clanciai The main interest of the film is its keen insight into the reality of alcoholism once it gets cured while the permanent risk of a relapse keeps hanging over you until it drops, which it doesn't always do, but it certainly does sometimes, like here, when the tenant of the Delaneys allows too much liberty to a playboy friend, which starts Burt Lancaster off into a terrible misdirection. The trigger was pulled, and the gun just went off.It's definitely Shirley Booth's film, but Burt is superb supporting her. She makes a pathetic wreck of a woman with a marriage on her hands that couldn't be avoided only because it went wrong from the beginning. Burt is not equally pathetic, after all, he took his responsibility and married her and stayed faithful, but it's a pathetic tragedy of an aborted marriage nonetheless, but they make the best of it and actually succeed.The other actors all play in the shadow of this relationship, which is gloriously documented and dissected indeed. The lost youth, the failed motherhood, the AA obligations, the bottle in the cupboard, that must not be touched... It's a wonderful chamber play totally indoors and void of all glamour and Hollywood tinsel but perfectly real - and tremendously exciting, because you are all the time afraid of what will happen, the sleeping volcano of Burt Lancaster erupts in every film, and so it happens. That's because every film of his is worth seeing and more than once.

greg horoski Hard to say too much to laud this movie. It plays much like a Broadway play and is lovely on film.If you only have a vague remembrance of Shirley Booth as the domestic Hazel in the early TV comedy, then you don't know her well. Terrific story, great acting and a very intricate story woven by masters of screenplay. Revel in the classics so you can demand better of today's entertainment fare.

writers_reign Playright William Inge had something of a penchant for the catalyst, employing them to good effect in Picnic, Bus Stop and, of course, in this play. Whilst Tennessee Williams is arguably a better dramatist he doesn't always translate to the screen as well as Inge who had four solid successes with the three mentioned above plus The Dark At The Top Of The Stairs, even Ted Williams didn't hit like that. It is, of course, Shirley Booth - in her film debut - who carries the film though Burt Lancaster is solid in support playing much older than his real age. Trivia buffs will relish the fact that Humphrey Bogart lobbied for the part of Doc and was nearer to the correct age than Lancaster; this is only trivia if you know that Booth made her stage debut in 1925 opposite Bogie. This is a fine film that stands up well after more than sixty years.

Dalbert Pringle If nothing else - I think that this stark, sad, and very despairing drama (that touches on such subject matter as - alcoholism, bad marriages, loneliness, and youthful lust) is well-worth a view since it gives the spectator a very clear idea of the distinctive and dynamic acting-styles of the early-1950s.In particular - This 1952 film (which was adapted from a stage play of the same name) seems to exemplify that era of movie-making quite commendably as it attempts to faithfully portray "realism" without the usual Hollywood fluff & glamour thrown into the mix.Yes. This film contains its fair share of both terrific, as well as terrible moments - But, in the long run, I'd say that it hit its intended mark more often than it missed.54 years old at the time, actress Shirley Booth was, to me, quite believable in her part as Lola Delaney, the gabby, frumpy, lonely wife of Doc Delaney, a secretly resentful, recovering alcoholic.This would be Booth's first film as an actress (though she had performed on stage for many years prior). For her in-depth portrayal as Lola, she won an Oscar for "Best Actress".