Sweet Bird of Youth
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Movie Reviews of Sweet Bird of Youth
Movie Review: A little-known but dandy drama with fine performances
Summary: 4 Stars
Those behind the success of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" - playwright Tennessee Williams, actor Paul Newman, producer Pandro S. Berman, and writer-director Richard Brooks - were together again for this journey into Southern angst and self-deception.
And a fifth force reappeared, too, to help shape the film version of the play: the Hollywood censors, notes the new book "Tough as Nails: The Life and Films of Richard Brooks" (available from amazon.com).
A movie that climaxes with the "hero" being castrated? One with a female character who contracts venereal disease and undergoes a hysterectomy? Maybe on the Broadway stage, but not in a movie, not in 1962. Though limping a bit after the success of boundary-pushing movies like Brooks' "Elmer Gantry" and most anything directed by Otto Preminger, the Production Code could still force changes. The castration of Chance Wayne becomes a broken nose, and Heavenly Findlay appears to have undergone an abortion.
Yet "Sweet Bird of Youth" remains a compelling drama thanks to its performances, particularly that of star Geraldine Page, supporting player Ed Begley, who won an Oscar as Boss Findlay, and young Shirley Knight. This movie captures a sense of the stage performances of Page and Newman and showcases a new talent in Knight.
Where "Cat" seemed bound to one or two sets, Brooks opened up "Sweet Bird" and made good use of its Gulf setting. Compare the ending of the movie with that of the play. One is happy and hopeful, the other tragic and disturbing. Can you guess which ending was written by Tennessee Williams?
Tough as Nails: The Life and Films of Richard Brooks (Wisconsin Film Studies)
Movie Review: Sanitized version of a powerful Williams melodrama
Summary: 4 Stars
Paul Newman was always worth watching, and this is certainly not his worst movie, but I would rate Geraldine Page's splendid version of the drama queen, the down and out Hollywood diva with the come back knack, even higher.
If you don't know the story: Newman comes to his hometown on the Gulf coast with drunken Page in tow; he is her driver plus other jobs; they have some beautiful developments of their relationship, and this is really the best aspect of the movie. His ambition is to make her help him to the acting career that has eluded him so far.
His problem in his home town is that he is not welcome. He was the unacceptable lover boy of the town boss's daughter. The boss had sent him away, but he came back a few times. Now the patience with him has run out, mainly because of some consequences that the Newman character doesn't even know about yet.
And 'not welcome' means more than just getting frowned upon. The play has some drastic action which is left out here. The play is not remotely considering a happy end, but Hollywood seems to have insisted. Sorry if that is a spoiler, but with 'classic' theater plays one assumes that people don't watch them for 'suspense'.
Nothing about the movie is outstandingly original, but you get the essence of TW's play, plus strong acting by Newman and Page, so no bad choice.
Movie Review: What a treat!
Summary: 4 Stars
Watching the young and electrifying Paul Newman and the mesmerizing Geraldine Page in this adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play is a real treat. It's a pity they had to change the ending of the original play (among other things) to be "safer" for Hollywood standards in the 60's. Still it's a great story and we keep wanting more and more and more of Newman and Page together.
The short documentary on the film is also nice, with Shirley Knight, Rip Torn and Madeleine Sherwood sharing memories from the film set.
The widescreen transfer is fine even if the image is not as clear as it should be.
Movie Review: The film has a splendid array of impressive performances...
Summary: 3 Stars
Chance Wayne (Newman) has only one talent--sexual prowess--and he's been bumming around for several years, satisfying rich women in the hope that he can find fame in Hollywood...
He picks up a faded screen star, Alexandra Del Lago (magnificently played by Geraldine Page), who takes constant refuge in vodka, hashish, oxygen masks and young studs... She promises to get him a movie contract, and they drive to his Southern hometown, where he plans to find his sweetheart, Heavenly Finley (Shirley Knight), and take her along to Hollywood... He doesn't know that on his last visit he left her pregnant, that she had an abortion, and that her father, the corrupt and vigorous politician Boss Finley (Ed Begley), is out to get him...
Through a strong, powerful performance, Newman managed to be a celebrity--dropping names, giving large tips, arrogantly stating: "Just because a man's successful doesn't mean he has to forget his hometown."
He's also extremely sneaky and gently tolerant, as he charms Alexandra while recording what she's saying for blackmail purposes... But he's finally pathetic: a desperately insecure man, addicted to amphetamines, attending to Alexandra and performing as a lover at her whim... His mask of swaggering bravura really disappears when he tries to see Heavenly... He becomes confused and desperate--walking with regular steps, rubbing his hands together, pleading urgently over the phone...
Movie Review: "Failure is a contagious disease".,
Summary: 3 Stars
"Sweet Bird of Youth" (1962) was directed by Richard Brooks who also wrote the screenplay based on one of the darkest and most pessimistic plays by Tennessee Williams. Paul Newman stars as Chance Wayne, handsome, charming, lusty, and fame-hungry young gigolo who returns to his Southern home town after long stay in Florida and Hollywood where he tried to make a career as a movie star. He hoped to reconnect with two women he loved and left behind, his mother and his first love, Heavenly Finley. He hopes to make it this time because he brought with him a famous and once beautiful but now fading movie star with drinking problems, Princess Cosmonopolous aka Alexandra Del Lago (Geraldine Page). She needs a companion, he needs her connections. Once again, he will realize and bitterly admit that "Failure is a contagious disease". His mother died just before he returned and Heavenly's father, a local political boss (Ed Begley), hates him and swears revenge for having broken his daughter's heart. The film works thanks to the wonderful performances from Page, Begley, and breathtaking Paul Newman who looked like he was able to catch the sweet bird of youth and who gave an outstanding performance. Brooks changed the play's ending to give Chance and Heavenly hope for the better future but in the light of what we've seen, the movie's final feels like forced and unsatisfying.