Darwin's passing comment in the 1932 novel, Glory, encapsulates the fundamental antagonism that characterizes Nabokov's own attitude towards moving picture art. On the one hand, cinema epitomizes the worst of commercially driven, populist culture and yet, on the other, it generates a compelling dynamic of excitement and wonder that is inarguably, and perpetually, fascinating. Nabokov, an avid filmgoer throughout most of his life, delighted in the movies as a source of pure entertainment. The films he cited as his favorites were mostly comedies - the slapstick features of the 1920s and 1930s, starring Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy, and the Marx Brothers - from which he could recall specific scenes in meticulous detail (SO, 163).