Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

ned-28923 I saw this movie on TV when I was like 13 or 14 years old (the Big Show in the afternoons on ABC New York, I think)...It left a big impression on me as a kid...I don't know why, really, but it solidified my impression that Burt Lancaster was a great actor, and hero of mine...Shirley Booth was absolutely amazing, no doubt knew the role by rote from the stage...Anyway, I can never can forget this movie, and the moral conflicts it conjured up in my mind as a young teenager...Truly an emotional movie that I remember to this day...Shirley Booth went on to play Hazel, the all knowing maid, in a TV sitcom of the same name...It ran for a while and was work and money, I'm sure, but kind of beneath an actress of that talent, in my opinion...Burt Lancaster, what can I say...One of the greats, and one of my heroes as a kid (Jim Thorpe, All American)...He certainly didn't shy away from certain roles that may have been atypical to his ordinary stereotype...

Robert J. Maxwell What a downer. Burt is a recovering alcoholic married to Shirley Booth, a mindless optimist who lives in the past and can't seem to simply SHUT UP. My God, that voice! That shrill assurance! The maudlin exhumation of a night long ago devoted to the delights of Venus.How did Burt Lancaster's Doc ever manage to quit boozing when he has to face Hazel and the untrammeled entropy of her mind and her household? She doesn't make breakfast. He has to drink instant coffee before going to work. She's forgotten to buy orange juice. When he returns his dinner is late. It began to remind me of MY marriage.Meanwhile there is a sub plot involving a mating ritual between luscious student/boarder Terry Moore and muscular hunk Richard Jaekel. That's depressing too. She doesn't want to give it up but he wants nothing but. The 1950s were pretty bad.Watch the tragedy unfold if you want. I'm off for a bottle of Louis XIII Rare Cask 42.6. I need it bad.

geoff-maloney I saw this movie 20 years ago and thought it was way over-acted. I saw it again tonight and enjoyed it a bit more. I still think that Lancaster is miss-cast and that Booth's acting is way over the top.Rather than being the story of a recovering alcoholic I saw it as the story of a woman who irritated everyone - even her own parents - with her child-like imbecility. The fact that her husband could stay off the drink for a full year while living with such a woman is remarkable. Surely the only reason the husband didn't leave was that his own self-esteem had been completely negated by marrying such a woman in the first place.Booth's acting is so melodramatic that it makes you cringe time after time. Not a movie for a modern audience.

justincward 'Come Back Little Sheba' is the story of a recovering alcoholic's (Lancaster as 'Doc Delaney') falling off the wagon, then back on again. His lapse is prompted by the appearance of a student lodger (Moore as 'Marie') whose flirting with a bad boy (Jaeckel as 'Turk') arouses Doc's lust and jealousy. Presumably because this was 1952, there is a lot of understatement of the passions that actually might be going on, but the scenes of Turk assaulting Marie, and Doc spewing his bitterness at Lola (Shirley Booth) are still powerful, and Burt's struggle not to pick up the bottle is good.Shirley Booth's performance is slightly over the top, and there's never any doubt that you're watching a stage performance, but it's a professional, consistent turn. The trouble is that Burt Lancaster's acting for the screen in a much more restrained way, and you do wonder what a cool, if wooden, dude like him is doing with a somewhat irritating frump like Lola (in spite of her implausibly being referred to as 'Pretty Lola' more than once). At first I was expecting Lola to be the one reaching for the booze as soon as Doc had gone to work, but alas there are no such twists or deconstructions in this movie. It's straight down the line, and the only suspense comes from wondering when Doc is going to reach for that Bourbon he's kept in the kitchen for a year. When he does, sparks fly gratifyingly enough.The teen characters and their plot are straight out of a McGraw-Hill public information short, often forgetting to act properly (see Bruce in the dinner scene), and while Lola's phone call to her mother telling of her unhappiness is effective, Doc's return and the resumption of suburban bliss is very weak and relies on sentimentality.'Come Back Little Sheba' portrays an abused woman's mundane heroism and does enough to get by, but whether you enjoy it will depend on whether you buy Shirley Booth's old-school performance. In 1952 it was probably quite moving; in 2012 it's a little bit grating.