From director Elia Kazan (A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, East of Eden), I recognised the title of this film from hearing it a few times in the past, and then I found it in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, so it was something to look forward to. Basically, set in southeast Kansas in 1928, teenage girl Wilma Dean 'Deanie' Loomis (Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated Natalie Wood) has been following her mother's advice to resist sexual desire with her boyfriend Bud Stamper (introducing Golden Globe nominated Warren Beatty), he is the son of Ace Stamper (Pat Hingle), head of a most prosperous family in the town. Bud is also following advice from his father to find another girl who can satisfy his desires that he cannot fulfil, while his parents are disappointed and ashamed of his party girl older sister Ginny (Barbara Loden) who is smokes, drinks, due to sexual promiscuity gets pregnant and has an abortion, and has a marriage annulled. Bud is pressured into attending Yale University, and he does find another girl more willing with sexual desires, while following an attempted rape by another boy Deanie is driven to near madness and put in an institution, her parents are forced to selling stocks to pay for this, and just before the Crash of '29 leading to the Great Depression. Bud's family because of the crash lose their fortune, Ace commits suicide, Ginny is killed in a car accident, his mother leaves the town, and Bud himself had his opportunity for ranching cut short because of his father's aspirations for him, he was obeying reluctantly, but on his return he takes it up. Deanie returns home from the asylum two years and six months later and goes to meet Bud, he is now married to Italian immigrant wife Angelina (Zohra Lampert), they met while attending Yale University, they have a child and are expecting another, Deanie says she is going to marry a doctor she met in the institution in Cincinnati, in their reunion they realise living separate lives has made them both happier. Also starring Audrey Christie as Mrs. Loomis, Fred Stewart as Del Loomis, Joanna Roos as Mrs. Stamper, Jan Norris as Juanita Howard, Gary Lockwood as Allen 'Toots' Tuttle and Sandy Dennis as Kay. Wood is terrific being emotionally unstable and psychologically fragile, and Beatty indeed makes his first screen appearance a memorable one as the young man sexually frustrated and trying to get organised, supporting cast members like Hingle are good, the story I will agree for its time is simplistic in its delivery of then very controversial subjects, .e.g sexuality, abortion, young love, but the story has enough engaging scenes to keep you gripped, an interesting period drama. It won the Oscar for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Drama. Very good!
Review of Splendor in the Grass
