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Come Back, Little Sheba Movie Review

Come Back, Little Sheba is a 1952 drama film directed by Daniel Mann and starring Shirley Booth and Burt Lancaster. It’s a superbly performed, touching drama.

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“It’s good to be home“

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Lola and Doc lead a loveless marriage while he recovers from alcoholism and she looks for her lost dog, Sheba. Their lives change when they rent a room in their house to Marie. Based on a stage play, this movie was one of those social dramas that Hollywood loved to make back in this era. I usually love this type of film and this one has aged quite well. It’s still emotionally and dramatically effective.

As is the case with all chamber dramas, the acting is of the utmost importance. It either breaks or makes a film like this. Thankfully, the acting here was absolutely glorious, so it made the movie a must-see classic and a rather underrated one at that. It deserves more love for being so emotionally raw and honest while delivering instantly recognizable characters and dialogue too.

Shirley Booth played Lola – an old-fashioned older woman in both behavior and looks. She’s the type of woman who can get very annoying in her childish manner of speech and showering her husband with constant blabbering. But she also very much cares for her husband and she cares for all the people in her life, which ultimately made her sympathetic. You root for the poor woman to find happiness.

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Shirley Booth originated the role on the stage and it’s difficult to transition to the big screen, but she did it with flying colors. This performance is so competent, so charismatic and so confident that it’s difficult to believe watching her here that this was her first film role. She was particularly adept at delivering believable dialogue and at accentuating the emotions of her character and Lola’s quirks in how she delivers her lines and how she reacts to others. This is a powerhouse turn that was rightfully honored by the Academy.

Who did not fare as well is Burt Lancaster himself. Admittedly, he did the best that he could and delivered a very good, moving performance, but the fact that he was so sorely miscast continued to haunt him and the resulting movie to an extent. They should have cast a much older actor as Lancaster was obviously too youthful for the role of an older alcoholic husband. But then again he was so good that he somewhat compensated for his poor casting.

Terry Moore is lovely in a supporting, but important role. Richard Jaeckel’s character is annoyingly one-note, but Moore was so charming and realistic. Some of their scenes were too long, but still very well realized. The movie dealt so admirably with the issues of alcohol and domestic abuse, even going so far to include a recovery meeting, a first for Hollywood. The central metaphor is an especially powerful one as the titular dog stands for a happier past that is now lost.

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Come Back, Little Sheba managed to elevate its theatrical origins with the reliably superb photographic work from the great James Wong Howe and a very atmospheric and at times even suspenseful score, which added an interesting thriller wrinkle to what is in essence a social drama. The directing on this movie is just solid, though not great. But the film is so engaging throughout, so endearing and so grounded in reality that it deserves more love from cinephiles today.