Sweet Bird of Youth

Liz Taylor takes the role Genevieve Page made her own, on stage and in Richard Brooks' 1961 movie version, as the fading Hollywood idol seeking solace in booze, pills, and the arms of masseur Harmon. Retreating to his small home town, she exploits his dreams of glamour, but the threatening ghosts of his past aren't far away. For all the cast's earnest efforts, passion fails to rise, and the stature of the Tennessee Williams source material seems diminished this time round (for TV), even if modern frankness allows more of the playwright's savage vision to come through than three decades previously.