Splendor in the Grass

Kansas, 1928. Deanie Loomis and Bud Stamper are in love at school. Both sets of parents say the same thing for different reasons: it cannot happen. Bud's father expects him to go to Yale and to amuse himself with other girls in the meantime. Deanie's mother wants her kept entirely away from sex. The pressure drives Deanie to a breakdown and she is institutionalised. When they meet again years later Bud is married with children and Deanie is engaged to someone else. Elia Kazan directed and produced. William Inge wrote the screenplay, his first work for the screen, and won an Oscar for it. Natalie Wood plays Deanie and Warren Beatty, in his first film, plays Bud. Wood was nominated for Best Actress. It took between 4 and 5.5 million dollars in the US and Canada and placed 47th on AFI's list of the 100 greatest love stories in 2002. The reviews were mixed. Bosley Crowther praised it as a frank and ferocious social drama, while Dwight Macdonald accused Kazan's direction of being exploitative. Who it is for: viewers who like period drama built on repression and Kazan's work with actors. Who it is not for: anyone wanting restraint. The film keeps adolescent sexuality in the foreground, constantly and directly.