Sweet Bird of Youth

Chance Wayne returns to his Southern hometown in the company of Alexandra Del Lago, an aging film star whose career has faded. He has spent years trying to break into Hollywood, and he hopes that his connection to Alexandra will finally open doors for him. His real reason for coming back, however, is Heavenly Finley, the woman he once loved and left behind. Heavenly is the daughter of Tom "Boss" Finley, the town's powerful and corrupt political boss, who drove Chance away years earlier to keep him from her. Chance finds himself caught between Alexandra, who offers a possible path to stardom, and Heavenly, who still hopes to resume their relationship, while her father works to keep the two apart.

Richard Brooks directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Tennessee Williams, adapting Williams's play. It was Brooks's fifth film as director, following The Last Time I Saw Paris, Blackboard Jungle, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Elmer Gantry. Paul Newman plays Chance, with Geraldine Page as Alexandra and Shirley Knight as Heavenly; Ed Begley, Rip Torn and Mildred Dunnock appear in supporting roles, among 25 credited cast members. The production was a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Roxbury Productions release, with Pandro S. Berman producing.

On IMDb the film holds a critics' rating of 6.8 out of 10 from 19 reviews, and on TMDB it has a rating of 6.7 out of 10 from 140 votes, with the two measures landing close together. It runs 120 minutes.