Initially, Paul listens to his mom, though he knows that he should follow his inner feelings, even if it’s painful and hard to detach himself from her wherever he goes, Paul fells his mother’s presence. After courting a young girl, Miriam Lievers (Heather Sears), Paul falls for Clara Dawes (Mary Ure), an older woman who is married to Baxter (Conrad Phillips).īoth relationships cause tensions between Paul and his strong-willed mother, who terminates the first one and is irritated by the second. The father is rigid and macho, and it’s the mother who’s the forceful and central figure, a woman who doesn’t hide the fact that she favors Paul, her sensitive son whose ambition is to pursue the career of an artist in London the father is of course against his son’s literary inclinations, which offend his sense of class pride. Even so, a good portion of the dialogue is lifted From Lawrence’s book. Clarke centers on one relationship, that between a mother and her favorite son, Paul Morel (Dean Stockwell, the only American in the cast).įor the sake of brevity and compressions the screenwriters have altered a number of characters and have altogether omitted the figure of one sister. Morel (Wendy Hiller) and their three sons. Set in Nottingham, the tale focuses on the Morel family, Walter (Trevor Howard), the patriarch miner and his wife Mrs.

But, overall, the film is too unfocused to convey the complexities of love and the various romantic and sexual passions that form the center of the book. Lawrence’s famous, autobiographical novel of the same title, is visually exquisite and superbly acted by a largely British ensemble. Sons and Lovers, Jack Cardiff’s intelligent adaptation of D.H.

Sons lovers