Splendor in the Grass (1961)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Elia Kazan

Writer:

William Inge (writer)

Release Date:

10 October 1961 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

A LOVE STORY UNLIKE ANY OTHERS !!

Plot:

A fragile Kansas girl's unrequited and forbidden love for a handsome young man from the town's most powerful family drives her to heartbreak and madness.

Plot Keywords:

Kansas | Stock Market Crash | 1920s | High School | Forbidden Love

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Natalie Wood	...	Wilma Dean 'Deanie' Loomis
Warren Beatty	...	Bud Stamper
Pat Hingle	...	Ace Stamper
Audrey Christie	...	Mrs. Loomis
Barbara Loden	...	Ginny Stamper
Zohra Lampert	...	Angelina
Fred Stewart	...	Del Loomis
Joanna Roos	...	Mrs. Stamper
John McGovern	...	Doc Smiley
Jan Norris	...	Juanita Howard
Martine Bartlett	...	Miss Metcalf
Gary Lockwood	...	Toots
Sandy Dennis	...	Kay
Crystal Field	...	Hazel
Marla Adams	...	June

Also Known As:

Splendour in the Grass (UK)

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #19453) | Canada:PG

Filming Locations:

4144 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

NBI Productions

Trivia:

Film debuts of Warren Beatty', Sandy Dennis, Phyllis Diller, Marla Adams and Eugene Roche.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In Bud's basketball game, the free throw lane is twelve feet wide. Even at the college level this width did not appear until 1957.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Wilma Dean: Bud...
Bud: Deanie, please...
Wilma Dean: Bud, I'm afraid. Oh, Bud... don't, Bud.
Bud: Deanie...
Wilma Dean: No... we mustn't, Bud... no... no...
[he gets out of the car]
Wilma Dean: Bud, don't be mad.
Bud: I better take you home.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Indie Sex: Teens (2007) (TV)

Get The Kleenex Ready

So poignant, it hurts. And I'm a heterosexual male who enjoys football and grunge. Though some of the attitudes toward sex have been tempered in the intervening years, the turmoils and pressures of being a teen ring just as true today 42 years after this film's release. Kazan is a master at capturing those wrenching angsty adolescent and post-adolescent moments of emotional vulnerability and doubt, especially concerning the love/hate between children and their parents, and this is among his best work. A reminder that wistful remembrances of the seeming innocence and happiness of youth are probably inaccurate, and also ironically that there is seemingly something idealistic lost or compromised when we enter adulthood. Kudos to the entire cast but in particular, Natalie Wood is scintillating, perfectly encapsulating the joys and horrors of someone caught up in the dizzying power and raging hormones of teen love. Beatty is solid, too, if a bit overly earnest.

All of the twists and turns of the plot work, though ultimately Bud's family's economic setbacks and deaths and Didi's family's successes are mere soap operatic window dressing to the "A" plot line, which is the heart tugging reality of "nothing bringing back the hour of the Splendor In The Grass" for Bud and Didi, though both obviously still share the feeling. This is the kind of movie that doesn't get made in America now because of the non-commercial (but accurate) ending. Okay, they broached it in the less psychologically challenging CASTAWAY, but slapped on a happy ending afterwards.

SPLENDOR is not perfect; Bud's father (Pat Hingle) is a little overwrought and stereotypically drawn as the socioeconomic snob with castratingly ambitious designs on Bud's future. Bud's sister (Barbara Loden) is similarly too pat as the troubled, neglected child who does all she can to get daddy's disapproval. Still, any of the soapy aspects of the plot just fall away when the Beatty / Wood romance plot line gets cooking. They got the meat of this movie just right and the result is one of the most memorable and vivid examples of young romance ever set down on celluloid. Don't miss it!