Why is Doc never caLLED BY NAME? - Come Back, Little Sheba (1953) Discussion

[–] patty_27 19 years ago

well, my thought is that Lola calls him "Doc" and "Daddy". Two names of credentials that he never did become...

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I also think she calls him Daddy as her relationship with her own father has failed due to her falling pregnant and Doc in a way replaces that role.

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[–] heberald26 10 years ago

patty_27

I like your response. I had just focused on "Daddy", being her childlike personality and view of the world and her need for a Daddy figure since her ruptured relationship with her father. I had completely overlooked the fact that she also called him Doc. How stated that the two are credentials He never achieved is very interesting.

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[–] jghitchins 18 years ago

No I don't think so. Doc was his nickname (he was a doctor of chiropractic). It's not unusual for people to be always addressed by nickname and not their given name.

I think she called him daddy because back then it was not unusual for women to call their husbands that even if they were childless. When I was growing up this was very typical (though I always found it rather strange).

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[–] jg67 17 years ago

If that's his nickname why would anyone call him his real name?

How much did you put out to get in?
http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=5642503

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] Harold_Robbins 17 years ago

I've always been very uncomfortable hearing a grown- or middle-aged woman calling her husband or father "Daddy" - it made me uncomfortable in SHEBA, especially's as Lola's father is evidently still alive but wants nothing to do with her; in actress Faye Dunaway's autobiography, Dunaway kept referring to "my daddy" and I think that was one reason I never got far in the book.

"I don't use a pen: I write with a goose quill dipped in venom!"---W. Lydecker

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[–] 17 years ago

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[–] greendahlias 13 years ago

I remember that one of the sage pieces of advice (given tongue in cheek) one should remember is "never play cards with a guy named 'Doc.'"

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[–] alydar21 13 years ago

I too think the "Daddy" reference was due to the inability to have a relationship with her own father (as her real father wouldn't let her come home to emotionally recover as Dr. Delaney was recoving in the hospital). Throughout the movie she kowtowed to the supposed superior figure in the household, just as she probably did her own father.

Everything in a movie is there for a reason. Symbolism is rampant in this love story.

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[–] greendahlias 13 years ago

That sort of heavy handed symbolism is what ultimately sunk this drama. Too much manipulation, too little genuine feelings (not the ersatz kind on display here).

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[–] nscom-1 10 years ago

I know you'll probably never read this, but there is nothing whatsoever wrong with a person calling his or her father "Daddy." You obviously don't live in the South. Men and women alike call their father "Daddy," including me. I still refer to him as "Daddy," even though I'm 70 years old. There is no need for you to feel uncomfortable about it.

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[–] Gus-69 9 years ago

Excuse me. You stopped reading a book because the author calls her father "daddy"?

I think you have issues.

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http://viverdecinema.blogspot.com.br/

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[–] learyblaine 13 years ago

First, the question is not whether or not Doc (or Judge or whatever) is an acceptable or commonplace nickname. That's not the point. The question is, "Why did the writer choose specifically to use it here?"

And that has a very clear answer: it's used to demonstrate and symbolize the intellectual and emotional inequality in the marriage. Though they're both middle-aged, Doc's the adult and Lola's the child.

And this distinction is very carefully wrought, via the speech patterns, posture, facial expressions, etc. They all reinforce the gulf between these two people who find themselves on drastically different planes at this stage in their lives.

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[–] jones7418 12 years ago

Lola called him "Daddy" because when they first fell in love in the 1920's, it was a common term of endearment. She also called him Doc, which made me uncomfortable while watching the movie. Almost like a daily reminder/dig, that he knocked her up and wasn't able to finish med school because of it. Back then, chiropractors were not considered "real" doctors and were looked down on by the rest of the medical profession.

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[–] geoffrey-jackson 11 years ago

I think Lola called Lancaster's character Doc and Daddy to demonstrate her immaturity. She needed to forget the past and grow up.

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[–] ChitoRaffferty 11 years ago

inequality in the marriage.

If you buy into that (and I do) it's much easier to accept on stage. It's just too heavy handed seeing and hearing it on film. You either think she's a kook or possibly very ill.
I think we've seen similar things but never to this extent.

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[–] telegonus (727) 6 years ago

Different times, different word usage. I don't make that big a deal about such things any more than I analyze why a lot of younger people today use the word cool to describe anything positive without attempting to elaborate as to why or what it means to them. It's just "cool". Then there's the ever condescending "hello?" and that Boomer use of "awesome" as a reminder to all and sundry that they're still many years away from the rest home.

Okay, the "daddy" and "Doc" business was probably right for the period in which the play was written and the film was made: a few years after World War II. I'm guessing that they're a "survival" of an earlier time that was rapidly passing back then; maybe even used as a reassurance, a way that (maybe) some people had of reminding themselves of who they were and what others meant to them.

Yet in Come Back, Little Sheba there's an underlying irony in all this: Doc isn't a real doctor except in his being a chiropractor; nothing wrong with that but it's a different level of being a doctor than a physician or a dentist, suggestive of healing, something Doc could not do even for himself, which is to say get well.

A daddy Doc is not, either. Nor is he even, truly, a father figure to his wife. More like a failed father figure; what she wishes he could be, would want for him. Nor is he, obviously, a literal father in the biological sense, or not that we know of. Lots of wish fulfilling underpinnings in the names Lola calls her husband; and IMO this says more about who she is than anything about what he is; more like what he isn't.

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