Come Back, Little Sheba (1952)

COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA  (1952)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D:  Daniel Mann
    Shirley Booth, Burt Lancaster, 
    Terry Moore, Richard Jaeckel
Shirley Booth recreates her Broadway role as a dowdy, middle-aged housewife trying to cope with loneliness, the passage of time and her husband's battle with alcohol. Lancaster plays the husband, a chiropractor who's just completed his first year in A.A. Booth won an Oscar for her performance, and with her nonstop chatter and whiny voice, you can see why Burt's character might reach for the bottle now and then. You also get a real sense of her underlying good nature, and her desperation. Lancaster's miscast - he looks too young and too fit - but his inclination to take on something like this sent a signal early on that he was an actor and a movie star who didn't mind taking dramatic risks. The film doesn't open the play up much. Most of it's set in just two rooms - a living room and a kitchen. The result is a suffocating closeness, like you're stuck in this intimate prison shared by two unhappy people, fighting to salvage what remains of their lives in the twilight of dreams long gone.