Come Back, Little Sheba

This is an interesting study about the trials of people dealing with disappointment and alcoholism. Lost dreams have been Doc's excuse for turning to the bottle, and a lost little dog (Sheba) symbolizes his wife's search for herself.

The film based on the play is an early study of the pain of addiction. As Doc tells his wife, "Dreams are strange." There is redemption in the fact that Doc asks for forgiveness as his wife regains her sense of dignity.

Booth gives a very believable performance, and Lancaster is excellent playing a man far older than he was at the time. This is a touching, though simplistic, look at the dark side of human nature.

An acting triumph for both Shirley Booth and Burt Lancaster. This film will stay with you for a long time. Booth won a well deserved Oscar for this performance and it is well worth the time to view it. This is not a happy film obviously to look at but if you appreciate great acting as much as I do, you will really enjoy Come Back Little Sheba.

Shirley Booth was 54 when she won the Academy Award as Best Actress for her performance as Lola in the screen version of William Inge's "Come Back, Little Sheba". It was also her screen debut in a role that had previously won her a Tony on the stage and, quite frankly, she was magnificent. It launched her on a short-lived movie career and a slightly longer career on television. It's a fine film, well directed by Daniel Mann and adapted by Ketti Frings and it has three other good performances from Burt Lancaster as the alcoholic Doc, Terry Moore as the young lodger who, unwittingly, is the cause of Doc's hitting the bottle again and Richard Jaeckel as the athletic stud Moore is dallying with. Admittedly Lancaster, who at 39 was 15 years younger than Booth, isn't really right for his role, (he was too young for starters), but he handles it very effectively. Nevertheless, this is Booth's show. If she had never done anything else on screen she would still have earned her place in the pantheon of great performances.

This film is as powerful as when I first saw it as a teenager. One would think that after 50 years, the material would seem dated. But in fact, a lot of what was said then, seems even more relevant today. Inge is unfortunately a very underrated writer. He seemed to respond to things on a much more emotional level than many of his contemporaries and this is why his material has not lost interest. His plays never seem to go to an intellectual level. He wrote about what he knew and didn't try to be something he wasn't. Are there really Blanche DuBois and Willie Lomans today? Just listening to those plays, as wonderful as they might be, is something we can no longer relate to. But there will always be Lola Delaneys. Everyone knows a few of them. The film was obviously made on a very tight budget and we are lucky for that. Imagine how it would have been had they cast Rosiland Russell and Jimmy Stewart. Though Burt Lancaster was miscast, the simple fact that he was a great actor, means his performance comes off amazingly well. And what more can be said about Booth, except the extreme regret we who never saw her in the play onstage must feel. The power of that performance is beyond description. Anyone who likes this movie should try to get hold of the new recording of the musical version. It was obviously written by people with tremendous love and respect for Inge's work.

Shirley Booth is so convincing in this movie that it makes me think she was wasted in cinema because she was never given an opportunity to display her magnificent talent. She is completely heartbreaking in the movie and deservedly won the Oscar, over such heavyweights as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Burt Lancaster is great also but its Shirley's show all the way and she does not disappoint.