Come Back Baby (1967)

As Greene describes it, the film follows “three young men living together in poverty in a run down section of a large city, where life stands still as it does nowhere short of prison.” Terry Riebling plays Cal Thacker, an aspiring artist reeling from the break-up of a relationship, who seeks oblivion in booze, crashes his motorcycle, and rages at his roommates.

Come Back Baby was shot in the shadow of Forbes Field and the movie unfolds across a recognizable Pittsburgh landscape. Events primarily take place in and around a South Bouquet St. apartment and include numerous street scenes where the stadium and other city landmarks feature prominently. This is a distinctively Pittsburgh film, and it was selected by Jonas Mekas for national exhibition via Filmmakers Distribution Center.

Yet the movie failed to make a lasting impression upon limited release in 1968. Aside from a smattering of TV screenings over the subsequent decade, it has been completely unavailable. Now the only known 16mm print has been digitally scanned, and, for the first time in many decades, Come Back Baby returns. P David Greene and film historian Michael Prosser will join us for discussion of the film after the screening.

Directed by David Allen Greene

1967 | USA | English language | DCP made from original 16mm elements