IMDb plot summary: A drifter and a faded film star, both traumatized by Hollywood, arrive to the guy's hometown, where the old bitter memories revive again.
Directed by Richard Brooks. Starring Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Shirley Knight, and Ed Begley.
This film version has Paul Newman and Geraldine Page reprise their Broadway roles as the young actor and older actress, and they're both fantastic in it. Like so many of Williams' characters, these two are trapped and suffocating under society's expectations of them, and trying to rise above those expectations just seems to result in disaster. I'd just read the original play and was a little startled to see the film tack on an unexpected happy ending, which definitely doesn't serve the story as well as the original, darker ending. But, again like much of Williams' work, this story rises and falls on the strength of the actors, and I could watch Newman and Page play off each other all day. They bring so much more to these roles than meets the eye, and just when I think I've gotten them figured out, they reveal another side of the character. They make this worth the watch for sure.
How it entered my Flickchart:
Sweet Bird of Youth > To Be or Not to Be (1942)
Sweet Bird of Youth < The Game
Sweet Bird of Youth < Ramona and Beezus
Sweet Bird of Youth > I Love You, Man
Sweet Bird of Youth > Never a Dull Moment
Sweet Bird of Youth < VeggieTales: Esther, the Girl Who Became Queen
Sweet Bird of Youth < Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
Sweet Bird of Youth > The Fly (1986)
Sweet Bird of Youth > Police Story
Sweet Bird of Youth < Clueless
Sweet Bird of Youth > The Speed Cubers
Final spot: #1333 out of 3337, or 60%.
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