Daily Archives: September 26, 2015

Room for One More
Directed by Norman Taurog
Written by Jack Rose and Melville Shavelson from the book by Anna Perrot Rose
1952/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] George ‘Poppy’ Rose: [to the dog after the kids give an anonymous vote] It was anonymous eh? Who did you vote for?[/box]

If an utterly predictable heartwarming comedy can be genuinely funny, this is the movie that will prove it.

George Rose (Cary Grant) works as an engineer.  His wife Anna (Betsy Drake) keeps house and looks after their three young children.  One day, Anna goes with her PTA group to visit an orphanage.  The director explains to the ladies how hard it is to place their older charges with families.  They are not signing up in droves to take one home with them.  The director asks Anna to stay behind.  There is a young adolescent girl with emotional problems that she thinks Anna could do wonders with.  Anna promises to bring the matter up with George.  He is unenthusiastic to say the least.  But the director simply shows up with the girl, Jane, and the couple agree to take her for two weeks.  She has a gigantic chip on her shoulder and a sharp tongue to boot.

It is not going to be a surprise to anyone that Anna ends up breaking through to the girl and she becomes one of the family.  After some time, the family agrees to take a disabled boy with them on their beach vacation.  He is even more of a pain than Jane was.  I could go on but it is unecessary.

I went into this one with some apprehension and wound up liking it a lot.  Cary Grant makes this movie.  He is playing against type as a family man and I was totally believing it within about five minutes.  He also has great chemistry with Betsy Drake.  I don’t thing I have seen Drake in anything before, a pity since I found her quite appealing.   There are some pretty funny bits here and the kids aren’t too annoying. If you are looking for something light and wholesome, this would fill the bill admirably.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY8V5_0oVEs

Montage of Clips

Come Back. Little Sheba
Directed by Daniel Mann
Written by Ketti Frings from the play by William Inge
1952/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/You Tube

[box] Doc Delaney: Alcoholics are mostly disappointed men.

Lola Delaney: Sure, I know. [pause] You was never disappointed, were you, Doc?[/box]

Shirley Booth is so entirely her character that she breaks your heart.

Lola Delaney (Booth) is one of those women that drives people nuts.  She can’t stop talking and aims way too hard to please.  While alone, she lives in a dream world of romance and music and her brief past as a pretty high school girl.  She stays in her nightclothes way into day and never quite gets around to any housekeeping or cooking. Beneath all of this it is clear that Lola is deeply, tragically lonely.  Her only true friend was apparently Sheba, a dog that ran away weeks or months ago that she continues to call.

Lola is married to Doc Delaney (Burt Lancaster), a recovering alcoholic.  He has somehow won back some of his chiropractic patients.  He spends as much time as possible at work or doing Twelfth Step work in AA.  He is always pleasant to Lola but you can tell that he finds it hard to tolerate her prattling.  He is also seething with resentment.  He was going to a prestigious medical school when he impregnated Lola.  Marrying her meant dropping out.  Then they lost the baby. As for Lola, her strict father has not forgiven her to this day.

Lola decides to rent a room in house.  The first applicant is a pretty young college student, Marie (Terry Moore).  She ends up taking a downstairs room that she can also use as a studio for her art work.  Terry is an incorrigible flirt and has Doc in her power from day one. Although she is engaged to a boy back home, she is dating a star athlete who spends the entire film trying to get into her pants.  Lola sees this as romantic and spies on their trysts. Doc definitely does not approve and finally breaks under the strain.

This is a movie to watch for the acting.  Lancaster is cast against type, presumably to add star appeal at the box office, but does well in his role.  Booth, who played the part on Broadway, is the soul of the film. Recommended.

A note about the YouTube version I watched: The print quality was very poor and the film was interrupted by ads at least every ten minutes.  The ads could be switched off after five seconds but it was still a distraction.  There is a version in English with Greek subtitles that looks somewhat better and has no ads.

Shirley Booth won the Oscar for Best Actress.  The film was nominated in the categories of Best Supporting Actress (Moore) and Best Film Editing.

Trailer