead Ringers. Irons is pictured as an actor who loves playing cursed men, citing Dead Ringers and Reversal of Fortune.
“I'm in Dead Ringers, Reversal of Fortune, I love playing these cursed men and butterfly roles.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:21:11 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
people (child-acting style): Sue Lyon → Hayley Mills. Sue Lyon's poised performance is compared to a Hayley Mills performance of that era.
“Where she's like giving like a Haley Mills performance where it's like, there are no naturalistic child performances this time.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:24:53 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
people (child-acting style): Sue Lyon → Jodie Foster. Five years later the part would get a Jodie Foster-style performance.
“Like, if this movie is made 5 years later, you have someone giving like a Jody Foster-esque performance.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:25:14 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
theme (shape comparison): Lolita → The Thing. Quilty is compared to the shapeless menace of John Carpenter's The Thing.
“No, I'm saying he's like the thing, like John Carpenter's the thing.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:27:45 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
unmapped (adapted novel): Vladimir Nabokov → The Luzhin Defence. The Luzhin Defence (transcribed 'The Illusion Defense') is based on a Nabokov novel the speaker liked.
“That is based on a book by Vlad himself that I have read and liked.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:30:35 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
theme (analogy): Vladimir Nabokov → Stan Lee. Writing Lolita is likened to Stan Lee giving himself the hardest character to sell, with Iron Man.
“Um, and Lolita was like that stage of Nabakov's career where he was just like, fuck it, I'm coming for you.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:31:43 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
people (replaced the director): Marlon Brando → One-Eyed Jacks. Brando eventually directed One-Eyed Jacks himself after Kubrick exited.
“which is the movie that Marlon Brando, Western, that Marlon Brando eventually just directed himself.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:38:52 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (left to make): One-Eyed Jacks → Lolita. Kubrick quit One-Eyed Jacks, announcing he was leaving to do Lolita.
“He announced like, I'm leaving to do Lolita.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:39:25 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (business deal): Stanley Kubrick → Kirk Douglas. Kubrick had a five-picture deal with Kirk Douglas; only two got made before Douglas released him, largely because Douglas wanted nothing to do with Lolita.
“He's also got this 5 picture deal with Kirk Douglas, 2 movies, end up getting done before Kirk Douglas releases him.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:39:26 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (financing): The Killing → Lolita. Harris sold his rights to The Killing to raise the money to buy Lolita's rights.
“Um, has to sell his rights to the killing.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:40:30 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (critical source): Lionel Trilling → Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick points to Trilling's piece calling Lolita the first great love story of the 20th century to explain his reading.
“He points to a Lionel Trilling piece that called it the great 1st great love story of the 20th century”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:40:51 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (romantic lineage): Stanley Kubrick → Lolita. Kubrick (per the dossier) places Lolita in the lineage of illicit love stories like Romeo and Juliet.
“If you consider Romeo and Juliet, Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, the red and the black.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:41:05 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
theme (tonal comparison): Lolita → The Lobster. The code-dodging dialogue gave the speaker the feel of The Lobster, a movie with a weirdly agreed-upon reality.
“The more I started to see it as like, oh, this feels like the lobster.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:51:25 · Fran Hoepfner (0.60 sure it was them)
unmapped (unnerving presence): Peter Sellers → Get Back. Sellers in the Get Back footage is as unnerving as when he shows up in Lolita.
“that sequence of get back is so... as unnerving as anytime he shows up in Lolita”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:54:30 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
unmapped (producing partners): James B. Harris → Stanley Kubrick. Harris and Kubrick are named as a producing pair (transcribed as 'Harrison Kubrick').
“Harrison Kubrick, speaking of all the adaptation stuff that you were talking about.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:58:56 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
unmapped (improvised method): Lolita → Dr. Strangelove. Sellers improvised on set in both films and Kubrick folded the best improvisations into the script.
“so a lot of that is just sellers, which is going to be the same with Strange Love.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:00:23 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
unmapped (screenwriter credit): Vladimir Nabokov → Lolita. Nabokov is the sole credited screenwriter and was Oscar-nominated, though by his own account about 20 percent of his script is on screen.
“Nabakov says about 20% of his screenplays on screen, but he is the only credited screenwriter and he did get an Oscar nomination.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:00:38 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (Oscar rivals): Horton Foote → Vladimir Nabokov. Foote won Best Adapted Screenplay over Nabokov.
“Horton Foote beat out fucking Nabakov for adapted screenplay.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:04:38 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
unmapped (same role): Shelley Winters → Melanie Griffith. In the Lyne film Melanie Griffith plays the Winters part quietly, aware the Winters performance is infamous.
“She's just like, well, I know the Shelley Winters performance is infamous.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:07:35 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
craft (structural change): Lolita (1955 novel) → Lolita. Kubrick's stated reason for restructuring: the novel's narrative interest drops once Humbert gets Lolita into bed.
“Kubrick's take, says, the main problem with the book is, and even with the film is the main narrative interest initially boils down to Will Humbrick, get Lolita into bed.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:10:44 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (worked together): Laurence Olivier → Stanley Kubrick. Olivier is the obvious Humbert choice, especially since Kubrick had just directed him in Spartacus.
“I mean, especially just coming off of Spartacus and Kubrick getting that kind of performance out of him.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:12:59 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
unmapped (star type): James Mason → Michael Fassbender. Mason's smile has the shark-like edge of Michael Fassbender's.
“He's got that Michael Fastbender thing where when he smiles, you're like, oh.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:13:26 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
unmapped (first choice): Cary Grant → A Star Is Born. Cary Grant was supposedly first choice for the A Star Is Born lead that Mason got.
“Like Carrie Grant was the 1st choice or whatever.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:14:08 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
people (child-acting style): Sue Lyon → Judy Garland. Lyon's performance reads like Judy Garland's in The Wizard of Oz: a poised adult playing a kid.
“This feels like a very Judy Garland performance to me.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:17:06 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
unmapped (restores what Kubrick cut): Lolita (Adrian Lyne version) → Lolita. The Lyne film opens on Humbert's childhood backstory, which the Kubrick film removes.
“Which the Adrian line movie, like front loads.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:17:43 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
programming (first Kubrick-Sellers pairing): Lolita → Dr. Strangelove. Unlike Strangelove, Lolita had no prior Kubrick-Sellers connection.
“Because it's not like Strange Love where you're like, okay, there's a pre-existing connection now.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:20:10 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
unmapped (multiple-Sellers template): Lolita → Dr. Strangelove. The speaker says Lolita is where the multiple-Sellers-characters hit began, which is odd given Lolita comes first.
“It's kind of odd that this is the one that creates that.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:20:56 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
unmapped (off-screen events): Lolita → Nope. Both films put their biggest events off screen and tell them in talk.
“the nope thing where you're like, oh, like the biggest events are happening off screen and you're both telling us and not.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:22:07 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
theme (genre comparison): Lolita → Universal Monster movies. Mason's confessional scenes feel like a Universal monster monologuing about his curse.
“Those Mason scenes feel like Universal Monster shit where it's like the guy monologuing about his affliction”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:25:20 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
unmapped (difficult takes): Shelley Winters → Jane Campion. The making-of for Winters' final film, Campion's Portrait of a Lady, shows her overwhelmed on every take.
“we also watched the making of thing for Portrait of Lady, her final film”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:26:12 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
unmapped (long takes): Stanley Kubrick → Alfred Hitchcock. Kubrick's ten-minute takes are tied to the early-60s moment when Hitchcock was pushing that too.
“which I feel like is a thing in the early six, because that's when Hitchcock's fucking with that the most, too.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:27:57 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
craft (on-set music): West Side Story → Lolita. West Side Story music was played on set to make Shelley Winters cry.
“And so they would play like West Side Story music to make Shelley Winters cry.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:28:23 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
craft (on-set music): Irma la Douce → James Mason. Music from Irma la Douce (transcribed 'Irma Leduce') was played to loosen Mason up.
“Irma Leduce would apparently floor James Mason.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:28:33 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
industry (studio-executive comedy): Lolita → Hail, Caesar!. Studio executives pitching Hays-code fixes sound like Hail, Caesar!.
“it makes me think of like Hail Caesar or whatever.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:35:18 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
industry (distribution): Lolita → MGM. The Hays Code seal meant MGM picked up the film after other studios ran.
“which meant that MGM picked it up.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:37:55 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (co-directors): Seth Rogen → Evan Goldberg. Rogen and Goldberg directed The Interview together.
“All right, Rogan directed it with Goldberg.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:38:56 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
unmapped (digital resurrection joke): Rogue One → (Unnamed) film casting James Franco as Castro. The speaker jokes the film could have resurrected Castro digitally like Peter Cushing in Rogue One.
“Yeah, do a Peter Cushing and Rogue one thing.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:39:37 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
unmapped (what the code changed): Lolita (1955 novel) → Lolita. Kubrick says the film could not portray the obsession, so it implies Humbert loves her from the start.
“Whereas in the, he says, in my film, the fact that his sexual obsession could not be portrayed at all, just implies that he's in love with her from the start.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:40:09 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
unmapped (regret): Stanley Kubrick → Lolita. Kubrick later said that had he known how severe the limits would be he probably would not have made it.
“Kubrick later finally just comes out and says it and says, if I'd realized how severe limitations would be, I probably just wouldn't have made it.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:43:39 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
lineage (later adaptation / contrast): Lolita → Lolita (Adrian Lyne version). The Lyne version does what Kubrick's could not and is called boring and unsuccessful.
“there's the line movie that does everything he couldn't do.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:44:25 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
people (same director): Flashdance → Lolita (Adrian Lyne version). Adrian Lyne directed both Flashdance and the later Lolita.
“Adrian Lyne made Flash Dance”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:44:36 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
lineage (adaptation): Lolita (1955 novel) → Lolita. The 1962 film is adapted from Nabokov's novel; the speaker reads Crowther's review saying the film keeps the names and a resemblance of plot.
“They made a movie from a script in which the characters have the same name as the characters in the book, and the plot bears a resemblance to the original”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:47:47 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
people (composer): Nelson Riddle → Lolita. Nelson Riddle wrote the Lolita Ya-Ya song that plays when Lolita is introduced.
“Yeah, the Yaya song by Nelson Riddle.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:53:14 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
craft (sounds like): Lolita → Wes Anderson. The Lolita Ya-Ya song is called something that would fit in a Wes Anderson movie.
“this would be in a fucking Wes Anderson movie.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:53:21 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
industry (box-office rivals): That Touch of Mink → Lolita. The weekend Lolita opened at number five, That Touch of Mink was number one.
“No, number one at the box office, Griffin.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 2:09:11 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
industry (box-office rivals): Advise and Consent → Lolita. Advise and Consent, a Preminger political drama, was number two that weekend.
“Number 2 at the box office is a political drama.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 2:10:10 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
craft (poster design): Saul Bass → Advise and Consent. Advise and Consent has a Saul Bass poster.
“It does have a badass soul bass poster”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 2:10:22 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
industry (box-office rivals): West Side Story → Lolita. West Side Story was still number three in its 37th week.
“It's in its 37th week of complete box office domination.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 2:11:42 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
industry (box-office rivals): Boys' Night Out → Lolita. Boys' Night Out, number four, is the kind of premise the Hays-era could allow.
“This is exactly what you could do in the haze coat.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 2:13:23 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
lineage (remake): Mr. Hulot's Holiday → Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation. Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation is called the Monsieur Hulot remake.
“The the Monsieur Hello remake?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 2:14:26 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)

Fun items (25)

fun, about Lolita: The 'normal guy' scene is both funny and skin-crawling.
“I think it's both. Like, it is very funny, but it does make my skin crawl where the tension of it is like unbearable.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:01:50 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Lolita: The tagline 'How did they ever make a movie of Lolita?' is praised as one of the all-time greats, and later said to beat the movie itself.
“Look, this movie does have one of, if not the single greatest tagline of all time.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:12:00 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Hays Code: The famous poster of the Hays Code 'commandments' is read aloud: no law defeated, no inside of a thigh, no Tommy guns.
“Thou shalt not show the law defeated.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:17:14 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Stanley Kubrick: Kubrick always said that if he had known how hard Lolita would be under the Hays Code he would not have made it.
“Kubrick always said, if he knew how difficult it was going to be to make this movie under the Hayes code, he wouldn't have made it.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:18:27 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Lolita: Kubrick moved the Quilty killing to the top so the second half would not deflate.
“But it's why he moved the quilty killing up to the top of the movie is he's like, otherwise, the balloon is deflated and then something shocking happens at the end.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:26:50 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Swifty Lazar: Lazar owned the screen rights and charged an entry fee just to start work.
“And basically says you're going to have to give me 150 grand even to start work on this movie.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:40:09 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Fran Hoepfner: Fran brought a giant lollipop to the Film Forum screening, a bit tied to her Gawker piece.
“Yeah, I brought my giant lollipop to the film form.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:43:20 · Fran Hoepfner (0.80 sure it was them)
fun, about Lolita: At Film Forum the audience split into reverence, cursed object, and bafflement.
“And there were, I could feel there are people who are just like, reverence, Kubrick, masterpiece, obviously.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:50:59 · Fran Hoepfner (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Peter Sellers: Sellers refused to appear as himself on The Muppet Show: there was no neutral Sellers, only characters.
“And he's like, the only thing I won't do is appear as myself.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:55:45 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Peter Sellers: The opening Quilty scene as maybe the closest Sellers ever came to playing himself.
“I do feel like, is this the closest he's ever come to playing quote unquote himself in a movie?”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:56:13 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Vladimir Nabokov: Nabokov's screenplay ran about 400 pages; the producers rewrote it in a month.
“Yes, I believe the script he submitted was 400 pages long, which is too long.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 0:59:21 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Lolita: Sellers' improvisations were folded back into the script by rewriting, the same method used for Dr. Strangelove.
“The retro writing where he would like take sellers, improvs and then pick the right ones and go like, that's now part of the script.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:00:32 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Lolita: The film's one Oscar nomination went to Nabokov for the screenplay.
“The film's only Oscar nomination.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:00:46 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Lolita: Warner Bros. reportedly offered Kubrick a million dollars not to make the film.
“They said you could have a $1000000 if you Don't make the movie.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:11:35 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Lolita: Everyone calls her Lolita on screen; in the book it is Humbert's private name for her.
“The other big difference they make in the script, obviously, is that everyone calls your Lolita.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:17:22 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Shelley Winters: Winters campaigned for JFK so hard she demanded the shoot work around the election, with inauguration attendance written into her contract.
“was campaigning for JFK so hard that she demanded the movie be shot around that.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:25:34 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Shelley Winters: Kubrick reportedly almost fired Winters on set.
“At one point, apparently Stanley Kubrick almost fired her and said, I think that lady's going to have to go.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:26:39 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Lolita: Kubrick played mood music on set: West Side Story for Winters, Irma la Douce for Mason.
“And so they would play like West Side Story music to make Shelley Winters cry.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:28:23 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
fun, about Lolita: The final reunion scene between Humbert and Lolita took about two weeks to shoot.
“They shot that for like 2 weeks.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:28:52 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Lolita: Studio suggestions to get past the code included making Humbert and Lolita marry.
“Have them actually get married, I guess, just sort of with the thought of like, well, if they're married, then it's sort of like, it's legal.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:34:53 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Pauline Kael: Kael's review of the film mocks Bosley Crowther.
“she makes fun of Bosley Crowther in this very review.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:48:56 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Nelson Riddle: The Lolita Ya-Ya song, written for the film, charted.
“It charted.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:53:16 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Lolita: At the drive-in, the hands under the blanket are staged as a Kubrick bit about hands.
“the drive-in theater, which is like a clever Kubrick bit of like watching how the hands move around.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:53:55 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Lolita: Winters' nail polish is called the only outward physicalization of sex in the film.
“being the only outward physicalization of sex in this movie.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 1:54:18 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)
fun, about Boys' Night Out: James Garner wrote that Kim Novak was more interested in her makeup than the script.
“James Garner wrote in his memoirs that Novak was, quote, more interested in her makeup than the script.”
Blank Check — Patreon · Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free) · 2:13:30 · unknown (0.00 sure it was them)

Who's talking

Fran Hoepfner (guest): Loves the novel and reread it; finds the Kubrick film dramatically patchy but compelling. Drawn to bold, uncomfortable material and the final Humbert-Lolita scene. A sucker for self-sabotaging comedy bits like the giant lollipop.
Griffin Newman (host): Reread the book and finds it brilliantly written; an enthusiast of Kubrick on a big screen and of Sellers in Strangelove. Compares movies to a wide pop-culture range (Nope, Hail, Caesar!, The Lobster). Believes the Lolita poster beats the film.
David Sims (host): A critic's frame of reference: star systems, box-office history and old reviews. Grew up in England and is tired of the British comedy canon. Likes the Sellers work in Strangelove more than in Lolita.

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong

Black Jack / Blank Check (opening garbled)
Kurek → Kubrick
Nabakov / Nabokov variants → Nabokov
Atrian / Adrian / Indian line → Adrian Lyne
haze / Hayes code → Hays Code (and 'Dorothy Hayes' is the speakers' slip for Will Hays)
Harrison Kubrick → Harris-Kubrick (James B. Harris)
Sue Lion / Sulon → Sue Lyon
Pauline Kale → Pauline Kael
Posley / Bosley Crowther → Bosley Crowther
Illusion Defense → The Luzhin Defence
Ben Sinister and Panine → Bend Sinister and Pnin
Ethan Cohen → Ethan Coen
Margaret Quali → Margaret Qualley
Biswanathon → Geraldine Viswanathan
Rogan → Seth Rogen
Irma Leduce → Irma la Douce
Atari → Hatari!
Delbert man → Delbert Mann
Dorist A → Doris Day
Asha Gabor → Zsa Zsa Gabor
Patty Page → Patti Page
Lands Marine → Angela Lansbury
Liam Renwick → Lee Remick
Mary Badam → Mary Badham
Savallis → Telly Savalas
Terrence Stamp / Terry Stan → Terence Stamp
Mastriani → Marcello Mastroianni
Patty Duquins → Patty Duke
Charles Lawton → Charles Laughton
Soul Bass → Saul Bass
Monsieur Hello → Monsieur Hulot
Counterfeit Trader → The Counterfeit Traitor
Bill Nai → Bill Nighy
Paul WSN → Paul W.S. Anderson
Fran Hoffner → Fran Hoepfner
Fastbender → Fassbender
Strange Love → Dr. Strangelove
Quilty is spelled quilty/Quilty/Wilty in places

Blank Check — Patreon: Lolita with Fran Hoepfner (Ad-Free)

As extracted (engineer-sonnet-2026-10-13)

Films that came up

subject (1)

passing (53)

compared (15)

anecdote (14)

dismissed (2)

Claims (59)

Fun items (25)

Who's talking

The show's recurring bits

Names the transcriber got wrong