SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH: Blu-ray (MGM, 1962) Warner Archive

Along with perhaps Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller, Thomas Lanier Williams III, better known to the literati as Tennessee Williams, is widely regarded as one of the most prolific American dramatists of the 20^th century, and for irrefutably good measure. Given a quick perusal of his body of work illustrates an embarrassment of riches: The Glass Menagerie (1944), A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), and The Night of the Iguana. Sandwiched at the tail end of this unprecedented tenure is Sweet Bird of Youth (1959) – a blistering morality play about a young man’s destructive ambition to be ‘someone’ - even at the expense of his own self-preservation. Arguably, Williams’ most celebrated work remains Cat on a Hot Tin Roof – adapted for the screen by Richard Brooks in 1958. And it is saying a great deal of Williams’ cache as a playwright, Brooks’ adaptation sought – as much as possible – to recapture William’s oft salacious back story, otherwise barred by Hollywood’s self-governing censorship. Between the cinematic ‘Cat’ and the movie version of ‘Bird’, Paul Newman’s star had risen. Once perceived as the Brando-light, Newman’s contract allowed him a break from his highly lucrative movie career to do stage work. The part of Chance Wayne – a handsome, though tragically flawed grifter, out for all he can get – on the stage was right up Newman’s alley. And Newman’s performance in the play had so impressed Williams, as it did Brooks (the two having electrified the screen in the movie version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), there really was no debate as to who should appear in the movie version of Sweet Bird of Youth, made and released in 1962.

Newman’s Chance is a disturbingly genuine and tortured soul – precisely the sort that appealed to Williams’ proclivity for brutal and faulty human beings, derailed by their own harsh design for living. On the stage, Chance Wayne’s perilous gambles lead to an underage girl’s hysterectomy after contracting syphilis, and, Chance’s own home-made castration. Ouch! As neither of these incidents could make the effective transition to the big screen, the former was rewritten to superficially ‘hint’ at a teenage abortion, while the emasculation was inferred by Chance having his nose bashed in with a cane. Outside of these necessary revisions, once again, Brooks and Newman ensured the bulk of William’s staggering verisimilitude emerged – this time, in Cinemascope, with all the unvarnished social angst and romantic perversion that this triumvirate of clever collaborators could muster. In its ‘out of town’ trials, Sweet Bird of Youth had costarred Tallulah Bankhead and Robert Drivas. But by the time the play reached New York, it was headlined by Paul Newman and Geraldine Page, with Sidney Blackmer, Madeleine Sherwood, Diana Hyland, Logan Ramsey, and Rip Torn in the supporting cast. For the big screen reincarnation, only Newman, Page, Sherwood and Torn reprise their roles, with Page and Torn actually carrying on a real-life love affair as production commenced. The two were eventually married in 1963. Brooks had already worked with Sherwood and Newman in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Shirley Knight replaced Diana Hyland as Heavenly Finlay, the long-suffering ingenue, at the mercy of both her love for Chance, and fear of her father; the role of the devastatingly corrupt politico, Tom ‘Boss’ Finley, gone to Ed Bagley for the movie. Bagley delivered a performance of such sustained wickedness; he was justly honored with an Academy Award as Best Actor.

The back story to Sweet Bird of Youth goes something like this. Failed hometown hunk, Chance Wayne has returned home to St. Cloud, Florida, driving the convertible of aging film star, Alexandra Del Lago, with the thoroughly intoxicated Ms. Del Lago (Geraldine Page) lulling about in the backseat. Seems, Del Lago endured a particular humiliation at a sneak prevue of her latest picture; the teenage audience, heckling her vamp on the screen. Distraught over the apparent slippage of her Teflon-coated image as a sex symbol, the ego-driven Del Lago has hit rock bottom, self-medicating with bourbon, marijuana and Chance, her studly boy-toy she can barely remember when sober. Chance is taking advantage, however, hoping to inveigle Del Lago for an opportunity to be fast-tracked in a film career of his own. Indeed, from his earliest days as a waiter and pool boy, Chance has always believed he was destined for greatness. To this end, he pursued a devastatingly superficial affair with teenage, Heavenly Finley – daughter of political puppet-master, Tom ‘Boss’ Finley who has everyone from the local constabulary to state judges in his pocket. After Heavenly became pregnant, Tom had the child aborted; the matter, quietly hushed to preserve his image as an upstanding citizen with his eye on the race for Florida’s governor.

To suggest Tom hates Chance is an understatement. Indeed, he sets his son, Tom Jr. (Rip Torn) to follow Chance’s every move, threatening him with physical harm if he has not left St. Cloud by the time Tom’s televised bid for the governor’s mansion is broadcast on the front steps of the local hotel he owns, and, where Chance and De Lago are currently staying. For his part, Chance is determined to keep Del Lago in her booze-soaked malaise; depressed and vulnerable to his advances. For some time thereafter, we focus on Chance’s insidious plan to get Del Lago to sign a contract in which he will be guaranteed the opportunity to star as her new leading man. To this end, Chance plies Del Lago with any distraction she could possibly indulge, including himself. The scene where Del Lago, ramped up on booze, pills and home-made reefers, encouraging Chance to lay next to her on a disheveled bed, while she casually peels back his shirt and tie to caress his taut chest, reeks of a more virile, if slightly distasteful and insidious sexual badinage we never get to see, but can imagine just from these few moments spent together. And indeed, Newman spends a good deal of their scenes together in half-undress, suggesting he has either just finished, or is about to begin, another round of mercenary love-making. Unbeknownst to Del Lago, Chance is recording all of her hallucinogenic rants – the tapes, an insurance to bribe the fading actress, in case she awakens from her stupor with more sobering thoughts in mind.

In the meantime, Heavenly is warned by Tom to steer clear of Chance. Tom is ruthless in his determination to keep them apart, striking Heavenly down into the surf as she willfully retreats from his abuse.  Aunt Nonnie (Mildred Dunnock) is most sympathetic to Heavenly’s plight. She can clearly see how much Heavenly still loves Chance, and, as time wears on, also begins to suspect Chance will not be able to let Heavenly go – a decision, certain to lead to his ruin. Meanwhile, Tom is carrying on an affair with Miss Lucy (Madeleine Sherwood). Precisely how he hopes to continue, as it flies in the face of his public model devoted to purity and chastity, remains unexplained. However, when Lucy playfully hints she knows too much already to derail his political chances, Tom brutalizes his lover, pinching her fingers between the lid of a jewelry box, and repeatedly walloping her across the cheek to illustrate the level of harm he is willing to inflict to keep anyone who double-crosses him silent. With the advancing Easter holiday, Chance elects to attend church, and the grave of his mother, encountering Nonnie near the cemetery. She forewarns of Tom’s intentions and pleads with Chance to get out of town before it is too late. Instead, Chance presents himself to Tom to beg for his understanding. He is now made aware of the real reason they are mortal enemies: the unborn bastard child he sired by Heavenly, aborted to cover up the scandal.

Meanwhile, Tom Jr. arrives at the hotel, threatening Del Lago if she and Chance do not check out of the hotel, time enough for their quiet departure before the live broadcast of Tom’s political speech is delivered on the steps of the hotel. At first, disregarding Tom Jr.’s menace, Del Lago is made to see reason, as he takes hold of her wrist, forewarning how the local police will her and Chance up for lewdness, public indecency and drug abuse – charges that could ostensibly wreck her career for good. Now, well-known critic and radio personality, Walter Winchell telephones Del Lago to inform that her latest picture has been critically well-received and is, in fact, a colossal smash hit, ringing registers everywhere. Indeed, Alexandra Del Lago has been deified once again as a sex symbol, embraced by fans all over the nation. Invigorated by the news, Del Lago frantically packs her bags, eager to return to Hollywood and her adoring public.  Returning to the hotel, Chance is told by Del Lago she has absolutely zero intent to follow through with her initial plans to help him become a star. Indeed, she now considers the contract she signed under duress, and while heavily medicated, to be null and void.

Realizing he has come to the end of his dream Chance offers up the taped conversations he was going to use to bribe Del Lago. Grateful, Del Lago encourages him to come away with her now, to escape whatever fallout is in store if they remain on Tom’s territory for one minute longer. Torn in his love for Heavenly, Chance is unable to accept Del Lago’s gracious invitation to remain in her employ. Recognizing she has lost her boy/toy to true love, Del Lago exits in haste, eager to escape before it is too late. As yet unaware Miss Lucy has spilled the beans about Tom’s sordid political past to the FBI and the newspapers, each having descended on the rally about to take place on the hotel’s front steps, Chance arrives to bear witness to Tom’s downfall. The press confronts Tom with the story he paid to have his own daughter’s illegitimate child aborted. As the shock waves of this revelation spread throughout the audience, chaos ensues. Cars are overturned, fires are started, looting begins.  Tom retreats with his reputation in tatters. Meanwhile, Chance has arrived at Tom’s mansion to implore Heavenly to come away with him, quite unaware she is not there. Instead, Tom Jr. and his goons arrive to demand satisfaction. Chance tries to defend himself. Alas, it is four against one, and Chance is quickly subdued. Tom Jr. has his thugs spread Chance across the hood of his car, removing his ‘ability’ to procure any further sexual conquests. As castration is quite out of the question, Tom Jr. instead bashes Chance’s face with a cane – symbolically, disfiguring him for life. Heavenly arrives with Tom and Aunt Nonnie. Appalled by what she sees, she rushes to Chance’s aid and comforts him in her arms. Staggering to his feet, Chance ushers Heavenly into his car and the two drive off together. Outraged, Tom demands they return. Instead, Nonnie smiles, telling Tom he can go to hell.    

Sweet Bird of Youth was a huge hit, quadrupling its $2 million outlay at the box office – a sizable success. Despite plot-altering revisions made to its stagecraft, the picture pulls no punches in delivering its fairly engrossing melodrama. The chemistry between Paul Newman and Geraldine Page is palpably adversarial, yet, tinged in a modicum of antagonistic empathy. What makes Chance Wayne such a terrible martyr is the fact his heart is not really in these deceptions he is trying to pull. He cannot rid himself entirely of his conscience and this proves his undoing. Newman allows us to see the affliction of this complicated man, while Page lends her deliciously overwrought and self-indulgent fading screen queen an air of sad-eyed fear for the inevitable and fast-approaching epoch, certain to put a period to her career. What remains marginally inexcusable about the production is the way MGM, in full cost-cutting mode throughout the 1960’s, is attempting to make a patchwork of from George W. Davis and Urie McCleary’s production design, using already free-standing sets on the back lot, seen in countless movies made over the decades at Metro. Save a few process plates, the cast and crew never made it to Florida where the action is set.

The exteriors of the hotel are hand-me-downs, first built for 1950’s Annie Get Your Gun, and then re-seen in the Jane Powell musical, Two Weeks with Love (made and released that same year). Del Lago’s suite is a cacophony of left-over props, dragged over from the Cat on a Hot Tin Roof set. I mean, she has two mirrored bureaus in her bedroom. Tom Finlay’s Southern Gothic manor house exterior is a free-standing façade, seen in too many MGM movies to list effectively here, while the swimming pool where we briefly glimpse Chance in his youth, making a dramatic dive to show off for Heavenly, belonged to Esther Williams – seen in virtually every one of her movies. The street and church where Chance begs Tom to hear him out are actually the Carvel set, built for the Andy Hardy film franchise. I could go on – but won’t.  As such, Sweet Bird of Youth has a real Hollywood back lot feel to it. There is nothing of Florida in it, depriving us of the moonlight and moss atmospheric touches that might otherwise have contributed to its visual appeal. Mercifully, it is the performances that count, and Brooks, ever cognizant of as much, has decided to concentrate on a sort of crackling screen intimacy between these offending characters that clicks as it should.

Warner Archive’s (WAC) new to Blu of Sweet Bird of Youth is fairly solid.  The Eastmancolor may not be quite as resilient as vintage Technicolor. Indeed, a few shots suffer from slight color fading.  Milton Krasner’s cinematography looks stellar overall; good contrast, a modicum of film grain, indigenous to its source, and, accurately rendered fine details popping as they should. One exception worth noting: the scene where Tom confronts Heavenly regarding her renewed attraction to Chance. It’s an awful blow up, deliberately achieved as Shirley Knight is given a good smack and jumps into water to momentarily escape her father’s wrath. Apparently, screen censorship is to blame for this dupe – the original two-shot of Bagley and Knight showing perky nipples through Knight’s thin cotton dress. As the movie had already been shot, and presumably, the sets, already dismantled, or possibly, Knight and Bagley’s participation could not be secured, the original shot had to stay in the picture – just not as originally photographed, but grotesquely masked and zoomed in to conceal the offending appendage. As a result, we have about 20 seconds of a woefully grainy dupe. It’s ugly, faded and fuzzy. Nothing could have been done here to improve the image, save, discovering the originally composed shot from a negative and reinserting it into the picture. But then, it wouldn’t be the movie fans remembered. The 1.0 DTS audio is adequate for this primarily dialogue-driven movie. Extras are all ported over from Warner Home Video’s retired DVD and include a careworn theatrical trailer, brief featurette on the making of the movie, and short subject. Bottom line: recommended.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

3.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

4

EXTRAS

1