Review of Come Back, Little Sheba

The William Inge Play comes to life with beautiful performances by the leads. Shirley Booth is the long-suffering wife of alcoholic Burt Lancaster, who seems to be chronically "between relapses". When the childless couple takes in a college girl as a boarder, melancholy parental feelings come up. We learn that when the couple were young sweethearts, an unplanned pregnancy was a source of shame and "forced" them to marry, only to suffer a tragic miscarriage. This must have brought on the alcohol addiction for "Doc" (Lancaster). The scenes where "Doc" falls off the wagon and requires extreme hospital care are heartbreaking. When his wife (Booth) telephones her parents in her despair, and is brushed off by her mother, it is clear that the "family" has long given up on "Doc", and subsequently their own daughter. - Little Sheba, the little stray dog the couple had taken in, is never seen, and is only referred to. Metaphorically, a brief substitute for someone or something to give them a distraction from their worries, and perhaps to give them both a feeling to be needed.

This is one of the classic tear-jerkers. If you enjoy a good cry, they don't come much better than this! A beautiful film, and Shirley Booth's finest performance!