Shelley Winters's platinum-haired, overweight, foul-mouthed Roseanne D'arcy is as much fun to watch as her pouty, midwestern Charlotte Haze in Lolita. As sharp and horrible as a root canal, she marches around the tiny apartment she shares with her daughter and father, ordering Selina about like an indentured servant: "Where's my dinner?" she bellows like a foghorn. Classic. The fight scene between she and her father is not to be missed, as the one-liners fly back and forth like knives. When the neighbors try to intervene, Shelley launches into them like the assault on Normandy, gleefully turning husband against wife.
Sidney Poitier is wonderful as always, as Gordon. As an actor, Poitier can do no wrong; he glides into the room with that curious mixture of animal magnetism and precise diction, sizing up a situation with the efficiency of an accountant. His Gordon Ralfe is realistic and fatherly toward Selina, even as he tries to ignore the underlying romantic tension between Selina and himself.
Elizabeth Hartman's Selina is so fragile that she looks as though she will break any moment. I have a hunch that much of her excellent performance is mined from her real-life depression, if her IMDb biography is accurate.
This is an excellent film, and highly recommended.