Sweet Bird Of Youth (1962) Hollywood always saw hot properties in Tennessee Williams' overheated, sexually charged and often daringly perverse plays.......
But what a challenge the studios faced in adapting these plays for the screen while still laboring under the antiquated, G-rated moral guidelines of the Production Code.
Always rising to the challenge was Richard Brooks, the most literary-minded of writer-directors, who'd written, produced and directed versions of "Cat On A Hot Tine Roof", "The Brothers Karamozov"", "Elmer Gantry" and "The Blackboard Jungle"
As skilled at handling actors as he was at crafting screenplays, Brooks' films featured the biggest stars tearing into the meatiest roles they'd ever gotten their hands on. For "Sweet Bird Of Youth" he took no chances on the roster, importing most of the original Broadway cast.
Regardless of how much the play required Production Code sanitation, the actors still deliver all the fiery intensity of an uncut, unedited stage presentation. And nothing grabs an audience's attention like Tennessee Williams tortured sous haranguing each other at the top of their lungs.
Chance Wayne (Paul Newman), a prettyboy professional Gigolo, returns to the Gulf Coast town he fled in disgrace. And he's toting along drunk, drug-addled Alexandra Del Lago (Geraldine Page), the latest washed up Hollywood star whom he chauffeurs and screws as a way to break into the movies.
His most unwelcome return stirs up the usual melodramatic Tennessee Williams Sharknado of passions........Chance desperately hopes to make amends to Heavenly Finley (Shirley Knight), the love of his life, and daughter of his nemesis , Boss Tom Finley (Ed Begley), a powerful, corrupt Huey Long-type politico.
Boss Finlay, a cornpone fascist rabble-rouser, despises Chance as a lowlife opportunist who defiled Finlay before fleeing town to pursue his pathetic life as a boy-toy Hollywood hopeful. And along with Tom's violent, sycophantic son Tom Jr. (Rip Torn) he warns Chance to hit the road in a hurry.....or else risk castration.......ouch!
The conflicted, tormented Chance has his hands full beyond all measure. . He, tries to repair his severely damaged romance of Heavenly while he alternately soothes, services and even attempts blackmail on the mercurial Alexandra, given to multiple mood swings per minute.
Everyone in this cast acts at the very top of their craft.....particularly Page, really going to town as the diva on the downslide and Begley in full top-of-his-lungs bluster as the garrulous, overpoweringly evil Southern Fried tyrant.
But even as writers and directors were chipping away at the carved-in-stone commandments of the Production Code, the play's original ending (Chance dragged off for castrating) was still a bridge too far for mainstream studio movies. And so Richard Brooks devised a much lesser punishment for Chance and even something approximating a crowd pleasing ending......(and no doubt mollified countless girls and women who'd faint dead away at the mere thought of Paul Newman separated from his manhood. )
Still worth seeing for the highest level of its stellar performances, "Sweet Bird Of Youth", though sanitized and softened for your protection, still packs an entertaining punch. 4 stars (****)
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