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Movies / On DVD / Sweet Bird of Youth
Sweet Bird of Youth

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Sweet Bird of Youth (1962)

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Reviews Counted:16

Fresh:12

Rotten:4

Average Rating:6.7/10

Runtime: 2 hrs

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: Paul Newman and Geraldine Page re-created their Broadway roles in Tennessee Williams's SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH for this stylish film adaptation. Newman stars as Chance Wayne, a Hollywood gigolo... Paul Newman and Geraldine Page re-created their Broadway roles in Tennessee Williams's SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH for this stylish film adaptation. Newman stars as Chance Wayne, a Hollywood gigolo determined to become a star, who teams up with Alexandra Del Lago (Geraldine Page), a washed-up Hollywood actress, on his way back to his small-town home. The town clamors at the reappearance of the charismatic Chance, who claims to have found fame and fortune in Hollywood, while the mysterious Alexandra lies in a drunken stupor in their hotel room. Alexandra convinces Chance she can make him a star, so he protects her reputation while rediscovering his love for his hometown sweetheart, Heavenly (Shirley Knight), whose heart he broke when he disappeared to find fame. Chance's attempts to reignite his passion for the naive Heavenly deeply angers her vengeful father, the cruel town "boss" (Ed Begley) who will stop at nothing to see his daughter's lost innocence avenged. Williams's hard-hitting themes of betrayal, mob violence, and deceit are fully examined in this fine adaptation. Geraldine Page ignites the screen as she seductively manipulates Chance and languishes alone in her prisonlike hotel room, terrified of losing her star status. [More]

Starring: Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Shirley Knight, Ed Begley

Starring: Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Shirley Knight, Ed Begley, Rip Torn, Mildred Dunnock, Madeleine Sherwood, Philip Abbott, Corey Allen

Director: Richard Brooks

Director: Richard Brooks
Producer: Pandro S. Berman
Composer: Robert Armbruster

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Sweet Bird of Youth

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1 - 16 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Page and Newman are fantastic.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
04/08/08
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Brooks' direction seems a little too stolid for all the sleazy, flaming passions. These are, however, given full measure by an excellent cast.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/09/06
Tom Milne
Tom Milne
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Newman began his splendid career on stage and returned triumphantly to Broadway to star in Williams' play about a gigolo with acting ambitions who attaches himself to an aging movie star.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
05/24/03
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It's a glossy, engrossing hunk of motion picture entertainment, slickly produced by Berman.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
04/08/08
Variety Staff
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

All of Williams's Southern Gothic themes are intermingled here: violence, familial conflict, sexual neurosis, the mentality of the mob. Most of it comes across as overheated nonsense.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
04/08/08
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Offers little indication of what made the original play interesting (especially in Elia Kazan's stage production), despite the fact that Paul Newman and Geraldine Page are called on to reprise their original roles.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
04/08/08
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader

Strong cast (Newman, Page) in deeply dramatic Williams drama.

comment Comment
02/22/08
Steve Crum
Steve Crum
Video-Reviewmaster.com

There is no clearer face for the conflict and despondency of the decade of the sixties than Newman's magnificent bastards.

Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | comment Comment
07/11/06
Walter Chaw
Walter Chaw
Film Freak Central

When approaching 1962's Sweet Bird of Youth, go for the parts rather than the whole.... [T]he film is a long drive through swampy melodrama.

Full Review Source: DVDJournal.com | comment Comment
05/07/06
Mark Bourne
Mark Bourne
DVDJournal.com

The film gets a little bogged down in minutiae and irrelevant side plots, but on the whole it's solid and searing.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
05/06/06
Christopher Null
Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com

In 1962, the film was deemed audacious due to its straighforward handling of such taboo issues as drugs, v.d., abortion, and degeneracy, but it's a comromised work that due to mores and censorship deviates substantially from Tennessee Williams' play.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
04/28/06
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

comment Comment
03/09/06
Jake Euker
Jake Euker
F5 (Wichita, KS)

Newman and Page elevate Williams' melodramatic romance.

comment Comment
02/10/06
Carol Cling
Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal

No review available.

comment Comment
12/21/05
Susan Granger
Susan Granger
www.susangranger.com

No review available.

comment Comment
10/09/05
Chuck O'Leary
Chuck O'Leary
Fantastica Daily

This cynical, coruscating drama has a strong look of being contrived, and Mr. Brooks' happy ending for it is implausible and absurd.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
05/09/05
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
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