Come Back, Little Sheba (1953) on Netflix
Lola Delaney takes in Marie Buckholder as a boarder to earn money. Marie's involvement with Turk Fisher, a track star, disturbs Lola's husband Doc, who has been sober for a year.
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- Rotten Tomatoes82%
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Plot summary
Doc Delaney has stayed sober for a year, and he keeps his distance from Lola, his wife. He had been a promising medical student, but he left college when Lola became pregnant, and he married her after her father threw her out. The child died, and there were no others. Doc drank away the years, his career and his inheritance, while Lola sleeps late, dresses carelessly, and wanders outside calling for Sheba, the little dog that disappeared. To bring in money, Lola takes in Marie Buckholder, a college student engaged to Bruce, who is away from town. Marie brings home Turk Fisher, a track star, to pose for an advertisement, and Doc disapproves while Lola defends Turk.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Come Back, Little Sheba (1953)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- When Shirley Booth appeared to have other commitments, producer Hal Wallis asked Bette Davis to play Lola in the film; Davis declined, and Booth, who had originated the role on Broadway and won a Tony for it, reprised it in her screen debut.
- Burt Lancaster, then 38, lobbied for the part of the middle-aged Doc Delaney; to make the trim, muscular star look older, his baggy, shapeless costume was padded at the waist and he was instructed to stoop, hollow his chest and shuffle his feet.
- Sociologist Norman K. Denzin writes that Come Back, Little Sheba was the first Hollywood production to depict an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting along with sponsors, 12-step calls to fellow alcoholics, slogans, and "birthday" parties celebrating years of sobriety.
- Shirley Booth told a Life magazine interviewer in 1952 that she had developed Lola from watching several women on the streets of New York City, including an unkempt woman she saw walking aimlessly one night on Sixth Avenue with a dirty white poodle.
