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Come Back Little Sheba (1952)
Guided by the sensitive directorial hand of Daniel Mann, Shirley Booth beautifully reprises her Tony Award winning stage role in the film version of William Inge's Come Back Little Sheba, a somber and often deeply moving tale of regret, loss, romance, and addiction that stirs strong emotions and might ignite the tear ducts.
Doc Delaney (Oscar winner Burt Lancaster) is a chiropractor who has been sober for a year. He is married to a slovenly and terribly lonely woman named Lola (Booth) who divides her time between watching every move Doc makes and trying to get someone, anyone, to have a five minute conversation and still mourning the loss of her little dog, Sheba, who ran away from home months ago. Doc is sincere yet realistic about staying sober, but feels endless pressure from Lola about it. Doc and Lola's vacuum of a marriage is disrupted by the arrival of Marie (Terry Moore), a pretty young college student who has profound but different effects on both Doc and Lola.
Inge's play premiered in February of 1950 and closed in July the same year, but the unimpressive Broadway run did not deter Hollywood from seeing the film potential in this often powerhouse drama. Ketti Frings' solid adaptation of Inge's play almost exclusively provides backstory regarding Doc and Lola's marriage through present events. Without flashbacks or long Tennessee Williams-type monologues. we learn that Doc only married Lola because she was pregnant but she lost the baby, which destroyed Lola and has kept Doc trapped in a loveless marriage where his only solace could be found in alcohol. Even in their very first scene together, thanks to Mann, we can see almost immediately that this is not a happy marriage.
The most riveting part of this story is the character of Lola, who reminded me of a more serious version of Edith Bunker. This woman is drowning in loneliness and seems to have accepted her plight. When she's certain everything is OK with Doc, she immediately looks for someone to share her loneliness with or gets in their business. There's a heartbreaking scene where she invites the mailman in the house just to have someone to talk to and innocently starts rambling about Doc's history with alcohol and the mailman's discomfort with this is crystal clear.
The messages sent regarding alcoholism are solid for the most part. We learn in the opening scenes that Doc keeps a bottle of scotch in the kitchen cabinet as a reminder of how dangerous it is to him, but this reviewer found that message troublesome. With only a year sober, most alcoholics are still pretty shaky and really shouldn't have alcohol so accessible.
I've seen a good chunk of Daniel Mann's work as a director and this film definitely ranks among his finest work. Shirley Booth's emotionally charged Lola ignites this film in one of the most impressive film debuts in cinema history that won her the Oscar for Best Actress. Terry Moore's slightly trampy Marie also earned her a nomination for Supporting Actress. Burt Lancaster works very hard in the role of Doc, but of the truth be told, I kept picturing Brando in the role. Still, a sad and touching film that riveted this reviewer, thanks mostly to the extraordinary performance from Shirley Booth. The film was remade for television in 1977 with Joanne Woodward as Lola, Laurence Olivier as Doc, and Carrie Fisher as Marie.
Guided by the sensitive directorial hand of Daniel Mann, Shirley Booth beautifully reprises her Tony Award winning stage role in the film version of William Inge's Come Back Little Sheba, a somber and often deeply moving tale of regret, loss, romance, and addiction that stirs strong emotions and might ignite the tear ducts.
Doc Delaney (Oscar winner Burt Lancaster) is a chiropractor who has been sober for a year. He is married to a slovenly and terribly lonely woman named Lola (Booth) who divides her time between watching every move Doc makes and trying to get someone, anyone, to have a five minute conversation and still mourning the loss of her little dog, Sheba, who ran away from home months ago. Doc is sincere yet realistic about staying sober, but feels endless pressure from Lola about it. Doc and Lola's vacuum of a marriage is disrupted by the arrival of Marie (Terry Moore), a pretty young college student who has profound but different effects on both Doc and Lola.
Inge's play premiered in February of 1950 and closed in July the same year, but the unimpressive Broadway run did not deter Hollywood from seeing the film potential in this often powerhouse drama. Ketti Frings' solid adaptation of Inge's play almost exclusively provides backstory regarding Doc and Lola's marriage through present events. Without flashbacks or long Tennessee Williams-type monologues. we learn that Doc only married Lola because she was pregnant but she lost the baby, which destroyed Lola and has kept Doc trapped in a loveless marriage where his only solace could be found in alcohol. Even in their very first scene together, thanks to Mann, we can see almost immediately that this is not a happy marriage.
The most riveting part of this story is the character of Lola, who reminded me of a more serious version of Edith Bunker. This woman is drowning in loneliness and seems to have accepted her plight. When she's certain everything is OK with Doc, she immediately looks for someone to share her loneliness with or gets in their business. There's a heartbreaking scene where she invites the mailman in the house just to have someone to talk to and innocently starts rambling about Doc's history with alcohol and the mailman's discomfort with this is crystal clear.
The messages sent regarding alcoholism are solid for the most part. We learn in the opening scenes that Doc keeps a bottle of scotch in the kitchen cabinet as a reminder of how dangerous it is to him, but this reviewer found that message troublesome. With only a year sober, most alcoholics are still pretty shaky and really shouldn't have alcohol so accessible.
I've seen a good chunk of Daniel Mann's work as a director and this film definitely ranks among his finest work. Shirley Booth's emotionally charged Lola ignites this film in one of the most impressive film debuts in cinema history that won her the Oscar for Best Actress. Terry Moore's slightly trampy Marie also earned her a nomination for Supporting Actress. Burt Lancaster works very hard in the role of Doc, but of the truth be told, I kept picturing Brando in the role. Still, a sad and touching film that riveted this reviewer, thanks mostly to the extraordinary performance from Shirley Booth. The film was remade for television in 1977 with Joanne Woodward as Lola, Laurence Olivier as Doc, and Carrie Fisher as Marie.