Just when "A Streetcar Named Desire" made me think more caution would have prevented Blanche's descent into madness, Elia Kazan provided a perfect counter-example with "Splendor in the Grass", a passionate high-school movie about teenage love, but also a harrowing psychology study of the devastating effects of social and parental rules.Indeed, for all its evocative title (it's a quote from Wordsworth' poetic ode to youth memories), the film can be summarized in one word: frustration... of the sexual type. This is not the least original theme for a movie directed in 1961 but is that surprising from Kazan? It's interesting that Natalie Wood starred in another story about forbidden love the same year, but here, the 'music' isn't quite the same, as the love isn't even forbidden in the first place despite something horribly unavoidable about its heartbreak.Kazan's movies have always centered on characters with a devouring need, the strongest torment being to please someone. James Dean wanted his father to be proud of him in "East of Eden" but in a heartbreaking scene, he couldn't even reach him for a hug. Terry Malloy wanted to please his friends until he realized it was at the expenses of his self-esteem (remember how he called himself in that taxi). Blanche Dubois was sexually attracted to a brutish man while she more depended on kindness.And these characters all found walls of misunderstanding that filled their hearts with guilt and resentment. Some triumphed over their demons, some didn't... but the main symptom was the fear of rejection, one would rather reject himself than being rejected. In "Splendor in the Grass" love is mutual and undeniable but it plays both the role of the driver and the obstacle, so guilt is self-inflicted despite the fact that the blame can be easily put on the parents or the gossips of 'good' people. Would you see today two young adults being forbidden to express their love? It was still difficult in 1961 but the film is set in different times, at the dawn of the Great Depression, for the kind of depression that even money can't solve. The story is about Bud Stamper (Warren Bearry) and Wilma Dean Loomis "Deanie" (Natalie Wood) and starts with the peak of their love, no courting or flirting, these two youngsters love each other, they're in the car and are making out. Deanie can't go "further" but there's a hint we're not dealing with any predictable scenario. Bud is angry, needs to take some fresh air before driving Deanie home. They know they have to wait, but we know they're in a hurry, look how violently Deanie throws her teddy-bear as if she was tired of being a child. The following scenes indicate that they might wait a little longer as we see both of them being treated as their parent's children, not as adults. Deanie's mother (Audrey Christie) is less concerned about being late than being spoiled, embodying the norm about good girls waiting for marriage, though her passionless description of sex doesn't make it a patience-rewarding achievement. The idea that "men don't love like women" is also brought up differently by Bud's boorish (and nouveau riche) father played by scene-stealing Pat Hingle. He tells him to wait till he finishes Yale, which means four years, and tries to have good time with the other girls. Poor Bud couldn't even wait four days! The "there's two kinds of girls" idea have always been a darling for Martin Scorsese, and given Kazan's influence, I'm pretty sure "Splendor in the Grass" inspired his debut "I Call First" but the case of Bud is more heartbreaking because he doesn't even care about "bad girls".From our perspective, the parents' misconceptions are wrong but the Oscar-winning screenplay from William Inge shows that even by the time's standards, these kids were victims. Bud idealizes Deanie too much to have physical contact with her, and she loves him too much to imagine sex with someone else, and in that magnificent moment where she literally begs him for sex, I could feel the passion killing her from inside. At the end, the two lovers could only resent each other as the sources of their frustrations.But I don't think the film idealizes love, because there's no doubt the parents love their kids, though in a destructive way, it doesn't even put sex on a pedestal as it's mainly associated with debauchery or the slutty behavior of Bud's sister. What the film does is highlighting the hypocrisy of society and parents who regard sex as impure, ignoring its crucial importance in one's development. We have two parents who unknowingly crush the soul and spirit of their children in the name of some idealization, leading the most vulnerable one to a harrowing breakdown. Natalie Wood was rightfully Oscar-nominated for her spectacular performance. Bud's confusion and existential dead-end could only count on the Karmatic effect of the 1929 crash ... which ironically, didn't have much impact on the Loomises for reasons that show the script's brilliance. And the certitude that the film was less about the kids than their parents is that the saving moment for both Bud and Deanie came from Deanie's father (Fred Stewart) and allowed the film to conclude on a bittersweet note, sweet underlined. Now, I know I have a good film when it psychologically involves me and the performances of the two leads did justice to the legacy of Kazan who knew how to get the best acting. But there's a moment near the end where I was like "didn't the mother learn?" I was about to hate the film but the father made me applaud and repeat "bravo" several times. That the best gesture came from a parent proved there was a light of hope after all.

One would think that given the title of the film, there would be a sense of fullness and joy that comes with the telling of the story. Instead, this turned out to be one of the more depressing and agonizing pictures one might hope to experience that deals with teenage angst and loneliness. In a way, I was reminded of "Rebel Without a Cause", as young high schoolers are presented, dealing with the emotional detachment of parents too busy with their own lives or having no interest in what their progeny are going through. In that respect, Pat Hingle's character, Ace Stamper turns out to be the most clueless one of the lot here.I'd have to say that Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty turned in virtuoso performances in this film. Both carry their characters through an entire range of emotions dealing with unrequited love and emotional pain, with the requisite happy ending for the couple nowhere to be found. In that respect, this is one of the truly heart rending stories of two people who might have been right for each other, except for the moral and social taboos that thwart their effort to remain together. In a way, I thought Bud's (Beatty) response to Deanie's (Wood) holding out was a bit overwrought; his conversation with the family doctor obviously held no consolation, while his self directed solution to hook up with a loose girl provided no satisfaction.As for Deanie, I thought it tragic that her solid family life didn't offer the kind of foundation she needed to stay grounded in reality over a broken romance. She's dealt another blow to her fragile world view when learning of Bud's marriage and family, and in his own way, it appeared to me that Bud himself never fully recovered from his first romance. Instead of that warm and happy feeling one is left with when people find themselves, this movie explores the consequences of life as it happens when lived, or perhaps more tragically, when life is not lived effectively.

It's 1928 Kansas. Wilma 'Deanie' Loomis (Natalie Wood) tries to resist her amorous boyfriend Bud Stamper (Warren Beatty). He is the son of a powerful oilman Ace (Pat Hingle). His older sister Ginny (Barbara Loden) is a wild party girl angry at his father who returns from Chicago under a cloud of rumors. Bud is the star jock but not a very good student. He doesn't want to go to Yale but marry Deanie. His father tells him to take out the steam with another kind of girl. Juanita Howard (Jan Norris) is the rumored sexually promiscuous girl in school. Bud breaks up with Deanie under the pressure and has a fling with Juanita. Deanie breaks down and tries to act up.The bathtub scene is terrific. It reminds me of James Dean in 'Rebel Without a Cause (55)'. It is basically the female version with Natalie Wood trying to break out of the social conventions appealing to parents who just don't understand. It is as effective 6 years later with the theme of sexual liberation. Natalie Wood is amazing with great work from Beatty and Hingle. The movie does keep going with the story and it ends poetically.

This film has at its heart the problem of young people desperately in need of medical knowledge that neither the family doctor nor the parents will provide. It was not considered appropriate. Deanie's mother says, after the stresses of the girl's situation has caused a nervous breakdown, "Deanie, I told you what my mother told me." Bud's family doctor refuses to help him. In Dreiser's An American Tragedy (which became the film A Place in the Sun) the hero, Clive,is similarly not helped by the doctor he consults. His girlfriend becomes pregnant and she then "dies" in a boating accident. The older generation sees the whole subject as Trouble, and doesn't see medical information as important to impart.