Sweet Bird of Youth **** (1962, Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Ed Begley, Mildred Dunnock, Rip Torn, Shirley Knight) – Classic Movie Review 5236

Writer-director Richard Brooks’s 1962 movie is a really rather impressive, fine and resonant film version of this esteemed and typical Tennessee Williams play. Paul Newman gives an attractive performance as the ambitious but charming young Hollywood drifter Chance Wayne, who returns home and stirs up a hornets’ nest.

The screen censorship of the day muddles Tennessee Williams‘s motivations, but there are still plenty of well-taken chances for meaty acting. Ed Begley won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar as small town boss Tom Finlay, the vengeful father of the young woman (Shirley Knight) whom Newman once seduced and now rekindles an affair with.

Geraldine Page was Oscar nominated and won the Golden Globe as Best Actress for her searing turn as Alexandra Del Lago, the faded, sluttish and drunken movie star Newman comes home with, and Knight was Oscar nominated as Best Supporting Actress.

Four of the film’s stars – Newman, Page, Rip Torn and Madeleine Sherwood – recreate their Broadway roles.

Also in the cast are Philip Abbott, Corey Allen, Barry Cahill, Barry Atwater, Dub Taylor, Charles Arnt, James Chandler, Mike Steen and William Forrest.

It was remade for TV by Nicolas Roeg in 1989 with Elizabeth Taylor, Mark Harmon and Rip Torn (again).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5236

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