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Come Back, Little Sheba

12th March 2010

Description
After a shot gun marriage, Lola loses the couple’s baby and relies for comfort on her dog, Sheba, who has run away, while Doc is a recovering alcoholic who blames Lola for his dropping out of medical school. Though still depressed and bitter about their past, the couple rents out a room to a young woman named Marie and while Marie brings happiness and young love into their home, she also brings old ghosts reminding Doc and Lola of their misfortunes…. More >>

Come Back, Little Sheba

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5 Responses to “Come Back, Little Sheba”

  1. Anonymous Says:
    March 12th, 2010 at 3:16 am

    Great movie! I remember watching this movie when I was little. I always felt more sorry for Doc more that his wife because she was so iritating. Mrs. Delaney needed to get it together. That way her life would not be so boring, and maybe she would not be so iritating. If I was Doc, she would of drove me to drink too.
    Rating: 5 / 5

  2. Lily White Says:
    March 12th, 2010 at 4:11 am

    I realize why so many others gave this the highest rating. However, I

    just could not help thinking – this woman needs to get a life. She is so

    needy. Every time she called her husband “daddy” I wanted to scream.

    She spends the vast majority of her time trying to get the dullard’s

    attention and approval.

    The outcome is so predictable. The wife welcomes a sexy little college

    student into their home as a symbolic replacement for the baby she lost

    many years before. And the husband’s interest is at first non-existent

    and then becomes more than fatherly.

    Maybe I have heard this story too many times. I don’t know, but I had

    hoped for something at least a little more subtle.

    Rating: 3 / 5

  3. Music Man Says:
    March 12th, 2010 at 7:06 am

    This dated but interesting film is another of the stage/TV to screen black-and-white melodramas that flew onto the screen in the 1950s in the wake of “A Streetcar Named Desire”. A great stage success for Shirley Booth, who won a Tony award for her efforts, this film is a rather uncinematic representation of the stage play with little opening-up or deviation from the original work. That’s okay. William Inge’s quirky characters and less-than-mainstream situations (for the time) draw and sustain interest. Burt Lancaster’s broodiness as the alcoholic husband has rarely been captured so effectively, and his gentle qualities as an actor were never more fully realized. Terry Moore is actually quite right as the college girl and, if her acting is at times too superficial, she nevertheless presents a girlish innocence that leavens the heaviness of the film. Richard Jaeckal is perfect as the burly athlete who scoffs at Lancaster and Booth but has other more nefarious things in mind for Moore. This leaves Booth, who’s character is unquestionably the centerpoint of the film. She won an Oscar for this performance, but it simply doesn’t hold up today. Granted, Inge created a one-note character here and one waits for the big scene where Booth explodes with her own rage over life’s trajectory, but it never comes. Instead, she remains a simple, over-accomodating mass of neediness who desperately clings…to everyone, everywhere, at any time. To make matters worse, Booth’s choices as an actress help make her character the most masochistic screen presence since Scarlett O’Hara, with none of the charismatic provocativity. Booth is an annoying dolt from start to finish and her character generates no interest or empathy.

    That anyone dared to present such surly or lost characters at the time was hardly a commercial strategy. It certainly would have been far off the beaten path of 1950s cinema tradition (with hindsight, it’s now a quintessential tradition of that era). “Sheba…” remains a quirky, unexpected drama, but the eye of this storm is stillborn.
    Rating: 3 / 5

  4. R. Gawlitta Says:
    March 12th, 2010 at 8:48 am

    Shirley carries this film, wonderfully! Lancaster, a great actor, was so sorely miscast, it was hard to imagine. Ms. Booth had done the role over 100 times on stage, and it’s no surprise she won the Oscar in 1952, probably the worst year in Oscar history. That same year, Shirley was up against Julie Harris, who had also done “The Member of the Wedding” on stage and won awards. Ms. Harris has had as spotty a career on film, as did Ms. Booth. Interesting. The magnificent play of William Inge can only be another feather in his cap. His very personal plays have been presented on screen so well; most especially in “The Dark at the Top of the Stairs”. When will that be available on DVD?Yes, 1952 was a huge Oscar mistake; Booth deserved her Oscar, Gary Cooper deserved it (for “High Noon”), but “The Greatest Show on Earth” as Best Picture? Over “The Quiet Man”? WRONG!
    Rating: 5 / 5

  5. Arlene Giudice Says:
    March 12th, 2010 at 9:05 am

    This is a wonderful old movie. In those days, the subject of pregnancy before marriage was so taboo! She plays the part of a slovenly housewife to the hilt, Burt is her stuffy, overbearing husband, ashamed of her, but all they have been through together wins out in the end.
    Rating: 4 / 5

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