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Come Back, Little Sheba (1952)
Shirley Booth's well-deserved Oscar Win
The William Inge Play comes to life with beautiful performances by the leads. Shirley Booth is the long-suffering wife of alcoholic Burt Lancaster, who seems to be chronically "between relapses". When the childless couple takes in a college girl as a boarder, melancholy parental feelings come up. We learn that when the couple were young sweethearts, an unplanned pregnancy was a source of shame and "forced" them to marry, only to suffer a tragic miscarriage. This must have brought on the alcohol addiction for "Doc" (Lancaster). The scenes where "Doc" falls off the wagon and requires extreme hospital care are heartbreaking. When his wife (Booth) telephones her parents in her despair, and is brushed off by her mother, it is clear that the "family" has long given up on "Doc", and subsequently their own daughter. - Little Sheba, the little stray dog the couple had taken in, is never seen, and is only referred to. Metaphorically, a brief substitute for someone or something to give them a distraction from their worries, and perhaps to give them both a feeling to be needed.
This is one of the classic tear-jerkers. If you enjoy a good cry, they don't come much better than this! A beautiful film, and Shirley Booth's finest performance!
Die Unverbesserlichen (1965)
Realistic 1960s German Family Drama - Mother Knows Best
The role of Kathe Scholz earned Inge Meysel the nickname "Mother of the Nation". As Mutter Scholz, she always gave 110% of whatever it took to keep 3 generations of their working class family (all stuffed into one apartment) afloat. Never ending financial difficulties, along with the daily ups and downs offered plenty of material to keep on producing feature-length episodes about once each year. In those days viewership topped any TV ratings even another moon landing couldn't match. Another installment of "The Incorrigible Ones" was "must-see-TV" and the topic of any gossip the next day.
For openers, the Scholz Family is "blessed" with a lottery windfall. Papa Scholz at last has the winning combination in the popular weekly "Toto Tip", and is due the equivalence of about 1 month's wages. Mother Scholz is the only one at home to accept the cash winnings, delivered to the door, and quickly decides to purchase a sewing machine to make her work as seamstress a lot more profitable. Of course, Papa Scholz had already made other plans. Not only did he secretly buy a used car, but managed to crash it before he even drives it home. The Scholz Family never seems to be able to catch a break. In the end, they always come to realize that in order to be happy, there are more important things than money, and of those they had plenty.
This is Classic German Television at its best. Launching the acting careers of many regular cast members, it solidified Inge Meysel's place in the entertainment world as Germany's supreme actress in countless subsequent roles as....mother!