Daniel Mann’s Come Back, Little Sheba is a terrific example of how to transcribe a Pulitzer Prize-winning play onto the big screen.
The Production: 4.5/5
William Inge’s incisive dissection of middle-aged angst in a troubled marriage was brought decisively to the screen in Daniel Mann’s Come Back, Little Sheba, a somber, heartbreaking drama that featured the screen debut of celebrated stage actress Shirley Booth and offered Burt Lancaster in a role that stretched his ambitiously expanding acting ability. Faithful to the play but able to burrow into the soul of its two main characters with starker power and directness than on stage, Mann’s film version does the original work proud.
Doc (Burt Lancaster) and Lola (Shirley Booth) Delaney have been married for twenty years, a union brought about originally by an unexpected pregnancy and now existing on the tattered memories of bygone happier times. Into their lives comes young university student Marie Buckholder (Terry Moore) who rents a room from the couple and becomes their focus as a somewhat surrogate daughter for the one they had lost before she was born. The pert and perky Marie is studying art and, though engaged to another man (Walter Kelley), has been casually dating university track star Turk Fisher (Richard Jaeckel). Lola and particularly Doc become obsessively fixated on Marie’s youthful vim and vigorous social life to the point that the alcoholic Doc, who’s been on the wagon for over a year, sees in the young couple a tragic reminder of his once happy life now a bitter and regretful memory.
Ketti Frings’ screenplay successfully navigates the story away from its original house stage set by occasionally having characters walk to bus stops, attend Doc’s AA meeting, go dancing in a nightclub with the young couple, go with the AA sponsors in helping people in the alcoholic ward of the local hospital, and visit in the backyard with the next door neighbor while still maintaining the play’s integrity by retaining almost everything from the original script, down to the melancholy musings about the runaway puppy Little Sheba, a sad symbol of Lola’s lost youth and loveless marriage that she seems helpless to rectify. Director Daniel Mann gives Shirley Booth one of the great film introductions of all time, making pretty much the first forty-five minutes a showcase for her unique gifts which include her frowzy appearance shuffling around her unkempt house in a worn bathrobe and carpet slippers, her incessant prying into people’s thoughts and feelings while being singularly needy for acceptance and commendation, and that unique smiling-through-sadness quality that was the actress’ bread-and-butter. Mann saves his best, of course, for the climactic whisky-fueled confrontation between Doc and Lola that brings his desperation, unhappiness, longing, and self-loathing into clear focus and certainly proves to be the film’s highlight with subsequent scenes bringing the drama to a satisfying and tear-inducing finish.
Having won every possible theater prize for originating Lola on the stage (including the Tony and Donaldson awards), Shirley Booth proceeded to capture nearly every possible film prize for her screen debut including the Academy Award and the Best Actress prize at Cannes. It’s an unforgettable performance, simultaneously sad and funny and always a little too anxious for approval even when she hasn’t earned it and not especially smart to continually bring up their unhappy pasts and mid-life frustrations to darken any chance of current contentment for the pair. Burt Lancaster, too young for the role but eager to stretch his acting muscles in this difficult part, does what he can to hide his youth and vigor under oversized clothes and a slouching carriage and undeniably scores in his growing infatuation with Marie and his slow downward spiral toward the bottle again, culminating in that electrifying confrontation with Lola which climaxes the drama. Terry Moore offers a most appealing performance as the young lodger who’s drawn to the masculine dynamism and ardor of the athletic Richard Jaeckel while keeping another more settled suitor back East. Philip Ober as Doc’s AA sponsor has a couple of really good scenes, and Lisa Golm as next-door neighbor Mrs. Coffman offers a nice contrast to Lola’s more frazzled looks and demeanor.
Video: 5/5
3D Rating: NA
Taken from a 4K scan of available elements, this 2021 1080p master has been framed at its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.37:1 using the AVC codec. It’s a beautiful job all around with excellent clarity, very appealing grayscale that features rich black levels, clean whites, and fine details in the shadows. Dirt, scratches, and splices seem to have been completely erased from the image. The movie has been divided into 8 chapters.
Audio: 5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono sound mix is just what one would expect from a small-scale drama of this era. The dialogue has been expertly recorded and has been mixed with Franz Waxman’s appealing background score and the various sound effects with surety. There are no instances of hiss, crackle, pops, or flutter.
Special Features: 2/5
Audio Commentary: film historian Scott Harrison contributes a reasonably informative and researched commentary with a bit of film analysis and a goodly amount of quoting from reviews and biographical texts, occasionally veering off topic in pursuit of a comparison.
Theatrical Trailer (2:25, HD)
Kino Trailers: Desert Fury, Elmer Gantry, Marty, The Country Girl.
Overall: 4.5/5
Daniel Mann’s Come Back, Little Sheba is a terrific example of how to transcribe a Pulitzer Prize-winning play onto the big screen. With engaging, heartbreaking performances and solid direction, the movie comes highly recommended.
Matt has been reviewing films and television professionally since 1974 and has been a member of Home Theater Forum’s reviewing staff since 2007, his reviews now numbering close to three thousand. During those years, he has also been a junior and senior high school English teacher earning numerous entries into Who’s Who Among America’s Educators and spent many years treading the community theater boards as an actor in everything from Agatha Christie mysteries to Stephen Sondheim musicals.
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