Sweet Bird of Youth

source: Sweet Bird of Youth

Over my years of movie watching I have come to regard Paul Newman as one of the very best actors of modern times. Here he was about 35 and playing a small town guy, Chance Wayne, from the Gulf Coast who is convinced that he has the looks and talent to make it in Hollywood, so he has been gone from home a number of years, leaving behind an old girlfriend (Heavenly) and a few enemies who used to be friends. As the movie starts we see Chance driving a convertible, and a sign 'leaving Florida', and west along the Gulf Coast, with a sleeping woman in the rear seat. We soon find out she is Hollywood actress Alexandra Del Lago (Geraldine Page, also about 35), drunk on pills and vodka. Seems she wasn't too sure about the reception her latest movie was getting so she was running away and hiding. It never is clear where the movie is actually shot, but it appears to be along the Mississippi coast. Chance Wayne's whole existence seems to be using his pretty boy looks to romance women, like Del Lago, who he thinks can get him into movies. But now back home, he runs up against his former girlfriend's's corrupt politician dad 'Boss Finley (Ed Begley in an award performance) and 'Junior (Rip Torn), who are out to send him along the road for having done Heavenly wrong. On his side is Aunt Nonnie (Mildred Dunnock), who works at the Finley house. The movie has all the look and feel of a Tennessee Williams play or movie. The characters are exaggerated but are entertaining. SPOILERS FOLLOW. The movie differs in important ways from the play. Instead of having given Heavenly venereal disease, which resulted in a hysterectomy's, in the movie he had gotten her pregnant which resulted in an illegal abortion. Near the end instead of castrating Chance to remove his charm, 'Junior' only broke his nose, and it appeared Chance and Heavenly would end up together. He never got his opportunity for a screen test, as Del Lago found out her latest movie made her a hit again, and she didn't need Chance. The changes were made to get approval from the movie censor board.

In one of the silliest serious movies of the 1960's, Tennessee Williams has stereotyped everyone except Aunt Donnie as corrupt, nasty, evil trash. Mr. Williams must have had an amazing hatred for the human race to have written the whole lot of us as such garbage. A partial list of persons stereotyped for Mr. Williams broad brush of contempt: Hollywood actresses, gigolos, politicians, police, churchgoers, anyone from the South, doctors, hotel managers, plus anyone just standing around. Every scene in the film is predictable; none of it reflects any real people or situations; yet there are a large number of "intellectuals" who have always swallowed up his drivel. To be fair, a few of his works, including "Streetcar" are really good. Sweet Bird of Youth isn't one of them.

There are numerous qualities that make SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH a stellar film, starting with the tremendous source material. Williams' tale of fading film actress and princess-by-marriage Alexandra Del Largo escaping Hollywood after a failed comeback attempt and being taken advantage of by aspiring actor/gigolo Chance Wayne is full of ripe drama, all of which is fully exploited by the 1962 film. Williams' typical subplots of southern hypocrisy are also well incorporated into central story by director/screenwriter Richard Brooks (who also helmed 1958's sensational CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF), and actually heighten the tension of the piece. Even with the censorship of early-sixties cinema (including an unnecessarily re-written ending), Brook's SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH still packs a mean punch. Also crucial to the film's success is casting. No matter what film you're watching, you can always depend on Paul Newman to deliver the goods (which is precisely why he remained a top box office drawl up through the mid-eighties), and he gives one of his absolute best performances SWEET BIRD. Newman had originated the role of Chance in the original stage production, and his immortal screen performance of the role has clearly benefited from the hundreds times that he had previously played the role on stage. Arrogant, masculine, and painfully gorgeous, Newman nearly incinerates the colloid! Also returning from the original stage play is Geraldine Page as Alexandra, the ultimate boozing, wash-up actress. Page is nothing short of sensational – a true thinking, feeling, conflicted woman who is desperate to run away from her problems, but completely uncertain of her next move. Alexandra is vain, insecure, and even comedic at times, and Page finds the perfect balance in her portrayal, as she understands that the very qualities that make Alexandra so strong is also what causes her to be weak. Page won a well-deserved Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama, but lost the Oscar to Anne Bancroft for her tour de force performance in THE MIRACLE WORKER - seeing that both performances are so phenomenal, I would venture to say that the votes for both awards were probably mighty close. The rest of the cast is no less impressive. Ed Begley won a Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as 'Boss' Finely, and it is refreshing to see the actor let loose in a vile performance without any obvious apprehension. Rip Torn and Mildred Dunnock are great in supporting bits, and Oscar-nominated Shirley Knight is hauntingly lovely as the appropriately named "Heavenly." Director Brooks also makes excellent use of the widescreen frame, composing many exceptional shots that are all but destroyed when the film is altered from its original Panavision format. Certainly some viewers will carp about the re-written ending (the studio demanded that things end "happily") as well as the removal of such hot-button topics as abortion and castration to appease the censors, yet none of these omissions dramatically affect the film. Even though he caved in to the studio in terms of the finale, director Brooks must be given credit for focusing on the characters and dialogue and avoiding the temptation to "dress" the play up for movie audiences. The film is firmly planted in its central relationships, and this is what carries the day. No matter how censorious the Production Code may have been, no one could mask the white-hot dynamic between Newman and Page.

Highflying melodrama permeates this Tennessee Williams play converted to film by Director Richard Brooks. What makes this Southern soap opera fascinating is the cast of tawdry characters, beginning with Chance Wayne (Paul Newman), a charming, ambitious gigolo who, despite his best efforts, can't quite make his worldly dreams come true. But this time he's got a real plan for success. Chance returns to his hometown on the Gulf Coast, bringing with him a boozed-out, high-strung movie star named Alexandra Del Lago (Geraldine Page). Chance hopes to grab his hometown girlfriend, Heavenly (Shirley Knight), and the three of them skedaddle off to Hollywood, so that Chance can make it big in the movies, with the help of Alexandra, of course. Thing is ... Alexandra is so spaced out, she can't remember who Chance is, or where she met him. Chance's homecoming is anything but cordial, mostly because of the influence of Heavenly's dad, 'Boss' Finley (Ed Begley) who, along with Finley, Jr. (Rip Torn), has it in for Chance. Complicating matters even more is Miss Lucy (Madeleine Sherwood), 'Boss' Finley's mistress whom Heavenly can't stand. Having originated as a stage play, the film takes place mostly indoors, and is very talky. But the Tennessee Williams dialogue is predictably incisive, with commentary both on the whims of success and on the fleeting nature of youth. By far, my favorite element of the film is the deliciously overwrought performance of Geraldine Page. With her distinctive voice, her mannerisms, and her stunning acting ability, she chews up the scenery and then some, overpowering everyone and everything else. No actress could have been more credible in the role of Alexandra, an almost comical character, whose firmness, vanity, self-centeredness, and dramatic flair make her both weak and strong at the same time. Although flashbacks tend to disrupt the flow, the film's screen story is otherwise very good. With great performances from multiple actors, excellent color cinematography, and an appropriately jazzy/blues score, "Sweet Bird Of Youth" is a film treat, in the grand tradition of cinematic melodrama.

Tennessee Williams was much more than a good writer, he was a man with sense to describe the misdeeds or wrong matters. The content of his novels is only comparable to Theodor Dreiser's ones.This film is a good example of Williams sense, and probably Paul Newman in the role of young Chance Wayne did not disappoint neither the director Richard Brooks nor Tenessee Williams. The film shows discrimination of rich over a poor guy, who was quite ignorant, but wanted to succeed as an actor in Hollywood. Instead he had to behave as Gigolo serving as a driver of famous actress, always far from his beloved girl due to the fact that she was rich and the daughter of city's major, while he was a nonety and poor. It is a kind of Romeo and Juliet but where money is the main limiting factor and not the rivalry of the families. Obviously his father wanted at any cost to prevent her to be with Chance. Certainly Tenessee Williams wanted to show the hypocrisy and false values of the medium where those persons were living, and he succeeded.

All the movie versions of Tennessee Williams' plays are bowdlerised to some extent, but for some reason this one particularly grates. Perhaps it is because I am a spoiled brat who was lucky enough to see the famous stage version with Lauren Bacall directed by Harold Pinter. You were left in no doubt in the stage version that Chance did not stand a "snowballs chance in hell" (forgive the pun on balls and chance) when he sent the Princess on her way. Still, the movie version has pace and charm. The thugs are heavy enough. Geraldine Page and Paul Newman are both superb. I have not yet seen Summer and Smoke but shall seek it out now having seen Page in this one. I think Paul Newman is better in this movie than he was in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, although overall I rate "Cat" higher than this one. The rally and the chaos arising from it all seems to happen a little too quickly in the film - of course it is incidental (offstage) in the play but it all seems to go haywire in the blink of an eye somehow. Nevertheless this is ultimately a chamber play and the movie version, bowdlerised though it might be, is a good proxy, especially for those unable to see a good production on the stage.

I saw this film the year it first came out, and recently again on video. My reactions were rather surprisingly much the same: it's second-rate Tennessee Williams all glitzed up with one of the three or four most memorable performances by an actor, woman or man, I've ever seen--Geraldine Page as the Princess. She's so good she even makes Newman look wooden. This isn't acting--it's something beyond performance.

This was a very tough movie to watch--far tougher than other Tennessee Williams adaptations that I have seen. The viewer is left almost breathless from all the many, many plot elements that occur so quickly. There is practically no sin that not been committed in the two hours of the film--hypocrisy, adultery, fornication, drug and alcohol abuse, physical violence and abortion all are dealt with in this movie! In many ways, this film made CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF and some other Williams plays look like Disney productions! As a result, you eventually get to the point where there is almost an overload of evils--you get numb due to all of it. There literally was enough going on in this movie to make two or three movies. Now the acting was exceptional throughout and technically it was an exceptional film as well. In particular, I felt that Ed Begley (who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for this film) and Geraldine Page were standout performers. In Begley's case, it must have been difficult to be THAT violent and malevolent. His extremes in mood and the very violent outburst with Madeleine Sherwood was exceptionally well acted. However, the even more difficult performance was that done by Geraldine Page who played a broken down and chemically dependent actress that still manages, from time to time, to have some amazing periods of lucidity and insight. Her part easily could have been like parody, but she infused it with realism. Now, of course Paul Newman was as always a wonderful actor in the film, and Rip Torn played a guy you just loved to hate. All in all, a very good but exceptionally difficult film to watch and one I would NEVER recommend children watch! It's just way too adult in content! SUPER-DUPER SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS UNLESS YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW HOW THE MOVIE AND PLAY DIFFERED. I WARNED YOU--STOP READING UNLESS YOU ARE REALLY CURIOUS. It turns out that this movie was toned down for the silver screen. In the play, Shirley Knight does not have an abortion due to becoming pregnant by Newman, but gets an STD and has a hysterectomy! Plus, in the end, Newman does not have his face mildly disfigured, but he is castrated! This puts a MUCH DIFFERENT spin on the film and there is no way Ms. Knight and Mr. Newman would have ever driven off together in the happier Hollywood version of the film. I can understand their need to tone it down, but it does severely lessen the impact.

Director Richard Brooks adapted this Tennessee Williams play about a small town ne'er-do-well who returns home on the arm of a boozing, faded movie star, which quickly stirs trouble with the town locals who are in the midst of a political upheaval. Talky material goes mostly flat, yet does get a boost from the sterling cast (Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Shirley Knight and Supporting Oscar winner Ed Begley). Censors were said to have removed much of the story's minutia for shockable 1960s audiences but, although this must have pained Brooks, he doesn't stage what's left with anything but melodramatic urgency. Remade (and improved) for TV in 1989 with Elizabeth Taylor as the actress. ** from ****