greg horoski
Hard to say too much to laud this movie. It plays much like a Broadway play and is lovely on film.If you only have a vague remembrance of Shirley Booth as the domestic Hazel in the early TV comedy, then you don't know her well. Terrific story, great acting and a very intricate story woven by masters of screenplay. Revel in the classics so you can demand better of today's entertainment fare.
dougdoepke
One thing for sure—the film certainly goes against the glamorous 50's mold. Probably no movie from that prettified period is as dour as this one, from the dowdy Lola to the grim- faced Doc to the bleak photography to the plebian sets. I kept yearning for lively little Marie (Moore) to bounce in and give my eyes some relief. My guess is Hollywood was out to show Broadway that they could entrust their Meaningful stage plays to the notoriously commercial West Coast.Sure, Booth gets the spotlight and responds by emoting like she's on New York's center stage. But with that whiny voice and desperate demeanor, she's more pathetic than sympathetic. Then again, that may be the point, but you've got to wonder why the hunky Doc (Lancaster) stays with her in about as egregious a piece of visual miscasting as I've seen. But then maybe he too pities her long lost youth that won't ever come back no matter how hard she yearns. Looks like they're both paying a price for a mistake made years earlier. Of course, as might be expected, the screenplay's loaded with symbolism, especially her "dream" soliloquy. So get out your Freud if you care to.In my little book, the movie amounts to a one woman show that hasn't worn well, despite the studio's good intentions. Then too, catch that pat, unconvincing ending, so typical of the time. The dour production, however, does manage to put a dent in the bosomy Technicolor spectacles that ruled the 50's Hollywood roost. I'm just glad the talented Booth eventually moved on to TV and the less stagy Hazel (1961-1966).
Robert J. Maxwell
What a downer. Burt is a recovering alcoholic married to Shirley Booth, a mindless optimist who lives in the past and can't seem to simply SHUT UP. My God, that voice! That shrill assurance! The maudlin exhumation of a night long ago devoted to the delights of Venus.How did Burt Lancaster's Doc ever manage to quit boozing when he has to face Hazel and the untrammeled entropy of her mind and her household? She doesn't make breakfast. He has to drink instant coffee before going to work. She's forgotten to buy orange juice. When he returns his dinner is late. It began to remind me of MY marriage.Meanwhile there is a sub plot involving a mating ritual between luscious student/boarder Terry Moore and muscular hunk Richard Jaekel. That's depressing too. She doesn't want to give it up but he wants nothing but. The 1950s were pretty bad.Watch the tragedy unfold if you want. I'm off for a bottle of Louis XIII Rare Cask 42.6. I need it bad.
rpvanderlinden
"Come Back, Little Sheba" is a very worthy addition to Hollywood's canon of films about alcoholism such as "The Lost Weekend", "Days of Wine and Roses", "The Country Girl" and the more recent "Changing Lanes". Each film has it's own peculiar angle on the subject. "Come Back, Little Sheba" is about relapse. Burt Lancaster plays a violent drunk who's been clean and sober for a year. Life is getting better and patients are returning to his chiropractic practice. He's doing everything he should be doing according to the suggestions made by Alcoholics Anonymous. He's attending meetings, he's in close contact with his sponsor, and he's helping other alcoholics, reaching out to those who bottom out at the City Hospital's drunk ward.But there are problems. They have to do with his home life, particularly his derelict and patronizing wife (Shirley Booth) and a pretty co-ed (Terry Moore) who moves in as a boarder. She's ripe with sexual allure and juggling one too many boyfriends. Lancaster's character is emotionally distant to begin with - always seeming a little wound up inside - and doesn't know what to do with his emotions except to drink them away. The film appears to have been written by someone with considerable knowledge of A.A. It portrays the dynamics of a relapse with considerable understanding and shows how an alcoholic will reach his old bottom again with terrifying speed. Both Booth and Lancaster are game, but the naturally charismatic and athletic Lancaster seems a little hemmed in.
AD
