Lesson Plans Come Back, Little Sheba

For example, it's one of the best films when it comes to alcoholism. Why this man drinks is fascinating--it's not just because he likes the booze, but it's to temporarily escape this awful life--something rarely talked about in films.

Come Back, Little Sheba Summary & Study Guide Description

It's also very interesting how all his hidden rage is released when he drinks--a year of pent-up anger comes exploding from him. Also, the way his sobriety and AA are shown is exceptional--it's a lot more realistic than the more famous and overrated "Lost Weekend" which has a ridiculously upbeat ending. What's more fascinating for me are the psychological elements--and the writers clearly were putting in a lot of analytic psychology and symbolism. The juxtaposition of Moore's happy life to theirs is symbolic of the emptiness of the couple.

It's also creepy and symbolic how this sick couple refer to each other as 'Baby' and 'Daddy'--especially since they cannot have kids. But what really made me excited was listening to Booth's dream at the end of the film--it was chocked full of Freudian symbolism and showed they knew a lot about the psyche.

Booth's dream was symbolic of so much--you could listen to it and interpret the meanings at great, great length. Aside from the exceptional writing, there are some other things to note. Moore is very sexual throughout the film--she is not some stereotypically nice college student but seethes with sexual desires--something very rare in s films and not really seen much until the late s. This helps the story a lot since Booth and Lancaster completely lack this element in their marriage.

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Also, I loved the acting of Booth and Lancaster. She is able to express so much with her face and body language--you really have to see it.

Introduction & Overview of Come Back, Little Sheba

Also, while Lancaster's performance is much more subdued, I loved how he walked through the house when he was intoxicated--slightly touching things to steady himself as he slowly makes his way though the house. It was a little thing--but the director did a fine job as did the actors as lots of little things were used to give the film a rich texture. So is the film worth seeing? Of course--it is magnificent. But be forewarned that it isn't exactly fun viewing. Often you'll find yourself cringing and by the end there is a pervasive sense of sadness and emptiness that many will find disturbing.

Plus I could imagine that the film could kick up a lot of baggage in some viewers. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote. Not everyone can make four films in an entire movie career and win an Oscar for one of them. Shirley Booth was already a 3-time Tony-winning actress when she repeated her stage success in the film "Come Back, Little Sheba," and she would go on to win two Emmy Awards as the title character in the long-running TV series, "Hazel.

The secret to playing Lola Delaney is something that we don't see enough of in contemporary American movies, and that is great acting, pure and simple. Shirley Booth simply becomes Lola. She isn't playing a real-life character, so there are no models by which to judge her skill at mimicry. She isn't playing a monster, or a woman triumphing over crippling adversity; she isn't a tragic figure or a powerful woman. The Lola Delaneys of this world are so ordinary they practically fade into the wallpaper.

They live their lives through and for other people. Lola is composed of bits of all such women. She is lonely in a childless marriage, desperate in her desire to please, overly sentimental, naive, guilt-ridden and utterly lacking in self-esteem. She and her husband, Doc Burt Lancaster have a marriage that consists mostly of tolerance of each other's foibles and occasional forced gaiety. William Inge, the last century's most unjustly forgotten playwright, probably knew a great many Lolas growing up in Kansas.

But many of Inge's female characters are stronger than they realize, including Lola. Madge in "Picnic" and Cherie in "Bus Stop" also come to mind. Many of them know what they want from life and have a clearer, more pragmatic idea of how to get it than the men around them. Most of Inge's plays are deceptively simple not only in the characters they depict, but in setting and structure as well. As with most Inge plays, this one "starts in the middle", and as the story plays out we see how the characters got to where they are, and whether they will stick with what they've got or make a break for an unknown future.

It was the product of teenage lust, lived in shame and out of a sense of convention its first year. He has been sober for a year, but he's on a slippery rope.

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And now, Lola and Doc are in a holding pattern, that is, until they take in a college student, Marie Terry Moore , as a boarder. It is likely that Marie leaves the Delaney home under the same cloud the Delaneys came into it, but her brief stay and sudden departure have grave lessons to teach both Lola and Doc. Lola learns to stop dwelling in the past and yearning to undo past mistakes. In the end, Marie may never know that she has forced the Delaneys to re-examine their marriage. The final scene ends on an optimistic note, brighter than anything Lola has ever said in an effort to be a lively conversationalist or to feign happiness.

It rings quite true, just as does everything in Shirley Booth's brilliant performance. Shirley Booth was a remarkably versatile actress - she did comedies, musicals, and dramas - and won the adoration of critics and audiences in all. Although the film version was offered to the likes of Bette Davis who turned it down because she felt she couldn't bring to the role the "gorgeous vagueness" Booth had , Hal Wallis wisely went with Booth to recreate her stage role, casting Burt Lancaster for box-office appeal.

Booth's performance as Lola is astonishing, filled with nervous energy and anxiety, living on the edge - ask anyone who's ever lived with an alcoholic - every gesture, every emotion she plays, is honest and accurate. When I finally saw this film in the early s, I was floored by Booth - where in heck had she done her research? Help for families of alcoholics the Al-Anon Family Groups was still several years off when the stage version was done - the resources available to Booth would have been "open" AA meetings and perhaps talking with family members.

Agnes Moorehead had a similar fate - the generation which grew up on "Bewitched" was clueless that Moorehead was one of the finest, most versatile and respected actresses around and, like Booth, every bit the equal of the other leading ladies whom she'd usually supported. Forget "Hazel," and bring tissues. Wonderful film will never date Turridulover 20 May This film is as powerful as when I first saw it as a teenager.

One would think that after 50 years, the material would seem dated. But in fact, a lot of what was said then, seems even more relevant today. Inge is unfortunately a very underrated writer. He seemed to respond to things on a much more emotional level than many of his contemporaries and this is why his material has not lost interest.

His plays never seem to go to an intellectual level. He wrote about what he knew and didn't try to be something he wasn't. Just listening to those plays, as wonderful as they might be, is something we can no longer relate to. But there will always be Lola Delaneys. Everyone knows a few of them. The film was obviously made on a very tight budget and we are lucky for that. Imagine how it would have been had they cast Rosiland Russell and Jimmy Stewart. Though Burt Lancaster was miscast, the simple fact that he was a great actor, means his performance comes off amazingly well. And what more can be said about Booth, except the extreme regret we who never saw her in the play onstage must feel.

The power of that performance is beyond description. Anyone who likes this movie should try to get hold of the new recording of the musical version. It was obviously written by people with tremendous love and respect for Inge's work. I see this movie again and again as it comes on periodically. If you want to see a great story, greater writing, and greater acting from Shirley Booth, see this. Shirley Booth won a Tony and an Academy Award for her role.

They should have given her 5, each. One of the finest performances ever. Make that 10, each. To see her performance is to understand where the benchmark of acting starts. One of the finer exposures on alcoholism within family. Best film about the problem of 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. 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.

Come Back, Little Sheba Lesson Plans (Sponsored)

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 Face reality -- it's the only truth mermatt 29 June This is an interesting study about the trials of people dealing with disappointment and alcoholism. Lost dreams have been Doc's excuse for turning to the bottle, and a lost little dog Sheba symbolizes his wife's search for herself.

The film based on the play is an early study of the pain of addiction. As Doc tells his wife, "Dreams are strange. Booth gives a very believable performance, and Lancaster is excellent playing a man far older than he was at the time. This is a touching, though simplistic, look at the dark side of human nature.

Come Back, Little Sheba | Introduction & Overview

KennethEagleSpirit 31 January In watching it, if you know anything at all about denial, projection, alcoholism, and Alcholics Anonymous, this is a wonderful telling of the psychological and spiritual truths behind the disease. Certain attitudes and comments, projected so well by both Booth and Lancaster, along with the innocent bystander Moore, are dead on. The activities of the men who come to deal with Lancaster while he is in his cups are straight out of the "Big Book". And the resultant coming to grips with the thing, a turn around in out look, are perfect examples of "progress, not perfection" and "having had a spiritual awakening".

For the plot, the great acting ability, the talent both in front of and behind the camera, and, for me anyway, the psychology of the thing, it just doesn't get much better than this. Shirley Booth's performance in this movie is one of the best I've seen. From the moment she appears as Lola Delaney you know almost everything you need to know about her character.

It's quite rare that I get moved to tears by a performance,but Shirley Booth managed that feat. She conveys all the emotions of a simple woman who's life didn't turn out the way she dreamed and her realization that the springtime of her life has long gone. Burt Lancaster might have been a bit young for the part of Doc Delaney,but I think he's really good and powerful and frightening in the drunk-scene.

Terry Moore was a charming acquaintance for me. Her performance was quite assured and natural. Although this movie is more like a filmed play, I enjoyed it a lot. William Inge's play transfers nicely to the big screen, with perfectly cast leads Shirley Booth and Burt Lancaster.

A middle aged, childless couple struggles with the husband's periodic alcoholic "episodes". When they rent out a room in their house to a young college girl, the audience learns a lot about the couple just by observing their reactions to "the young people". A regular at AA meetings, he eventually "gets sick" again. Determined never to give up, his devoted wife Lola stands by her man. The ending leaves us hopeful that all will turn out well.

There are many beautiful moments in this film, assuring a lover of tearjerkers a full pay-off! Shirley Booth deserved her Oscar for her portrayal of Lola Delaney. Oh, and don't look for little Sheba, she won't be back. MOscarbradley 2 April It was also her screen debut in a role that had previously won her a Tony on the stage and, quite frankly, she was magnificent. It launched her on a short-lived movie career and a slightly longer career on television. It's a fine film, well directed by Daniel Mann and adapted by Ketti Frings and it has three other good performances from Burt Lancaster as the alcoholic Doc, Terry Moore as the young lodger who, unwittingly, is the cause of Doc's hitting the bottle again and Richard Jaeckel as the athletic stud Moore is dallying with.

Admittedly Lancaster, who at 39 was 15 years younger than Booth, isn't really right for his role, he was too young for starters , but he handles it very effectively. Nevertheless, this is Booth's show. If she had never done anything else on screen she would still have earned her place in the pantheon of great performances.

For those of you who only know Shirley Booth from the television series Hazel, I would strongly recommend you look at the list of her Broadway credits which date all the way back to the twenties. She appeared in so many Broadway plays that later went on screen without her recreating the role. Booth joined that select group of players who won both Tony and Oscars for playing the same role in Come Back, Little Sheba. The play by William Inge ran for performances during the season and co-starred Sidney Blackmer with Booth. Like the Lunts when they filmed The Guardsman, we get to see but one of her performances preserved on film, maybe her best role.

William Inge's play concerns two very ordinary people, Doc and Marie Delaney, a seemingly quiet middle aged couple. Doc was forced to marry Marie when she became pregnant and then the baby was lost anyway. Both made the best of the situation. Doc, unfortunately turned to drink. But when we meet him he's been sober for a year and involved with Alcoholics Anonymous.

Marie is this dowdy middle aged housewife who's forever tuned into the radio and constantly reminiscing of her youth. Doc is just the opposite, he doesn't like to talk at all about the past. But he gets a bit of nostalgia going when pretty and stacked Terry Moore boards with the Delaneys. Her presence in the house sets of a chain of events that knocks Doc off the wagon.

We then see what Marie's been living with before AA. Another reviewer remarked at how well Shirley Booth caught the attitudes and mannerisms of the wife of an alcoholic and where had she done her research for the part. The answer is she lived it.

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6. Summary of Come Back, Little Sheba by William Inge!

Her first husband, Ed Gardner from radio's Duffy's Tavern, was a notorious alcoholic, Booth got all the material she ever would need to create Marie Delaney with him. For movie box office Burt Lancaster played Doc Delaney and he got rave notices himself for the part. I wouldn't doubt that his performance may have led to Lancaster being cast in From Here to Eternity and winning his first Oscar nomination.

In a sense Lancaster plays two roles because the sober Doc is a totally different individual from the raging drunk when he gives in to temptation. The title comes from their dog Sheba who up and ran away one day. Marie calls for him constantly, thinks she sees him at times. But Sheba's a metaphor for their youth which is never to return.

Come Back, Little Sheba Quiz

Boyo-2 11 November Shirley Booth is so convincing in this movie that it makes me think she was wasted in cinema because she was never given an opportunity to display her magnificent talent. Many critics attacked Come Back, Little Sheba's use of symbolism, which they felt was too obvious. Most often Lola's dreams, Sheba the dog, and the blatant phallic symbolism of Turk's Javelin were singled out for such criticism. Other reviewers noted that the characters were either flat or too contrived--or boring and repetitive.

But reviewers who praised the play often found that Inge 's drama did accurately portray the suffering of ordinary people. In spite of the mixed nature of the reviews, most critics dId agree on one topic, praising the performances of Shirley Booth as Lola, and Sidney Blackmer as Doc, which they felt transcended the material. In the decades following Come Back, Little Sheba's debut, the general consensus has been laudatory toward Inge 's work.

The play is now considered a groundbreaking achievement in the genre of domestic drama. While its subject matter has become common fodder fueling the mundane storylines of countless soap operas, Come Back, Little Sheba was among the first dramas to skillfully address the confluence of such topics as alcoholism, failed marriage, and broken dreams.

While the play is sometimes referred to as dated and melodramatic, it is nevertheless valued as a prototype for realistic contemporary social theater. Read more from the Study Guide. Browse all BookRags Study Guides. View the Study Pack. View the Lesson Plans. Act 1, Scene 1. Act 1, Scene 2. Act 2, Scene 1.