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    Come Back, Little Sheba

    Reviewed by
    pietroantoni@

    If you have not seen Come Back, Little Sheba from 1952 with the great actor Shirley Booth re-creating her smash Broadway dramatic turn, you are in for a real treat, a performance so riveting and equally sublime, a FIRST movie role of an actress already past 40, a role so powerful as to earn her an OSCAR and every other accolade of that year. (Sheba is in reference to a small dog that has run off.) It's a simple story of a husband and wife whose lives haven't turned out as planned. The alcoholic husband is played by a way too young Burt Lancaster in order to add some STAR POWER to the movie. Burt does his best in a role meant for a much older man, something he did fairly often during the 1950's, the greatest of these older men being MANGIACAVALLO from THE ROSE TATTOO by Tennessee Williams starring the Oscar winning Italian spitfire Anna Magnani in all her glory. One can't say much about Sheba as it is a household drama with two principal actors and two supporting players, the 18 year old Terry Moore and the young, athletic Richard Jaeckel as a foil to the older couple. When all is said and done, the entire movie belongs to Miss Booth and her slovenly, frumpish performance as a wife trying her best to appease her disillusioned husband. It's all a very touching, sad, heartbreaking situation all at the same time. The movie role was apparently going to go to Bette Davis who would have knocked another home run in this role. Bette, however, made it quite clear that no actress should or could take that role away from Miss Booth. This was a real coup as almost no Broadway star ever re-created his/her Broadway success, this being true even in the 21st century. Miss Booth remained a Hollywood fixture in movies through the 50's when in 1961 she was asked to play HAZEL in the sit-com of the same name. Everyone advised Miss Booth not to take the role as it was demeaning of her talents. Shirley was never a leading lady type actress so she jumped at playing Hazel winning 2 EMMY AWARDS, becoming world famous for playing the beloved busybody maid for 5 years.

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    pietroantoni@  12.12.2014 age: 36-49 14,540 reviews

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