Heavyweight contemporary drama adapted from the successful play by William Inge documenting the unhappy, childless marriage of Burt Lancaster and Shirley Booth's Doc and Lola. After marrying young, when Lola accidentally became pregnant, the viewer understands that any spark in their marriage disappeared when she lost the child and couldn't have another. Doc, who forfeited his medical career for the marriage has become an alcoholic and Lola apparently has come to dote on their pet dog Sheba. As the film commences we learn that Doc, a regular at A.A., has been dry for a year while Lola pines for her little dog which has been missing for weeks. When a young, pretty college student Marie (Terry Moore) rents their spare room and brings home a hunky freshman with the only-in-plays name of Turk (Richard Jaeckel) tensions rise as Doc identifies the young girl as the daughter he never had and inwardly becomes fiercely protective of her. Lola is oblivious to this and indeed seems to enjoy watching the rough romancing of Marie by Turk. Is this old, dusty couple reliving their past when they see under their own roof the passion between the two youngsters, he wishing he'd suppressed his original desire because of where it has led him and her wishing back her own youth when she was young, slim and pretty and had a string of competing beaus at the time.
Inge's frankness in realistically depicting sexual tension to the backdrop of a loveless marriage between an ordinary middle-aged couple with the overhanging spectre of alcoholism must have seemed like strong stuff at the time pushing further at the door being broken down by fellow playwrights Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. Inge's characters to me seem more ordinary and real, certainly than Williams and are posited in more credible everyday situations and speak more naturally with a commendable lack of grandstanding soliloquising. It does seem as if he has taken the roof off Doc and Lola's dingy, claustrophobic apartment to allow the viewer access to their desperate and needy lives.
First time director Daniel Mann does a reasonable job filming the play although there is evidence of poor editing when he makes unnecessary cuts especially in the kitchen scenes between Doc and Lola. Lancaster's casting was criticised at the time for seeming too young for the part and you can see him trying too hard to compensate for this with the almost zombie-like way he plays the part. He then overdoes his big breakdown scene when he releases all his suppressed emotions at Lola, fuelled of course by the bottle. Booth however is great and I'd say well worth her Oscar nod as the dumpy, dowdy, damaged wife trying to gravitate towards something like a happy married life. Moore was Oscar nominated too as the unwitting young catalyst for the drama which follows her incursion into this staid household.
This movie, flawed and imbalanced as it is, nevertheless must have sent some shock waves through the American viewing public at the time who probably weren't used to seeing a man, even under the influence of drink, berate his wife so insultingly and in its way probably helped further push back the fossilised Production Code of the day. A better reason to watch it however is to catch Booth's moving performance as a broken woman who tries to pull herself together to help rescue her even more broken husband and with it their broken down marriage.
Inge's frankness in realistically depicting sexual tension to the backdrop of a loveless marriage between an ordinary middle-aged couple with the overhanging spectre of alcoholism must have seemed like strong stuff at the time pushing further at the door being broken down by fellow playwrights Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams. Inge's characters to me seem more ordinary and real, certainly than Williams and are posited in more credible everyday situations and speak more naturally with a commendable lack of grandstanding soliloquising. It does seem as if he has taken the roof off Doc and Lola's dingy, claustrophobic apartment to allow the viewer access to their desperate and needy lives.
First time director Daniel Mann does a reasonable job filming the play although there is evidence of poor editing when he makes unnecessary cuts especially in the kitchen scenes between Doc and Lola. Lancaster's casting was criticised at the time for seeming too young for the part and you can see him trying too hard to compensate for this with the almost zombie-like way he plays the part. He then overdoes his big breakdown scene when he releases all his suppressed emotions at Lola, fuelled of course by the bottle. Booth however is great and I'd say well worth her Oscar nod as the dumpy, dowdy, damaged wife trying to gravitate towards something like a happy married life. Moore was Oscar nominated too as the unwitting young catalyst for the drama which follows her incursion into this staid household.
This movie, flawed and imbalanced as it is, nevertheless must have sent some shock waves through the American viewing public at the time who probably weren't used to seeing a man, even under the influence of drink, berate his wife so insultingly and in its way probably helped further push back the fossilised Production Code of the day. A better reason to watch it however is to catch Booth's moving performance as a broken woman who tries to pull herself together to help rescue her even more broken husband and with it their broken down marriage.