Natalie Wood Soulfully Resonates in the Poignant Splendor in the Grass

                   A probing, profound drama with an earnest depiction of how young romance can turn tragic with the Generation Gap interference so commonly shown in films of the period, 1961’s Splendor in the Grass offers one of the richest, most complex renderings in the coming-of-age film genre. Director Elia Kazan artfully mixes overblown theatrics with moments of great truth to serve up an impactful melodrama that anyone who has dealt with unrequited love, mental turmoil or family conflict will find engrossing. Utilizing a fine, perceptive William Inge original screenplay (based on events from Inge’s early years) Kazan crafts scenes of incredible emotional resonance, aided by an evocative, jazz-infused score by David Amram that manages to capture both the melancholic and sensational aspects of the story, depending the on scene, and a talented cast of players who bring individuality and intelligence to their roles, led by Natalie Wood, giving perhaps her finest, most dedicated and emotional-driven performance as Deanie Loomis, the teen who finds passion and turmoil disrupting her idyllic life in 1920’s Kansas.

                Elia Kazan appears fully engaged in vividly transferring the tumultuous opportunities Inge’s florid, moving story presents to the screen in all their highly emotive glory, showing his flair for making the ultra-dramatic believable and thrilling. Already a leading force in theater and film via previous work such as his directorial film debut via 1945’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Kazan had started his film career as an actor in 1940’s City of Conquest), the stage and screen workings of A Streetcar Named Desire and Best Director Oscars for 1947’s Gentlemen’s Agreement and a peak for Kazan and virtually everyone else involved, On the Waterfront, by the time of Splendor Kazan had honed his unique knack for drawing trenchant performances from entire casts. Using daring closeups throughout Splendor to reveal an array of moods and expressions that illustrates the depth and complexity of each skillfully crafted performance, Kazan allows his actors to seemingly work freely under his discerning eye, with nearly every cast member skillfully adding creativity and remarkable detail to their assignments, while interacting with each other in a convincing, deeply felt manner that enriches the relationships between a wide variety of types, creating electric, emotional scenes of devastating, visceral force that leaves a viewer in an overwhelmed state. After this lengthy period of sustained success, Kazan would produce his personal passion project America, America in 1963 before faring in less accomplished fashion with his final projects, ending with 1976’s The Last Tycoon. Kazan’s 1952 HUAC testimony, wherein he named names of possible communists and later painted himself as a noble figure for doing so, made it progressively difficult for some to separate his sublime achievements as an artist with his personal convictions, cumulating in a divided reaction to what should have been a late-career highlight, his 1998 honorary Oscar, bestowed a few years before Kazan’s death in 2003 at 94.

                For Natalie Wood, Splendor would mark an important career transition, from young ingenue to a full-fledged star capable of bringing impressive dramatic finesse to roles, while also adding ample box-office appeal to her films. Of Russian descent, Wood was discovered at four in her hometown of Santa Rosa, with a 1943 film debut in director Irving Pichel’s The Moon is Down. With encouragement from Pichel, Wood soon moved up to place among the most notable child actors after standout work opposite Orson Welles and Claudette Colbert for Tomorrow is Forever and her most famous role from the period as Susie in the Christmas perennial The Miracle on 34^th Street. Wood would largely avoid the awkwardness that put paid to many child stars once puberty hits, blossoming into a lovely while proving her dramatic credentials via Oscar-nominated work in the ultimate teen-oriented classic, as Judy in 1955’s Rebel Without a Cause, from Warner Bros. Her focused work, including a spellbinding introduction scene at a police station wherein Judy breaks down in hysterics while relating her at-home conflicts and fine chemistry opposite James Dean and Sal Mineo, led to several years as Warner Bros. preeminent young leading lady, with the choice title role in the screen adaptation of one of the 1950’s bestsellers, Majorie Morningstar, perhaps the highlight of this era, although Wood’s brief appearance in 1956’s The Searchers allowed her entry into yet another all-time classic.

                By 1961 Wood was looking to add prestige to her resume after a series of standard fare and, as with Rebel, worked hard to convince her director she was the right talent to enact a complex, demanding part. She is unforgettable as Deanie, particularly in several electrifying moments wherein the disturbed teen becomes unhinged due to the breakup of her bond with her soulmate, Bud Stamper, the rich high school star athlete bound for Yale, personified by a never dreamier Warren Beatty in his film debut. Wood could sometimes come across onscreen as rehearsed and too actorly, but she had an incredible gift for fearlessly throwing herself into emotionally driven scenes, which she does in Splendor with unabashed force, detailing Deanie’s agony and hopelessness to shattering effect. This is evident in her most famous scene, wherein she breaks down in the bathtub, but she’s at least as potent in the touching classroom passage wherein she is asked to recite the Wordsworth poem responsible for the film’s title, or in a later reunion with Bud at a dance, wherein Deanie cannot except their parting. Wood handles Deanie’s rich character arch, including a thought-provoking finale, with a maturity, skill and persuasion rarely seen in film, allowing Deanie to stand out as possibly the most indelible work found in a substantial filmography, with West Side Story (wherein Wood again lends a lot dramatic weight to the movie’s devastating ending) immediately following, then continuing through the 1960’s with Gypsy, Oscar-nominated work in a great teaming with Steve McQueen in Love with the Proper Stranger, trying her hand at large-scale comedy in The Great Race, before ending the decade with one of her biggest financial and critic successes, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. A less fruitful 1970’s period, wherein Wood focused more on family life after the birth of her daughter, with Wood ending her career via the intriguing Brainstorm, released posthumously after her death in 1981 at the tender age of 43.

                Warren Beatty made a quick rise to the top of Hollywood’s young talent with his acute, contemplative work as the sensitive Bud. Scoring in Inge’s A Loss of Roses on Broadway and on television in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis prior to Splendor, Beatty’s beatific countenance and intelligent playing of the troubled Bud brought him instant stardom and respect as a performer owning a unique presence and acumen onscreen. Although Beatty’s methodical, thoughtful approach to the role comes across as a bit stylized at times, it also allows Beatty to ring true in powerful moments as Bud silently yet forcefully reacts to some of the indignities he faces, making it clear to the audience Bud is wise to some elder’s ulterior motives. He and Wood also create one of the most painstaking illustrations of the sensuality and anguish that can accompany young love, with viewers firmly on Bud and Deanie’s side as obstacles hinder their happiness. Beatty immediately showed his diversity as an actor by following Splendor with sly work as the young Italian gigolo who catches Vivien Leigh’s eye in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone then, after a few years finding his footing onscreen, broke through with a string of influential (and usually smash hit level) work, starting with 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde, then followed by McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Shampoo, Heaven Can Wait and, after several nominations in various categories as actor, writer, producer and director, a Best Director Oscar for Reds. Beatty would score several more successes with Dick Tracy, Bugsy (wherein he met his wife, costar Annette Bening) and Bulworth, in a lively performance of fine comic brio as a rappin’ politician, while also suffering the barbs brought about by Ishtar, an all-time flop, before cutting back on his film output as he settled down with Bening to raise a family.

Heading the supporting players, Pat Hingle and Audrey Christie bring color and perception to their playing of meddlesome parents, Bud’s bombastic father Ace, determined to exert firm control over all aspects of his son’s life, and Frieda Loomis, Deanie’s well-meaning but invasive mother, focused on sexual issues and terrified Deanie will be “spoiled” in Bud’s amorous embrace. Although caricature elements of the overbearing parent often found in these dramas exist in both roles (especially Ace), Hingle adds dimension to the restlessness that is driving Ace to control Bud and influence what he thinks is best for his son, while Christie is given a more humane character arch then normally found in parts of this ilk, allowing the viewer to feel compassion for Mrs. Loomis by the movie’s end. Coming across in a more uncomplicated, likeable manner is Joanna Roos as Bud’s nervous-yet-kindly mother and Fred Stewart, who as Deanie’s warm, understated father, has a couple very moving moments wherein the normally quiet and seemingly ineffectual man shows he is fully aware of his daughter’s plight, and is supportive of any measure that will help her recover.

As Bud’s free-wheeling, rebellious sister Ginny, Barbara Loden adds spontaneity and edginess to her portrayal, making one believe this bold young lady has the proper tenacity to go toe-to-toe with her tough, disapproving father and seek her own path in life, abet in reckless fashion. Loden, already a veteran of stage and television who made her film debut the previous year in Kazan’s Wild River, scores strongest in one of the film’s bravura sequences centered around a New Year’s Eve party wherein a tipsy Ginny goes off the rails and entices a bevy of men well aware of her “bad girl” reputation. It’s unsettling to watch as the men move in on her, and Loden perfectly expresses the wide range of emotions, from Ginny’s initial gaiety as the New Year is rung in, to confusion over an encounter with her father, to throwing herself into the arms of randy suitors, to breaking down with regret over the encounter. After Splendor Loden, in Marilyn Monroe mode, would go on to score a Tony on Broadway in Kazan’s (whom she eventually married) production of Arthur Miller’s After the Fall, then create a small but important niche for herself as a landmark female writer/director with her thought-provoking 1970 drama Wanda, with Loden in the title role, then direct a couple of shorts (appearing in one of them) before her untimely death at 48 in 1980.

Rounding out the incredible cast, Zorna Lambert makes a wonderfully natural impression late in the film as Angelina, the kind young woman Bud turns to at a critical point. Sandy Dennis makes a nice film debut as Kay, a school chum of Deanie and Bud, giving viewers a chance to see her singular acting style in its earliest form. Gary Lockwood, several years before his most famous role in 2001, adds the right amount of smarminess to “Toots,” Bud’s football colleague and friend with designs on Deanie, while Jan Norris comes across as both friendly and a bit spiteful as Juantia, the school’s most free-spirited, provocative date, who flirts in an unashamed, liberated manner with Bud, and boys in general. Martine Bartlett as the spinsterish but also romantic teacher also does first-rate work, while Crystal Field and Marla Adams are given a nice opportunity to shine as Hazel and June, two of Deanie’s most loyal friends. Inge impresses onscreen in a couple brief moments, lending a reflective, melancholic tone as Reverend Whitman, from whom Deanie seeks guidance. Finally, out of nowhere Phyliss Diller shows up in her film debut to add a welcome bit of levity to the proceedings, appearing as Texas Guinan in a nightclub sequence.

Splendor in the Grass was met with some highly favorable reactions by critics, especially Newsweek, who named the film the best of the year among some worthy competition (The Hustler, West Side Story, Guns of Navarone etc.), while the New York Times also placed the stirring drama among its list of top ten films. Kazan was included among the initial candidates for the Director’s Guild of America prize, while the film, Beatty and Wood were nominated at the Globes, with Beatty also winning a Globe for Most Promising Newcomer. At the Academy Awards, Inge ensured the film a place in the annals of film history as an Oscar-winning classic with his victory for Best Original Screenplay while Wood, considered a frontrunner, probably came closest to ever winning one for her affecting work as Deanie, losing to Sophia Loren for her also-histrionically vivid work in Two Women. The movie also made a distinct impression on 1961 audiences after its October release, becoming a popular box-office venture for viewers desiring an incisive, lush look at the many facets involved in a burgeoning romance. The compelling drama has lingered as an important cinematic work, inspiring a 1981 television remark and placing on the AFI list of the 100 greatest love stories, while gathering new generations of fans with physical media releases and showings on TCM and elsewhere. With grade-A work across the board, specifically the unforgettable presence of Natalie Wood at her most fragile and nakedly impassioned, Splendor in the Grass remains one of Hollywood’s most relatable, intense and heart-rendering takes on young love, and is sure to provide a deeply-felt experience for viewers willing to follow the distressing-yet-telling story of Deanie and Bud as they search for unity and peace circa 1920’s Kansas.

                A recent showing at TCM Film Festival, wherein a new, pristine print of Splendor in the Grass was shown, confirmed the heartbreaking classic has lost none of its ability to profoundly move and pull honest tears from audiences. Prior to the screening, elegant TCM host Alicia Malone hosted and excellent Q&A with Natalie’s daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner, and her granddaughter, Clover, both of whom bear a striking resemble to the film icon, wherein Ms. Wagner spoke of first seeing the film as a teen in a high school film class, and wondering over her mother’s exceptional performance, while the composed pre-teen Clover mentioned she was excited to see the film for the first time and, when prompted, mentioned she was interested in trying her luck as an actress. Judging by her heritage, Clover should be rolling in her namesake in films if she chooses to take part in the family business.