Come Back, Little Sheba (1952)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Daniel Mann

Writers:

Ketti Frings (writer)
William Inge (play)

Release Date:

24 December 1952 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

That girl in their house spelled trouble!

Plot:

An emotionally remote recovering alcoholic and his dowdy, unambitious wife face a personal crisis when they take in an attractive lodger.

Plot Keywords:

Marriage | Dog | Lodger | College | College Student

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 6 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Burt Lancaster	...	Doc Delaney
Shirley Booth	...	Lola Delaney
Terry Moore	...	Marie Buckholder
Richard Jaeckel	...	Turk Fisher
Philip Ober	...	Ed Anderson
Edwin Max	...	Elmo Huston
Lisa Golm	...	Mrs. Coffman
Walter Kelley	...	Bruce

Runtime:

99 min | 96 min (TCM print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

West Germany:16 (f) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #15964)

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Burt Lancaster actively campaigned to play the alcoholic husband in this film, even though he was younger than the character, Doc, who was in his mid-fifties. 'Sidney Blackmer', who had played the part on Broadway in the original production, was 18 years older than Lancaster, and Shirley Booth was 15 years his senior. The role of Doc was coveted by Humphrey Bogart, who was the right age, but Bogart lost out to Lancaster due to studio politics, despite the fact that he had just turned in his Oscar-winning performance in The African Queen (1951).

Goofs:

Continuity: When Doc is pouring orange juice for the teenager, he grabs her right wrist and pours juice into the glass as she holds it, but in the long shot he has taken the glass from her and fills it himself before returning the glass to her.

Quotes:

Doc Delaney: [to Lola as he's leaving for work] Give Daddy a kiss goodbye.
[he kisses his wife]
Marie Buckholder: [teasingly] Aren't you going to kiss me, too, Doctor Delaney?
Lola Delaney: Go on, Doc.
Doc Delaney: I can't spend my time kissing all the girls.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Angels in America" (2003)

Best film about the problem of Alcoholism.

Days of Wine and Roses and The Lost Weekend deal with the problem of those afflicted with Alcoholism. Both are fine films. This movie is better than those two and that's only part of the story in this picture. Shirley Booth gives a most certainly well deserved Academy Award winning performance as the wife of a recovering alcoholic husband. Burt Lancaster in a role he is not often remembered for is the husband. A once proud and respected person who falls by the wayside due to his drinking has picked himself up and is determined to start over again even though various demons still linger inside him. I first saw this motion picture on New Years eve back in the late 60's on NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies. During the week preceding the showing NBC advertised it with the clip of Lancaster going after Booth with a kitchen knife. My older sibling and I not really old enough to know about such things joked about the scene. When we watched the movie and it came to that part we were no longer joking. I didn't see it for many years until it aired on AMC. The film is as powerful today in its story and it's acting performances as when I first saw it and I'm certain when it was first released in 52. A must see.