Come Back, Little Sheba (1952)

A recovering alcoholic (Burt Lancaster) lives with his chatty if slovenly wife (Shirley Booth). But when a pretty young college student (Terry Moore) rents a room in their home, she ignites a small flame that will eventually shatter their marriage. Based upon the Broadway play by William Inge and directed by Daniel Mann (BUTTERFIELD 8), this is one of those relatively rare instances where the original star of the Broadway show (Booth) was allowed to preserve her performance on film. Pauline Kael once wrote that it wasn't much of a movie but a setting for Booth's performance but I don't think that's quite fair. Inge's play and Ketti Frings' adaptation of it for the screen is a solid piece of drama. But there's no getting around the fact that Booth's bravura performance, which won her a best actress Oscar, takes no prisoners. Alas, poor  Lancaster can't hold his own with her. Not that he's bad, he's not but it's just that he's so completely miscast that he fades. Watching him, I couldn't help but think how perfect Fredric March or maybe even Spencer Tracy would have been. But Lancaster was there for box office insurance, this was Booth's feature film debut and she had no box office clout. With Richard Jaeckel and Philip Ober.