Elia Kazan’s Splendor in the Grass offers engrossing drama, top stars, and fine period details in its telling of a semi-tragic, emotionally upsetting tale of thwarted young love.
The Production: 3.5/5
It’s sometimes said that kids blame their parents when things go wrong with their lives, but in the case of Elia Kazan’s Splendor in the Grass, that’s definitely the case as an overbearing mother on one side and an overbearing father on the other cause misery, shame, and madness-inducing frustration to their highly impressionable and sexually fraught teenagers in pre-Depression Kansas. The film has top tier talent doing all they can to deliver an adult, sophisticated drama, but a spotty script and direction that strangely ignores the tattiness of the storytelling fails to make something good into something great.
It’s 1928 Kansas and high school seniors Deanie Loomis (Natalie Wood) and Bud Stamper (Warren Beatty) are desperately in love. Her family is lower middle class while his family has oil wells and stocks aplenty thus making the handsome Bud the catch of the town. But parental pressure and expectations on the both of them make their sexual frustration so palpable that Bud forces himself to stop seeing Deanie in order to quash the rising temptation to “go too far” with her and ruin both of their futures, at least from the viewpoints of their parents. Deanie’s feelings of rejection are so strong that she has a nervous breakdown further pushing Bud away and convincing Bud’s father Ace Stamper (Pat Hingle) to force him into Yale to put distance and schoolwork in between the two young people.
Famed playwright William Inge won an Academy Award for his original screenplay, but, truth to tell, the script is rather scrappily written with subplots that are introduced and go nowhere (Bud’s wild flapper sister Ginny played by Barbara Loden causes endless trouble in the film’s first half hour and then she disappears without a mention until near the end of the film, the school’s party girl – Jan Norris – makes a play for Bud while Bud’s football teammate – Gary Lockwood – has designs on Deanie) and psychological explorations of Ace Stamper and Deanie’s mother Frieda (Audrey Christie) aren’t nearly delved into enough in a film that’s two hours long with such a simple story at its heart. Director Elia Kazan has always been known in his films more for his character development than his cinematic sweep, and that’s certainly true here (though he frames one gorgeous shot of Deanie in a red flapper dress dwarfed by the area’s massive waterfalls, odd as they are for Kansas). There are lots of interesting characters, and while Deanie and Bud get the lion’s share of the attention, it might have been nice to spend a little more time with the less pushy parent on each side of the Bud/Deanie bond: her sweet father Del (Fred Stewart) and his loving mother (Joanna Roos) who, had they been the dominant parent in each couple, might have produced much more well-adjusted adolescents.
Natalie Wood earned her first Best Actress Oscar nomination for her Deanie, and it’s a compelling portrait as her sexual frustrations veer her increasingly into instability, humiliation, and catatonia. Though he had already done some television work, Warren Beatty was “introduced” in this movie, and it’s a solid if not electric debut film performance (he won the Most Promising Newcomer Golden Globe that year). The most complex performances in the film, though, belong to Audrey Christie as Deanie’s hovering mother and Pat Hingle’s bombastic father, both parents unwilling to listen to their children and invariably saying the wrong things at the wrong times to make their kids’ personal obstructions even more challenging. Barbara Loden’s loud, obnoxious Ginny Stamper seems to have stumbled in from a Douglas Sirk movie (after taking lessons on vulgar behavior from Dorothy Malone) and since all of her hubbub doesn’t go anywhere, one wonders why her presence was even necessary. Zohra Lampert has some appealing moments later on as Bud’s eventual spouse Angelina, and Martine Bartlett as an exasperated and unfeeling teacher has a scene or two to show her stuff. Famous faces abound if you’re observant: Sandy Dennis and Gary Lockwood as high school students, Phyllis Diller as nightclub headliner Texas Guinan, and Ivor Francis as Deanie’s psychiatrist.
Video: 5/5
3D Rating: NA
The film has been framed at 1.85:1 and is presented in 1080p resolution using the AVC codec. Color is beautifully controlled throughout with reds particularly vivid and flesh tones always realistic and quite appealing. Sharpness is excellently detailed, and there are no age-related specks, scratches, or missing frames. The movie has been divided into 36 chapters.
Audio: 5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono sound mix offers the expected first-rate fidelity for its era. Dialogue has been professionally recorded and has been mixed with David Amram’s bittersweet background score and the various sound effects with the expected smoothness. There are no problems with anomalies like hiss, crackle, pops, or flutter.
Special Features: 3/5
Elia Kazan: A Director’s Journey (1:15:26, SD): Richard Schickel’s absorbing examination of the life and important film work of the two-time Oscar winning director. Clips are shown of his films (and photos of his stage work) from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn through America, America with commentary by Kazan himself and the analysis narrated by Eli Wallach.
Theatrical Trailer (3:59, SD)
Overall: 3.5/5
Elia Kazan’s Splendor in the Grass offers engrossing drama, top stars, and fine period details in its telling of a semi-tragic, emotionally upsetting tale of thwarted young love. The Warner Archive Blu-ray release takes a most welcome spot on the high definition shelf for admirers of the stars or the movie’s director.
Matt has been reviewing films and television professionally since 1974 and has been a member of Home Theater Forum’s reviewing staff since 2007, his reviews now numbering close to three thousand. During those years, he has also been a junior and senior high school English teacher earning numerous entries into Who’s Who Among America’s Educators and spent many years treading the community theater boards as an actor in everything from Agatha Christie mysteries to Stephen Sondheim musicals.
Post Disclaimer
Some of our content may contain marketing links, which means we will receive a commission for purchases made via those links. In our editorial content, these affiliate links appear automatically, and our editorial teams are not influenced by our affiliate partnerships. We work with several providers (currently Skimlinks and Amazon) to manage our affiliate relationships. You can find out more about their services by visiting their sites.
Similar threads
- Robert Harris
- Blu-ray and UHD
2