Come Back Little Sheeba

I guess I'm watching a lot of Burt Lancaster movies. I watched The Swimmer again today, watched The Sweet Smell of Success a few days ago and Atlantic City which I wrote about on here.

I just watched Come Back Little Sheeba, a depressing story about an aging, isolated couple, their lives ravaged by the husband's alcoholism. It was almost like Of Mice and Men or Midnight Cowboy in that the husband and wife were cut off from their families. They had no one but each other and they weren't doing each other much good.

Shirley Booth as Lola seems a little like Edith Bunker. She's very kind and pitiful in her way, pining for her lost dog, with a husband who's terribly stodgy now that he's off the bottle and in recovery. But she had a seedy side. She leers at the college boy modeling for the art student they rent a room to and she tells her husband she's been sitting in the dark watching them make out.

Their lives seemed okay to me if they'd just cheer up.