Splendor in the Grass (1961)

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

Director:

Elia Kazan

Writer:

William Inge

Stars:

Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Pat Hingle

Won 1 Oscar. Another 2 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

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

Storyline

It's 1928 in oil rich southeast Kansas. High school seniors Bud Stamper and Deanie Loomis are in love with each other. Bud, the popular football captain, and Deanie, the sensitive soul, are "good" kids who have only gone as far as kissing. Unspoken to each other, they expect to get married to each other one day. But both face pressures within the relationship, Bud who has the urges to go farther despite knowing in his heart that if they do that Deanie will end up with a reputation like his own sister, Ginny Stamper, known as the loose, immoral party girl, and Deanie who will do anything to hold onto Bud regardless of the consequences. They also face pressures from their parents who have their own expectation for their offspring. Bud's overbearing father, Ace Stamper, the local oil baron, does not believe Bud can do wrong and expects him to go to Yale after graduation, which does not fit within Bud's own expectations for himself. And the money and image conscious Mrs. Loomis just wants...

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Plot Keywords:

kansas | high school | teenager | stock market crash | 1920s | 

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Taglines:

It's unrelenting moments, Its tragedies and splendors!

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 November 1961 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Esplendor en la hierba

Filming Locations:

Riverdale Country School, Bronx, New York, USA

Box Office

Gross USA:

$8,720,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Newtown Productions, NBI Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The nightclub owner played by Phyllis Diller is Texas Guinan, a real-life New York nightclub owner of the 1920's. "Hello, suckers!" was her standard nightly greeting to her nightclub patrons.

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Goofs

During the bath tub scene, there is chunk of dry ice providing the "steam".

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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.

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Crazy Credits

and introducing Warren Beatty

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Connections

Referenced in American Masters: None Without Sin (2003)

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Soundtracks

Chopsticks
(1877) (uncredited)
Music by Euphemia Allen
Played on piano by Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty

User Reviews

Love can drive you really crazy.

It must have been so easy and tempting to turn this movie into something overblown and melodramatic but the reason why "Splendor in the Grass" works out is because it doesn't fall for any of that and manages to be an original and effective movie within its genre, without actually featuring an original story.

It's fair to say that it's being thanks to Elia Kazan's directing and storytelling technique that this movie works out as something so effective and powerful. He slowly lays everything out and develops the story and all of its characters and their (love) relationships with each other. It makes all of its build up work out, as well as the pay off, at the end of it all. It besides is being a movie that really give all of its actors the room to really shine and tell the story, at times without using any words.

Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty were such a great young screen couple within this movie. You could really feel their love and all of their emotions within this movie. But the movie has many more other great characters and actors in it, such as Pat Hingle, in perhaps his very best role. Such a shame that as an actor he never really received the recognition he deserved because he was a really capable one, who had a wide range as well.

The movie doesn't ever get overblown or sappy, despite of all of its heavy handed subjects in it. I mean, lots of stuff and drama is happening in this movie but yet it really manages to remain a really down to Earth one. Really no matter how unlikely the story ever gets, the movie manages to make everything come across as something realistic. You can feel all of the emotions the characters have to suffer through, which is of course about the biggest compliment you can ever give any drama.

Really a must-see if you're into old fashioned, big, family-drama's.

8/10

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