Splendor in the Grass.

Review #1406: Splendor in the Grass.

Cast: 
Natalie Wood (Wilma Dean "Deanie" Loomis), Warren Beatty (Bud Stamper), Pat Hingle (Ace Stamper), Audrey Christie (Mrs. Loomis), Barbara Loden (Virginia "Ginny" Stamper), Zohra Lampert (Angelina), Fred Stewart (Del Loomis), Joanna Roos (Mrs. Stamper), John McGovern (Doc Smiley), Jan Norris (Juanita Howard), and Martine Bartlett (Miss Metcalf) Directed by Elia Kazan (#104 - East of Eden, #109 - A Streetcar Named Desire, and #110 - On the Waterfront, and #1375 - Panic in the Streets)

Review: 
“I was very lucky to do the first movie that I ever did with Kazan, who really was not only a great director, he was a very, very smart producer,”

The 1960s had plenty of interesting directors and stars to accompany films that found themselves on the center of cultural changes with plenty of distinctive stars of stature and range to go alongside old and new directors to lead them forward. By this point in time, Elia Kazan had directed thirteen films in his career, with most of his success coming in the 1950s (eight of his eighteen films were in this decade), and controversy had surrounded his decision to testify during the Hollywood blacklisting that he felt was "only the more tolerable of two alternatives that were either way painful and wrong" (his decision, one I feel was the correct one, was a fiercely debated one for decades, where even being awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 1999 still inspired sour grapes refusal to applaud from certain circles). Regardless of this decision, it should not be denied that Kazan has a lasting effect as a director that extends to the actors that he directed onto the screen over the decades, which extends to the main stars here in Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood. In the case of Beatty, he had developed a love for films from an early age while watching them (such as The Philadelphia Story and Love Affair) with his sister Shirley, with Warren following in her footsteps to become an actor. He learned his craft from famed coach of acting Stella Adler, with his first few jobs being in television (most notably The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis) and one (and only) turn in the theater with A Loss of Roses (1959). Beatty, described by Kazan as having energy, intelligence and more "chutzpah" than anyone else. He was the first of numerous directors that Beatty sought to learn from, though it did not come without disagreement, such as when he snapped at Kazan once about him naming names, which he later described as an arrogant and stupid challenge. In the course of over half a century, Beatty honed his craft into beyond acting, soon founding his own production company and eventually turning to directing as well. Wood had her own path to acting, led by her ambitious mother that led to a debut in a bit part in film at the age of 4. Her debut came three years later with Tomorrow Is Forever (1946), where Orson Welles described her as "so good, she was terrifying". She would do a string of child films before transitioning into teenage rebel roles and television, and Kazan found a "desperate twinkle in her eyes" behind her well-mannered front that would serve her well in retaining herself as a presence to behold.

The film was written by William Inge, playwright and novelist behind works such as Picnic and Bus Stop who had based it off his upbringing in Kansas, which led to an Academy Award for his work on the film. When it comes to heartbreak and romantic repression, one can't really go wrong with a film like this. Anybody else other than Kazan would have made this 124 minute tale run shorter or seem less realistic with trying to soften the film's strike of melodrama and honesty. Wood makes a capable main focus, one with plenty of doubt and frustration that boils to the surface with such honest expressiveness, whether that means dealing with some form of love or with others. Beatty makes for a great debut with confidence in playing the other side of the coin in a tragedy of youth, exhausted at the expectations one must bear from their parents in what to do and who to do what with. The final sequence with them at the farmhouse is especially well-done, perfectly sealing up the pathos of what it means to have loved and lost one's innocence along the way, where time overrides all things, perhaps even happiness in some way, which makes for a somewhat depressing but fair experience.

Kazan sure picked two well counterparts to counter Wood and Beatty in Hingle and Christie. Hingle (a Weslaco High School and University of Texas graduate in radio) had met Kazan years earlier at the Actors' Studio and had done a few productions for Kazan and Inge before a 1959 freak accident involving him being stuck in a lift that led to him losing his balance in crawling out and falling over 50 feet; he fractured many parts of his left side, including a broken leg and losing a finger while having a noticeable limp. He is tremendously entertaining here with composed dominance on a family and business level, a rough but fascinating performance to match up with his on-screen son in Beatty, such as when he speaks for so long and with such spirit that Beatty can't even get in a word of reluctance on him. Although Christie did not have as prolific a career as the other main three did, she cultivated a career in Broadway alongside television spots after taking class and being on vaudeville at the age of 15. She makes for an effective strict performance to go for the grain to reflect the times of authority that doesn't seem outdated or a caricature then as now. The others (who make up a film as twentysomethings trying to play teenagers to make it look less distracting that Wood and Beatty also look a bit too old to be teens) fill the film well in making a heartland tale of heartbreak come across with fair conviction that still finds relevance after over five decades because of how it speaks to us still about expectation and reality in terms of adolescents and beyond.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.